Ethics Lessons for Lawyers from the Lincoln Assassination Trials

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Overview

Speaker Billy Newman has spent the last 30 years exploring the murky events following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.  A number of alleged conspirators were convicted under questionable circumstances for complicity in the President's death.  One of them was a country physician from Maryland, Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, who set the broken leg of assassin John Wilkes Booth the night of the assassination.  The Mudd family has spent the past 150 years attempting to legally exonerate Dr. Mudd, and Mr. Newman speaks of his personal meetings with Dr. Mudd's grandson and of Newman's own limited involvement in the family's crusade.

Out of these experiences, Mr. Newman realized that the legal maneuverings of the Mudd family and their lawyers over the past century and a half provide a perfect lesson on the lawyer's ethical duty of zealous advocacy.  In addition to a history lesson on the Lincoln and Mudd stories, Newman also looks at two other famous (or infamous) lawyers and examines the way in which lawyers often misconstrue what it means to be a zealous advocate for your client.

Similarly, the ethical duties of diligence and competence are aptly illustrated by the lawyer who defended another of the alleged Lincoln assassination conspirators, Mrs. Mary Surratt. Dramatically re-visited in recent years in Robert Redford's movie The Conspirator (clips of which are briefly shown in this seminar), the legal efforts of Mrs. Surratt's lawyer provide a memorable illustration of zealous and effective advocacy that resonates powerfully with today's lawyers.

Speakers

William R Newman of The University of Southern Mississippi

Agenda for Wednesday, the 20th of May 2015

1:00 pm Central Time - Webcast Begins (Please register and sign into the website at least 10 minutes before the scheduled start)

(Agenda is approximate and tentative)

1:00pm - 1:15pm - Background of the Lincoln Assassination Trials - April 1865

1:15pm - 1:30pm - Background on the Ethical Duty of Zealous Advocacy

1:30pm - 2:30pm - Common Misinterpretations of the Duty of Zealous Advocacy.  How the lawyers for Dr. Samuel A. Mudd in the Lincoln assassination case exemplify the proper practice of "zealous advocacy."

2:30pm - 2:45pm - Break

2:45pm - 3:00pm - Background on the Ethical Duties of Diligence & Competence

3:00pm - 4:00pm -  How the lawyers for Mrs. Mary Surratt in the Lincoln assassination case measure up to recent decisions on the ethical duties of diligence and competence

4:00pm - 4:15pm - A Concluding Review of Modern Comments and Cases on the Ethical Duties of Zealous Advocacy, Diligence, and Competence