The Radical Conservatism of "The Practice of Justice"

Abstract

The Practice ofJustice is a fundamental but in some ways also remarkably conservative-in the best sense of the word-critique of the prevailing system of lawyers' ethics and practices. It is fundamental, in the sense that William Simon razes to the ground the current structure of ethical rules and their presuppositions. It is conservative, in that he then shows how a system of lawyers' ethics can be rebuilt on its existing foundations, using existing construction materials-the ordinary working conceptions of law and justice that lawyers bring to bear in other aspects of their practices.