Love of Client--or Law?

"/ only defend those whose goals I share. I'm not a lawyer for hire. I only defend those I love."

So said William Kunstler, the controversial lawyer for the Chicago Seven. If anything, it seemed like a mild statement from a man whose inflammatory campus speeches across the country had provoked serious doubts about his standing as a lawyer. Now Kunstler has come under sharp criticism in a lead editorial of the American Bar Association Journal.

One of the law's most venerable ideals, the Journal notes, is that in the interests of justice lawyers should represent even those they hate. From John Adams' defense of British soldiers accused of murder after the Boston Massacre to Harold Medina's defense of an accused traitor in World War II, some of the law's most significant chapters have been written by lawyers willing to take unpopular clients. To be sure, the Journal concedes, the profession has preferred wealthy and successful clients. But now that more and more lawyers are forsaking that predilection in order to defend the poor and the scorned, the Journal suggests, Kunstler's partisanship is both old-fashioned and shortsighted.

"As a profession and individually, we know that our ideal is to provide competent counsel for any person with a legitimate cause," the Journal says. "A lawyer for hire is available to the bad and the ugly, the scorned and the outcast. We know from long collective experience that many will go without legal defense or representation if they must depend upon finding a lawyer who 'loves' them."

Kunstler, who has long defended civil rights causes and left-wing activists, replied by accusing the Journal of hypocrisy. "Unfortunately, only a bare handful of American practitioners have ever undertaken to put this ideal into practice," he said. "If more members of the A.B.A. were available for such work, then perhaps I would be able to afford the time to be more catholic in my selection of clients."

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