Legal Ethics and Moral Character

I highly recommend a new paper, Legal Ethics and Moral Character, by Brad Wendel and Alice Woolley.  Legal ethics discourse is traditionally focused on coming up with a theory that explains and justifies the lawyer's role; Wendel and Woolley ask what a particular theory tells us about what kind of person a lawyer should be.  In other words, they're trying to expand the focus from "What should a lawyer do?" to "How should the lawyer be?"  I do not agree with every aspect of their analysis, but this is an important contribution to the debate.  (And yes, they are part of a very select group of legal ethics scholars to quote MacIntyre!)  The paper also serves as fertile ground for reflection among MoJ-ers:  would Catholic legal theory suggest an ideal lawyer who looks significantly different from the ideal lawyer who would emerge from the dominant professional paradigm(s)?  If so, in what way(s)?