Victory vs. Truth: The Adversary System and Its Ethics
![handle is hein.journals/arzjl19 and id is 17 raw text is: ESSAY
Victory vs. Truth: The Adversary System
and its Ethics
R. J. Gerber*
I don't see why we should not come out roundly and say that one of
the functions of the lawyer is to lie for his client; and on rare occa-
sions, as I think I have shown, I believe it is.'
The greatest thrill is to win when you're wrong!
-Wall Street Lawyer
I saw that the litigation, if it were persisted in, would ruin the plain-
tiff and the defendant, who were relatives and both belonged to the
same city. . . . [l]t might go on indefinitely and to no advantage of
either party. . . . In the meantime, mutual ill-will was steadily in-
creasing. I became disgusted with the profession.
-Mahatma Gandhi
I. INTRODUCTION
Lawyers lately have been feeling a good deal of self-pity for being
bashed about in public. Much as one would like to believe our profession
is undeserving of its low image, and that our image is correctable simply
* Associate Presiding Judge, Superior Court of Maricopa County; B.A., St. Louis University,
1962; M.A., Columbia University, 1964; Ph.D., University of Louvain, 1966; J.D., Notre Dame,
1971; LL.M., University of Virginia, 1986.
I. Curtis, The Ethics of Advocacy. 4 STAN. L. REV. 3, 9 (1951-52).
2. M. KATSH, TAKING SIDES: CLASHING VIEWS ON LEGAL ISSUES 14 (2d. ed. 1986) (quoting Ma-
hatma Gandhi's autobiography).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/arzjl19&div=9&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Victory vs. Truth: The Adversary System and Its Ethics
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