Prelude. I want to map out the ways To Kill a Mockingbird works as a morally instructive text. But first, what does it mean to say that a story or text is "morally instructive"? Does To Kill a Mockingbird present a view of the complex moral world of lawyering that traditional forms of legal education do not? Does it help us understand how our own ethics might work by seeing up close a lawyer that many consider the most virtuous in American literature?

In the opening scenes of the story we learn something about the place (setting) in which the story unfolds, the family that will be at the center of the drama, and the young children, Scout and Jem, who, along with their father, Atticus Finch, their housekeeper Calpurnia, and Atticus' client, Tom Robinson, and various neighbors, who will be the principal characters in the story. As we begin reading To Kill a Mockingbird we might want to focus on the morals and ethics of lawyers as they might be understood by way of the setting, scenes, and characters in the novel.

An Ethic of Place. To Kill a Mockingbird is a story set in a place, a town, a community, and a region of the country. How does this placement of the story locate Atticus Finch and his life as a lawyer?

(i) Does it now make any sense to talk about an ethics rooted in a place, as in a town like Maycomb? Or in the place where you grew up? The place where you will practice law? How does it matter to you as a lawyer where you are from, whether you will practice law in your home town, or join a law firm and practice law in a town where you are a stranger?

(ii) What, if anything, does it mean for your ethics as a lawyer, that you might happen to be from the South, or Appalachia, or New York City?

Atticus's story is the story of Maycomb, a place. The story seems to say that Atticus is Atticus because he lives in Maycomb. "He liked Maycomb, he was Maycomb County born and bred; he knew his people, they knew him. . . ." [9] Later, when Atticus is trying to console Jem about the guilty verdict in the Tom Robinson case he tells Jem that when this case is over they are still going to have to live in Maycomb. Even so, Maycomb is no paradise, no heaven on the hill, no place one can celebrate without misgiving and sadness.

It is living in Maycomb, practicing law there, that we see Atticus as the man that he is. A place takes on moral character over time and its character is shaped by the will of various townseople who embody the ethos and spirit of the place. This ethic centers on being in a place, identifying with it and its people.

How can anyone grow up in a community without becoming infected by a community's "usual disease"? How does Atticus do it? How does Aunt Alexander succumb to it? How does Atticus try to teach Scout and Jem to live in an infected world? How does being a lawyer help and hinder one in doing it?

An Ethic and a Family Name. Atticus is a Finch. And we gather, that being a Finch has come to have moral significance. Being a Finch means something in Maycomb. [On the symbolic significance of names like Atticus and Finch, see Calvin Woodard, Listening to the Mockingbird, 45 Ala. L. Rev. 563 (1994)]. In Lisa Scottoline's Running From The Law 68-70 (New York: Harper Collins, 1995), a father tells his lawyer daughter that everything she does as a lawyer reflects on the family name.

What kind of ethic and ethics accompany being a Finch? How does it matter to a lawyer who his family is and was and how that family might be known in a particular community? (Alternatively, what does it mean to practice in a world in which your name and your family mean absolutely nothing?)

What does it mean to be a Finch? It gets complicated. Aunt Alexandra tells us that there is a drinking streak "a mile wide" in the Cunningham family. But Jem tells us that no one likes pot liquor more than Atticus.

The question for Jem and Scout, and for us, is what makes people different. Aunt Alexandra says: "The thing is, you can scrub Walter Cunningham till he shines, you can put him in shoes and a new suit, but he'll never be like Jem." [226-227] How can we use the differences we know to exist without ending up, like Aunt Alexandra, viewing Walter Cunningham, in such a disparging light?

Jem has tried to figure out this business of social hierarchy and why different groups (families) don't get along? His conclusion was that Aunt Alexandra's "Old Family" stuff has some truth to it, but not as much as Aunt Alexandra thinks. Atticus has told Jem that Aunt Alexandra is big on Old Family because the Finches don't have money. Atticus, we know from Jem, finds the Old Family stuff foolish, but yet Atticus has Aunt Alexandra come and spend the summer while he is trying the Robinson cases. Why would he do that?

