Journal of the Institute for the Study of Legal Ethics
Publication Date
1-1-1999
Introduction
The summer before I started law school, I remember standing in Kramerbooks in Washington, D.C., and getting involved in a conversation with a man who was also looking at some of the new books on display. In typical Washingtonian fashion, he asked me what I did for a living. I explained that I was about to begin studying law. He was not a lawyer, but had a great interest in constitutional law and civil rights. He asked me to keep my focus on "justice," rather than simply studying "law."
That conversation came back to me as I was reading Stephen Pepper's paper in preparation for this conference. In the beginning of his paper, Pepper talks about the shortage of legal services. In light of the conversations held yesterday afternoon, and in particular Anthony Kronman' s discussion of the legal profession, I do not agree that there is a shortage of legal services in our society. We would all agree that legal services are distributed in an unequal manner. But I will go further and assert that there is a maldistribution of legal services: a systematic distribution of legal services that benefits one class and harms others.
Recommended Citation
Clark, Kathleen
(1999)
"The Lawful and the Just: Moral Implications of Unequal Access to Legal Services,"
Journal of the Institute for the Study of Legal Ethics: Vol. 2, Article 24.
Available at:
https://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/jisle/vol2/iss1/24