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the ethical lawyer and unduly forgiving of the unethical one. The demarcation line for
the ethical conduct is drawn around perjury. The line shines brightly enough for any
lawyer to know, as a matter of professional ethics, not to nudge any witness in its
direction. There is, therefore, no such thing as 'properly push' the witness close
enough but 'short ofthat'. To 'push' a witness any distance in its direction is a push
too far, for that is the essence of an oath or solemn declaration to tell 'the whole tmth'.
In its very important Opinion No 79, dealing specifically with the ethical limits of
witness preparation, the Ethics Committee of the Bar of the District of Columbia,
correctly observed as follows: 'It is not ... a matter of undue difficulty for a
reasonably competent and conscientious lawyer to discem the line of impermissibility,
where tmth shades into untmth, and to refrain from crossing it.'"^^
41. That every lawyer knows when they reach the line of perjury is usefully
illustrated in the novel version of Anatomy of a Murder, In the course of the initial
interview between Mr Biegler, the lawyer, and his prospective client, Lt Manion,
Biegler reaches a point in a series of questions and answers in which Manion reveals
that approximately one hour had passed between his alleged discovery that Bamey
Quill had raped Manion's wife and Manion's shooting and killing Quill. At which
point, Biegler's aside proceeds as follows: 'I had reached a point where a few wrong
answers to a few right questions would leave me with a client—if I took his case—
whose cause was legally defenseless. Either I stopped now and begged off and let
some other lawyer worry over it or I asked him the few fatal questions and let him
hang himself. Or else, like any smart lawyer, I went into the Lecture.'"^^ And, 'the
Lecture' is described in another aside as follows: 'The Lecture is an ancient device
that lawyers use to coach their clients so that the client won't quite know he has been
coached and his lawyer can still preserve the face-saving illusion that he hasn't done
any coaching. For coaching clients, like robbing them, is not only frowned upon, it is
downright unethical and bad, very bad. Hence the Lecture, an artful device as old as
the law itself, and one used constantly by some of the nicest and most ethical lawyers
in the land. "Who, me? I didn't tell him what to say," the lawyer can later comfort
himself. "I merely explained the law, see." It is good practice to scowl and shmg here
and add virtuously: "That's my duty, isn't it?'"^^
ICC-01/09-01/11-524 03-01-2013 38/44 NM T
42. The trouble with the foregoing illustration is not that Biegler is unaware that
he crosses the line of subomation of perjury as he decides to deliver 'the Lecture'. But,
"^^The District of Columbia Bar, Legal Ethics Committee, 'Opinion No 79' of 18 December 1979,
reprinted in District of Columbia Bar, Code of Professional Responsibility and Opinions of the District
of Columbia Bar Legal Ethics Committee (1991) 138 at p 139.
^^ Robert Traver (a pseudonym). Anatomy of a Murder [New York: St Martin's, 1958] p 32.
'Ubid,p35.
No. ICC-01/09-01/11 17/23 2 January 2013