Jem concludes that it is not how long your family has been in one place, even the Ewells would qualify under that standard, but how long the family has been reading and writing. [229] Jem says, "Scout, I've studied this real hard and that the only reason I can think of. Somewhere along when the Finches were in Egypt one of 'em must have learned a hieroglyphic or two an he taught his boy." [229]. Scout rejects Jem's theory and offers one of her own: She thinks there is just one kind of folks. Folks. Jem agrees that he once thought that as well but it doesn't hold up when you realize that folks can't get along with each other. "If they're all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other? Scout, I think I'm beginning to understand something. I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time . . . it's because he wants to stay inside." [230]

Jem sees through Aunt Alexander's obsessive talk about being from a good family. He explains to Scout that the difference in families, an old family and just a family, is that it depends on when your family learned to read and write. [229] Scout has a more simplest notion, she wants to believe that everybody is just "folks." Jem older by some five years, rejects Scout's argument and concludes that given the way people have learned how to despise each other, Boo Radley may be staying inside "because he wants to stay inside." [230]

The Neighbor Ethic. In small town Maycomb, we learn about Atticus and his neighbors, and about Atticus as a neighbor. In the world of Maycomb, everyday ethics is practiced in the way people relate to each other as neighbors.

Neighbors deal with each other in striking different ways. For example, the Radleys keep to themselves and worship at home. [13] As it turns out the reclusive Boo Radley, even unseen, happens to a real neighbor and proves, over time, to be a good one. (When Miss Maudie's house catches fire Boo Radley, unnoticed, places a blanket around Scout. At the end of the novel, Boo Radley's neighborly concern saves Jem's and Scout's lives.)

On neighbors, consider:

Scout and Jem's curiosity about Boo Radley. "[W]hen Jem would question him [about Boo Radley] Atticus's only answers was for him to mind his own business and let the Radley's mind theirs." [15] Compare Atticus's approach to his children's curiosity about the young Radley man and Miss Stephanie Crawford, "a neighborhood scold, who said she knew the whole thing" about the Radleys and was willing to tell it. [15] Ms. Stephanie was a gossip and prone to serious exaggeration, especially on matters involving Boo Radley.

Atticus as a neighbor to Mrs. Dubose. [106-109]

What does it mean to be a good neighbor? How might a neighbor ethic find a place in the practice of law?

An Ethic of Skills. We know Atticus is skilled at making airtight wills [95], arguing emotionally-laden cases with calm detachment [171-172, 205], playing checkers and shooting a rifle [100-101]. Scout and Jem are surprised to learn that Atticus is a good shot with a rifle. He has relented to letting his children have air-rifles, but has left instruction in their use to the children's uncle. [94]. For Atticus, some skills constitute talents for which one should not take pride. "People in their right minds never take pride in their talents," says Miss Maudie, a Finch neighbor.

Tom Shaffer has argued that Atticus Finch's most accomplished skill is his hope. [See Thomas Shaffer, The Moral Theology of Atticus Finch, 42 U. Pitts. L. Rev. 181, 221 (1981). See generally, Stanley Hauerwas & Thomas Shaffer, Hope in the Life of Thomas More, 54 Notre Dame Law. 569 (1979)]

An Ethic of Character. How is Atticus's character shaped by the fact that he is a lawyer? What kind of lawyer is Atticus? How does his being a lawyer affect his children, Scout and Jem? How does it affect Maycomb?

What kind of man is Atticus Finch? Among, other qualities, Atticus is a man of skills, tranquility, perspective, and humility.

Tranquility: "Atticus was proceeding [in the Tom Robinson rape trial] amiably, as if he were involved in a title dispute. With his infinite capacity for calming turbulent seas, he could make a rape case as dry as a sermon." [171-172] And when Atticus gives his closing argument to the jury at the Robinson trial, he speaks "easily with the kind of detachment he used when he dictated a letter. He walked slowly up and down in front of the jury, and the jury seemed to be attentive: their heads were up, and they followed Atticus's route with what seemed to be appreciation. I guess it was because Atticus wasn't a thunderer." [205] While other lawyers may thunder, Scout says, "I never heard Atticus raise his voice in my life, except to a deaf witness." [174]

