Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession

"The standards belonging to a professional role are not a force field protecting lawyers from moral criticism," writes Brad Wendel, professor at Cornell Law School, in an excerpt of his book "Canceling Lawyers," reprinted in an issue of The Practice from last year. Are lawyers immune from moral critiques, under the idea that "everyone deserves a lawyer"? Read more in our issue on moral agency:

Accountability, Conscience, and Dissent in the Legal Profession - Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession The below is an excerpt from Canceling Lawyers: Case Studies of Accountability, Toleration, and Regret (Oxford University Press, 2024). Reprinted with permission. A Q&A with the author, Brad Wendel, follows the excerpt. Crisis at Cravath Founded in 1819 in New York City, Cravath, Swaine & Moore is t...

As general counsel at the Mississippi Bar, Melissa Scott upholds the integrity of the legal profession by leading ethics trainings and the attorney disciplinary process. Drawing from other jurisdictions, she sought to improve ethics education through a "trust account school." In the past year, 14 percent of violations in Mississippi were trust account related. “I would rather teach every lawyer in this state how to properly keep their trust account than ever prosecute another trust account case,” she says. The program has had the best response of any CLE they’ve done.

After the Complaint - Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession In 2010, after more than a decade leading the Colorado attorney disciplinary function, John Gleason was tapped to serve as independent counsel in Arizona to investigate Maricopa County attorney Andrew Thomas, accused of using his office to target political enemies. Most such matters of this nature a...

"Systematic studies of disciplinary rates among court-appointed defense attorneys are rare, but the example of Maine suggests that appointed lawyers may be more likely than others to have checkered pasts. Maine is the only state that does not have any public defender offices—all indigent defense is provided through what amounts to an appointment system. ProPublica reported that appointed lawyers account for just 15 percent of the attorneys in the state but represent more than a quarter of the state’s attorneys who have faced major discipline in the last ten years."

Read Rebecca Haw Allensworth of Vanderbilt University Law School in The Practice:

The Fallen Professional - Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession The following is an excerpt from The Licensing Racket: How We Decide Who is Allowed to Work and Why It Goes Wrong. When [Dr. Michael] LaPaglia got the first round of discipline on his Tennessee medical license—his 2014 order placing his license on probation based on his state charges for dealing p...

If the purpose of attorney discipline is to protect the public, Bruce Green, Louis Stein Chair of Law at Fordham School of Law, wonders, “I’m not sure the public has enough of a perception of what’s going on in the disciplinary process to actually have an opinion.”

Reimagining Attorney Discipline - Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession In 2004 the Australian state of Queensland overhauled its attorney disciplinary system, taking authority away from the bar and creating a new independent agency. Queensland is not alone; other Australian states have similar programs, as does the U.K., Scotland, and Ireland. Much of the world, howev...

“The purpose of the [disciplinary] system is to protect the public from lawyer misconduct,” says John Gleason, who led the regulatory office at the Colorado Supreme Court for a couple decades. “That’s an easy phrase to say, but to actually do it is pretty complex.”

Read our story in the latest issue of The Practice, on what happens after lawyers are accused of misconduct:

After the Complaint - Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession In 2010, after more than a decade leading the Colorado attorney disciplinary function, John Gleason was tapped to serve as independent counsel in Arizona to investigate Maricopa County attorney Andrew Thomas, accused of using his office to target political enemies. Most such matters of this nature a...

"Ask yourself whether licensing’s promise to protect the public is fulfilled by a system that doesn’t remove the most problematic providers, but rather shuffles them to the bottom of the barrel of professional practice."

In the latest issue of The Practice on attorney discipline, we excerpt a chapter of Rebecca Haw Allensworth's book, The Licensing Racket, on who gets locked out of the professions, who gets locked in, and why.

The Fallen Professional - Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession The following is an excerpt from The Licensing Racket: How We Decide Who is Allowed to Work and Why It Goes Wrong. When [Dr. Michael] LaPaglia got the first round of discipline on his Tennessee medical license—his 2014 order placing his license on probation based on his state charges for dealing p...

The Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession is proud to present Michael Sandel, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University, with its 2026 Award for Global Leadership. The award recognizes Professor Sandel’s contributions as a brilliant scholar, teacher, and public intellectual whose work has shaped how we think about justice, markets, and ethics today.

2026 Global Leadership Award: Michael Sandel - Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession On April 9, 2024 in Cambridge, MA, the Center on the Legal Profession presented Michael Sandel, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University, with its 2026 Award for Global Leadership. The award recognizes Professor Sandel’s contributions as a brilliant scholar, teacher...

Read the latest issue of The Practice on International arbitration before the new issue comes out 👀

Perspectives on International Arbitration - Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession Harvard Law School

WATCH: Missed our Association of American Law Schools event on "The Profession, the Market, and the State: Professional Independence in a VUCA World"? Check it out now on our site 👇

The Profession, the Market, and the State: Reimagining Professional Independence for a VUCA World - Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession Part of the AALS Teach-In Webinar Series on Professional Independence and the Legal Profession, on April 29, 2026 the Center hosted a webinar on The Profession, the Market, and the State: Reimagining Professional Independence for a VUCA World. View the session below. Traditional ideals of profession...

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