[textbook]Traversing the Ethical Minefield Problems, Law, and Professional Responsibility by Susan R. Martyn (z-lib.org)(1) (1)

Chapter 3
Beginning the Client-Lawyer Relationship
A. Access to Justice Model Rules 1.2(c) & (d), 6.1, 6.2, 8.4(c)
Lawyers and Clients:
Service Pro Bono Publico
This is the first in a series of notes, entitled “Lawyers and Clients,” in which we focus on
five groups of clients served by substantial numbers of lawyers. In each situation, we will
examine the same two topics: First, what is the special significance of the “six C’s” — the
fiduciary duties — that lawyers owe this group of clients? Second, what are the “bounds of
the law” (also the title of Chapter 14) that shape or limit a lawyer’s advocacy on behalf of
that particular client?
We begin by turning our attention to that large segment of the public served by a far too
small group of lawyers: those without access to lawyers due to their modest means. Access
to justice in America remains elusive for most of the poor and much of the middle class.
This concern is not new. In 1919, Reginald Heber Smith wrote that without equal access
to the law, “[t]he system not only robs the poor of their only protection, but it places in the
hands of their oppressors the most powerful and ruthless weapon ever invented.” 1
As long as the “practice of law” is limited to licensed lawyers and government funds are
inadequate to pay for civil legal services, lawyers will be left to shoulder the responsibility
for the public’s access to justice. Current voluntary pro bono efforts, while innovative, still
fall far short of meeting the need for legal services.
A network of alternatives has been attempted to address these needs. The first approach
accepts public responsibility for access to justice, a goal that can be accomplished by
creating legal rights to representation, publicly funding legal services programs, and
simplifying legal procedures. The second focuses on a duty of individual lawyers and law
students to serve as court-appointed counsel or provide free or reduced-rate services pro
bono publico, for the public good. The third approach stresses deregulation, which would
permit unlicensed persons or institutions to provide some kinds of legal assistance. To date,
none of these strategies has gone far enough in its implementation to alleviate the lack of
access to justice in civil cases. 2
The “Six C’s”
The Clients The disparity between lawyers available to paying clients and those available to
serve the poor explains why, for at least the past century, judges have exercised their
inherent power to offset this imbalance, first in criminal and then occasionally in civil
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