Jem tells us that "I sometimes think Atticus subjected every crisis of his life to tranquil evaluation behind The Mobile Register, The Birmingham News and The Montgomery Advertiser." [148]. We also know that Atticus remained calm at the jail when a lynch mob came for Tom Robinson. [154]. Finally, at two rather difficult junctures, the unjust guilty verdict in the Tom Robinson trial and thinking that his son Jem may have killed Bob Ewell, we see Atticus calm and steady, holding his course in rough seas. [215]

Perspective: Atticus has the ability to see that those who oppose him are not his enemies. He doesn't lose perspective. "This time we aren't fighting the Yankees, we're fighting our friends. But remember this, no matter how bitter things get, they're still our friends and this is still our home." [81] We see Atticus focus on perspective when he tries to teach Scout about empathy. Scout has been chastised by her first grade teacher, Miss Caroline Fisher for reading abilities she learned before she started to school. She tells Atticus she wants to quit school. Atticus gives Scout a lesson in empathy and encourages her to take the perspective of others. "First of all," Atticus tells Scout, "if you can learn a simple trick Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." [34]. "One time he [Atticus] said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them." [282]

Humility: Atticus seems, to a fault at times, to accept a person as he finds them. Consider his acceptance of:

Ms. Caroline, Scout's first grade teacher, and her rather confused notion that Scout has learned too much about reading at home;

Uncle Jack and Aunt Alexander, whose ways do not comport with his own;

Mrs. Dubose, a neighbor and client, whose addiction has left her with a rather pronounced bigotry and everday meanest she expresses in her relations with Scout and Jem;

Mr. Radley's peculiar explanation of a dying tree [67];

Atticus can even accept Walter Cunningham's joining the Robinson lynch mob ("Mr. Cunningham's basically a good man . . . he just has his blind spots along with the rest of us.") [159]

In trying to figure out who Atticus is we must think more carefully about the fact that Atticus is a Finch, is a man of Maycomb, is a father of two young children, and is a teacher of both his children and to his community.

Atticus is "Maycomb County born and bred. . . ." [9] (How can a place called Maycomb have moral significance for a person's character?)

Atticus is a father. (Atticus talks to Scout and Jem using "last-will-and-testament diction" which is sometimes beyond their understanding. What does being a father have to do with being a lawyer?) [36]

Atticus tries to teach Scout empathy. [See 34, 282]. [And, we watch as Jem tries his hand at empathy with Scout as she undergoes the trials of a younger sister, growing up, and going to school.]

What part does empathy play in our lives as lawyers?

Conscience. What does Atticus mean when he says he doesn't want to let Scout and Jem down and that representing Tom Robinson is a matter of conscience? [109]

The Ethic of "Gentlemen" and "Ladies." [On the Gentleman Ethic]

(i) What is it about Atticus and his character that defines him as a gentleman?

(ii) Seymour Wishman talks about lawyers who are gentlemen. [See Confessions of a Criminal Lawyer, at 7, 52, 53, 74-75] Atticus Finch and Seymour Wishman, American lawyers separated by a half century of history, each suggest that legal ethics is related to the ethics of gentlemen. But is it possible to be a gentleman in the practice of law?

(iii) How is our concern for the ethic of gentlemen to be viewed in light of the fact that so many women now practice law?

(iv) What makes Atticus say of Mrs. Dubose, that she was a "great lady"? [116]

(v) At one point Miss Maudie said that a man like Atticus is "civilized in the heart"? [102]. What does Miss Maudie mean?

(vi) Jem, in admiration of his father, is in training to be a gentleman. (Note: Little Chuck Little, a first grade student who attempts to help out a struggling new teacher is credited for being a gentleman.) [30]

An Ethic of Heroes. Tom Shaffer claims that Atticus Finch is a hero. He argues that communities require heroes who will tell them the truth about the world and the situation they are in.

(i) How do lawyers become heroes?

(ii) In becoming a lawyer is it possible that we have all, perhaps secretly, set out to become heroes?

(iii) Dolphus Raymond tells Scout: "Miss Jean Louise, you don't know your pa's not a run-of-the-mill man, it'll take a few years for that to sink in--you haven't seen enough of the world yet." [204]

An Ethic of Insiders and Outsiders.

(i) How is the sense of physical boundaries described in the opening pages of the novel related to the more general theme of "insiders" and "outsiders" to which we are introduced?

