Practicing Attorneys Serving in Legislative Bodies

[OfficerObie59]

I am working on a paper for a master's class regarding some ways my state could further crack down on drunk driving. It seems that on some issues, such as drunk driving legislation, there is virtually an internal lobby of practicing attorneys within the state legislature that prevents certain laws from passing that may be detrimental to their private practice. One legislator in my state actually missed legislative hearings on drunk driving legislation for a committee he chaired because he was physically in court defending an DUI client.

I was wondering if anyone here knows of any constitutional provision, case law, statute, or ethical code in any US jurisdiction that prohibits active, practicing attorneys from concurrently serving in legislative bodies. If you happen to have a cite or can steer me in the direction that would allow me to find it, it would be of great help.

If you also have personal opinions on this I would love to hear them. An interesting take on this topic a friend of mine made was that it should be the voters' burden to simply not elect such legislative officials. Curious to what anyone has to say on this.

For the record, I am not attempting to write a slam piece on attorneys, but rather suggest ways we may be able to so things better.

Thanks,
Obie

 

[seniorjudge]

Obie:

1. We don't do homework.

and

B. You haven't followed the rules of this forum.

and

iii. If you can't find the info yourself, then it will be a lousy paper.

 

[Antigone*]

I get the impression that this "grad student" needs a course in researching for papers.

Scary, huh

 

[OfficerObie59]

I'm sorry if I've displayed some ignorance here, but the only issues I've been able to find are those concerning matters of attorneys defending clients who themselves have business before such bodies, such as ABA Ethics opinions that are over 40 years old, and a recent NJ decision prohibiting law enforcement from practicing law at all. I am out of gas at this point which is why I cam here.

As far as not being able to research the materials myself, I suppose I'm guilty as charged. If I had access to Westlaw or Lexis, I probably wouldn't be here. I was just wondering if someone knew of any of such rules off the top of their head. It was not my intention to ask anyone to take time out of their day to look it up. I apologize if my writing conveyed anything to the contrary.

As far as forum rules go, I certainly admit ignorance on that one, but it seems any rules page prohibiting parts of my post is nearly as elusive as the answers I can't seem to find anywhere else.

Furthermore, I mean no disrepsect to anyone who has posted so far; I understand each forum has is own norms that I have appeared to have violated. My apologies.

 

[seniorjudge]

Sorry, I don't buy it.

When you start a thread, you are clearly asked for your state.

You had to work at it to avoid that rule.

And we still don't do homework.

 

[OfficerObie59]

Sorry, I don't buy it.

When you start a thread, you are clearly asked for your state.

My state is Massachusetts.

You had to work at it to avoid that rule.

I didn't realize that was a codified "rule". Please accept the above as my correction. The intent on not posting my state that was so that I wasn't posing a question that could be construed as slamming a particular legislature.

And we still don't do homework.

Then please disregard my second paragraph. The third paragraph of my question was simply for a personal opinion or take. Provided that does not violate forum rules, I would certainly love to hear yours.