My New Year’s Resolution: Reporting More Lawyers to the Bar

In this New Year’s episode of The Rule of Law Brief, I explain why my professional resolution for the coming year is to report more attorneys to disciplinary counsel for clear violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct—and why that decision has nothing to do with personal grievance, politics, or settling scores.Every state in the country has binding, enforceable rules governing attorney conduct. Every lawyer learns those rules, is tested on them, and is licensed on the condition that they follow them. Yet the violations that occur most frequently—and are enforced least often—are not the complex or ambiguous ones. They are the simplest, most obvious rules: prohibitions on lying to courts, misrepresenting facts or law, filing frivolous pleadings, abusing discovery, engaging in conflicts of interest, and using the legal process as a weapon rather than a tool for adjudication.Despite how common these violations are, meaningful discipline is rare. Bar counsel offices are underfunded, complaints are routinely dismissed, investigations take years, and sanctions—when they come—are often imposed long after the damage is done. Compounding the problem, the legal profession has developed a culture that actively discourages reporting misconduct, often mislabeling silence as “professional courtesy.”This failure matters far beyond the legal profession. There is broad agreement among serious political scientists that the survival of democracy depends on the perceived legitimacy of institutions. Courts sit at the center of that legitimacy. Democracy cannot survive if people cannot get a fair shake from the courts—or even believe that they cannot. And people cannot get a fair shake from the courts when lawyers cheat and get away with it.If lawyers will not enforce the rules that govern our own profession, no one else will. And if we refuse to do so, we should not be surprised when public confidence in the legal system collapses—and democracy collapses with it.Recommended Reading* Condoleezza Rice, Democracy: Stories from the Long Road to FreedomAn institution-focused examination of why democracies succeed or fail, emphasizing legitimacy, fairness, and the rule-bound operation of courts and other democratic institutions.https://amzn.to/4pijs9I* George Conway, American Breakdown: The Trump Years and How They Befell UsA lawyer’s account of institutional erosion, ethical collapse, and the consequences of normalizing misconduct within the legal and political system.https://www.amazon.com/dp/1668004665Disclosure: The Condoleezza Rice link above is an Amazon Associate link. If you purchase the book through that link, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.If you care about the rule of law, institutional legitimacy, and the survival of constitutional democracy, subscribe to The Rule of Law Brief. I publish clear, unsentimental analysis of how legal institutions actually function—and what happens when professionals stop enforcing the rules that keep them legitimate. Get full access to The Rule of Law Brief at natecharles.substack.com/subscribe