Podcast: “Ethics and the National Security Law Practitioner”
Here at the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security we pride ourselves in having the Nation’s finest ethics presentations at our annual conference, and this year proved to be no exception. At the recently completed 26th Annual National Security Law Conference, the “Ethics and the National Security Law Practitioner” discussion featured a collection of superstar lawyers, including American Bar Association (ABA) president Trish Refo; the former General Counsel of the Department of Defense, Judith A. Miller; and the former Chair, ABA Center for Professional Responsibility, Lucian T. Pera –all moderated by Duke Law’s own Shane Stansbury.
I‘m very pleased to tell you the video of this terrific session is now available (here) for listening/viewing.
What makes this presentation especially unique is the involvement of practitioners with vast experience with what I would call very high-speed and often demanding clients (check out the full bios of the participants by clicking on their names above).
What is more is that they did not just discuss the rules, but rather embedded very practical advice at every opportunity. Plus they worked through a number of very realistic scenarios–all of which were cognizant of the special aspects of the practice of law in the national security environment.
Have questions like these ever occurred to you?
Who–exactly–is the client for lawyers working in the government’s national security enterprise?
How does confidentiality work in the national security setting?
How (and if) should lawyers document their advice?
How is it best to deliver perhaps unpopular advice to command?
What must a lawyer do to effectively deal with issues associated with the high-technology systems proliferating in the military?
Why must lawyers be ready “to revisit some notions that [they] frankly hold dear or think are very well settled”?
Is it true that your “next brief might be better informed by reading a good novel than by knowing the law”?
If you want to hear what lawyers who have ‘been there/done that’ have to say about the intriguing issues such questions suggest (and much more!), be sure to listen/watch the discussion here.
