Article: The lawyer's conscience. (19th century attorney David Hoffman)

To early generations of Americans, republicanism conveyed two concepts of citizenship: "rights," which limited government, and "responsibilities," which constituted civic virtue. If the former is divorced from the latter, the law becomes a collection of morally neutral legalisms and lawyers mere technicians of the law. The disrepute of the legal profession today comes largely from this very separation. One lawyer who spent his life trying to maintain the proper connection between rights and responsibilities within the legal profession was David Hoffman.

Hoffman was born in 1784, the 11th of 12 children of Dorothea and Peter Hoffman, a prosperous Baltimore ...

Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles:

 
 
Newsweek Harper's Magazine The Washington Post Chicago Tribune Crain's Chicago Business PRNewswire Pediatric News The Nation Advertising Age The Economist (US) A FREE trial gives you access to over 80 million articles! Access over 6,500 publications with a FREE trial!