If you pause for a second, you can see some of the individuals most
excited about the disbarment of Rudy Giuliani were likely somewhat more
moved by arguments that the disciplinary actions against Bill Clinton were
unusually harsh and politically motivated. After all, Bill Clinton was
unlikely to spend much of his post-presidency practicing law in Arkansas
or before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Any time a lawyer disciplinary action is taken against a high-profile
lawyer in a manner that is atypical (and really any serious sanction for
behavior outside of stealing from a client is pretty unusual), some will claim
politics are involved. I raise the Clinton suspension to show that these sorts
of claims do not always come from the right or the left, although as noted
above, they do seem to be accelerating in the Trump era, and not by mistake.
Clinton at least seemed chagrined.
IV. IS THERE ANY WAY OUT OF THE DOUBLE BIND?
So, is there any solution for these institutions stuck in the double bind?
What could lawyer regulators do or not do in these high-profile cases to
regain the public trust?
The short answer in any individual case like Giuliani’s is nothing. No
matter how comprehensive the explanation of the sanctions against a lawyer
like Rudy Giuliani, large swaths of the public will believe Giuliani and
Trump when they say the charges are false and politically motivated. As a
comparison point, consider whether supporters of Bill Clinton were
mollified when the Arkansas Supreme Court explained that Clinton had, in
fact, been sanctioned by a federal judge for lying under oath and that Clinton
had admitted to doing exactly that as part of the global settlement of the
impeachment inquiry. Dubious. And just to be frank, the Clinton case