This course is a survey of the major ethical issues presented in the practice of law. It examines the concept of the lawyer endorsed by the rules of professional responsibility and assesses the relationship between this concept and the personal, political and economic constraints of law practice. To this end, emphasis will be given to the ethical rules and their elaboration in case law, but the class will also attend to other sources (historical, sociological, and theoretical) to explore the nature and depth of the constraints lawyers face in a range of practice areas. The course also places the law of lawyering in philosophical context by reading accounts of professional responsibility against competing conceptions of the rule of law and problems in the distribution of legal services.