How to Get Away With Unethical Lawyering, Season 1, Episode 3

At the time I am writing this post, I have seen all of Seasons One and Two of How to Get Away With Murder. To date, about two minutes of Season One, Episode Three remain my favorite moment of the show, as they contain a perfect storm of outrageous ethical violations resulting not in prosecution, expulsion, or reprimand, but in reward for one of the show's main characters. It's outrageous, egregious, preposterous, and represents the law-ignoring mayhem that makes How to Get Away With Murder such fun for nitpickers like myself.

This is the third in my series of posts detailing the ethical violations in How to Get Away With Murder. My first post from a year and a half ago is here, and my most recent post on Episode Two is here. As always, the Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct are my go-to authority on the characters' ethical violations.

That's it for the background, now on to the condemnation...

How to Get Away With Unethical Lawyering, Season 1, Episode 2

Long ago I wrote a post on the first episode of How to Get Away With Murder detailing the plethora of ethical violations committed by the characters. After writing that post, however, work got busier, other legal issues grabbed my attention, jobs changed, and How to Get Away With Murder was not yet on Netflix. My attention turned to other things, and the show (and even blogging) fell off my radar.

Today, I begin to remedy this state of affairs.

This is the first of a regular series of blog posts in which I issue-spot the ethical violations in How to Get Away With Murder. Unlike other commentators who highlight the broader inaccuracies in the show's portrayal of the legal profession, these posts will focus primarily on the ethical violations committed by the show's characters. As with my first post, I will cite to Pennsylvania's Rules of Professional Conduct.

This post (and those to follow) contain spoilers for those who have not yet seen the show. My posts will start with Season One and both seasons of the show are on Netflix, so those of you who want to watch the show and avoid spoilers should have no difficulty catching up.

How to Get Away With Unethical Lawyering: Episode 1

I recently watched the pilot episode of ABC's How to Get Away With Murder. I blogged about the show back in May when the trailer first came out. I noted that the show appeared to be "(1) an overly-dramatic reiteration of the second half of Legally Blonde; and (2) a professional responsibility issue-spotter."

After watching the pilot, I think it's safe to say that I was right.

The show is centered around a criminal law professor, Annalise Keating (played by Viola Davis), at a fictional law school in Pennsylvania. She teaches criminal law while simultaneously running a highly successful criminal defense firm out of her home. For her assignments, she tells students the facts of cases she is defending and asks them to provide their own defense theories. Students who do the best are promised a job at her law firm.

The show also highlights several of her students, in particular, Wes Gibbins, played by Alfred Enoch. Gibbins, a bright-eyed first year law student starts out by making the classic mistake of not being prepared for the first day of class. He soon dives into Keating's world of criminal defense and intrigue.

With a premise like this, how can't there be a slew of ethical violations? After the break, I discuss the specific ethical problems that I noticed in the pilot episode. Because the show seems to take place in Pennsylvania, I will use Pennsylvania's Rules of Professional Conduct in determining whether ethical violations have occurred, and any reference to a "rule" will be to these rules unless I note otherwise. Warning, spoilers ahead.

New ABC Show on Why Law Students Should Take Professional Responsibility Before Criminal Law

ABC's upcoming show, How to Get Away With Murder, looks like it will be two things: (1) an overly-dramatic reiteration of the second half of Legally Blonde; and (2) a professional responsibility issue-spotter. Here is the trailer:

Consider the third piece of advice that the professor gives to her students: that students "bury" any adverse evidence. This will almost certainly lead to violations of Model Rule of Professional Conduct 3.4, which prohibits attorneys from unlawfully altering or concealing evidence. The comment to the rule acknowledges that criminal defense attorneys may come into possession of incriminating evidence, and while they may perform their own analysis of the evidence, they may not destroy or alter the evidence in the process, and may ultimately be required by law to turn the evidence over to law enforcement.

Even more disturbingly, students taking a criminal law course may be interested in criminal prosecution, rather than criminal defense. If prosecution-inclined students take the "bury" advice to heart and apply it in the prosecution setting, they will commit flagrant Brady violations, leading to reversed convictions and likely sanctions for prosecutorial misconduct. These students will also run afoul of Model Rule 3.8(d), which requires prosecutors to reveal exculpatory evidence to defense attorneys.

It will be interesting to see how this show is received by the legal crowd and the general public. The show seems to focus on law school rather than on practicing lawyers, which is a risky move. But if the trailer is any indication, the show's portrayal of legal education may be so inaccurate that it may end up being a success.

I also look forward to the show's spin-off, How to Get Away With Unconscionability, where the students' contracts professor only lists one phrase on the board: "Arbitration Clause."