Perhaps to the surprise of many, lawyers in America must follow rules of ethics. If a lawyer violates a rule, a court can suspend or revoke the lawyer’s license to practice law. Recently, the conduct of certain lawyers has attracted a great deal of media attention. When the Obama Administration declassified legal memoranda advising the C.I.A. on its interrogation methods, debates arose over the accuracy of the advice.

Critics of the advice decried the lawyers’ failure to declare illegal the C.I.A.’s methods. Of the issues arising from the Memoranda, whether the C.I.A.’s methods constituted torture does not pose the greatest threat to the American system of justice. The greatest threat arises from the lawyers’ failure to adhere to established ethical standards and the widespread acceptance of this failure as routine in the providing of legal service.

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