Dear Dean Matthew,

I ask that you consider joining 78 of your fellow law school deans in signing the following letter:

As deans of law schools, we have a special responsibility for the legal profession. Recently, the federal government has imposed significant sanctions on the law firms of Perkins Coie, Covington & Burling, Paul Weiss, and Jenner & Block seemingly because of the clients they and their lawyers represented and litigation in which their lawyers participated. 

We write to reaffirm basic principles: The government should not punish lawyers and law firms for the clients they represent, absent specific findings that such representation was illegal or unethical. Punishing lawyers for their representation and advocacy violates the First Amendment and undermines the Sixth Amendment. 

We thus speak as legal educators, responsible for training the next generation of lawyers, in condemning any government efforts to punish lawyers or their firms based on the identity of their clients or for their zealous lawful and ethical advocacy.

The letter was posted and I presume organized by Dean William M. Treanor of the Georgetown University Law Center. It’s available here.

In D.C., we are witnessing unsettling times from a front-row seat, one where the government is tugging at our profession’s veil of independence. This issue is far more constitutional than it is political, and given GW’s distinct role in our profession, the same should be said of its decision to speak up. Our admissions brochure reads: D.C.’s oldest law school, still ahead of its time. Let’s keep it that way! 

Respectfully,

Andrew Nettels
3L Student, The George Washington University Law School