(ii) How is the theme of "boundaries" and the insider/outsider dichotomy of interest to our study of the moral dimension of lawyering?

(iii) Is Atticus an insider or outsider? What about Scout? and Jem? Atticus's brother Jack? His sister Aunt Alexander? Miss Caroline, Scout's first grade teacher? Calpurnia? Tom Robinson? Walter Cunningham, senior and junior? Burris Ewell? Bob and Mayella Ewell? Dill? Miss Stephanie Crawford? Dolphus Raymond? Boo Radley?

Ethics is Rooted in Discernment. Early in the novel, there's a discussion between Scout, Jem, and Dill, their new friend, from Meridian, Mississippi, about getting a look at the reclusive Boo Radley. Jem likens their problem to making a turtle come out by putting a match under it. Scout tells Jem she'll tell Atticus if he sets fire to the Radley house and Dill says it's "hateful" to put a lighted match under a turtle. Jem replies, "Ain't hateful, just persuades him-'s not like you'd chunk him in the fire . . ." [18]

Consider:

Scout's effort to distinguish between company and a Cunningham, when she's called to task by Calpurnia for commenting on Walter Cunningham's use of molasses on his dinner when he comes come with Scout and Jem for lunch. Calpurnia rejects the distinction with some strong language: "Hush your mouth! Don't matter who they are, anybody sets foot in this house's yo' comp'ny, and don't you let me catch you remarkin' on their ways like you was so high and mighty!" [29]

Atticus tries to distinguish Scout's situation from that of Burris Ewell when Scout claims she has decided, like Burris, to be finished with her schooling after the first day. [35]

When Scout and Jem find some Indian Head pennies in the knot-hole of a tree near the Radley place, we are told: "Finders were keepers unless title was proven. Plucking an occasional camellia, getting a squirt of hot milk from Miss Maudie Atkinson's cow on a summer day, helping ourselves to someone's scuppernongs was part of our ethical culture, but money was different." [39-40]

Ethics and Self-Deception. How can people like Mrs. Grace Merriweather [231-237] and Miss Gates, Scout's teacher [246-250], deceive themselves the way they do? [80-81] [Exploring Self-Deception]

Ethics and Truth-telling.

Consider Atticus and his brother Jack.

Jem & Scout deciding what to do with the treasure they find in the tree and their efforts to continue playing the Boo Radley game.

Aunt Alexander and her missionary tea circle.

Tom Robinson and his defense in the rape trial.

Miss Stephanie Crawford, the neighborhood gossip.

Ethics and Injustice. How are we readers to respond to the injustice to Tom Robinson? To Maycomb's "usual disease"? [93]

Lawyers and their Ethics. In Seymour Wishman's Confessions of a Criminal Lawyer we explored a lawyer's account of how he discredited and humiliated a truthful witness and how he sought to justify what he had done. Lawyers, during the course of their work, are indeed called upon to discredit those who are untruthful, or who present a version of the facts unfavorable to their client. To Kill A Mockingbird provides a dramatic reminder of the role of truth in lawyer ethics. Compare Mr. Gilmer's cross-examination of Tom Robinson with Atticus's cross-examination of Bob and Mayella Ewell at the Tom Robinson rape trial. [177-201] Compare Scout and Dill's reactions to Mr. Gilmer's cross-examination. [201-202]

Reimagining Our Lives as Lawyers. How does the story of Atticus Finch help re-imagine the kind of life one might hope to live as a lawyer?

1. Thomas Shaffer has written an essay on Atticus Finch which gets to the heart of the issues we take up in Practical Moral Philosophy for Lawyers. See Thomas L. Shaffer, The Moral Theology of Atticus Finch, 42 U. Pitts. L. Rev. 181 (1981).

See also: Thomas L. Shaffer, Growing Up Good in Maycomb, 45 Ala. L. Rev. 531 (1994) (focusing on Scout Finch's moral development); Claudia Johnson, Without Tradition and Within Reason: Judge Horton and Atticus Finch in Court, 45 Ala. L. Rev. 483 (1994) (questioning Shaffer's emphasis on community and church as the source of Atticus Finch's character); Claudia Johnson, The Secret Courts of Men's Hearts: Code and Law in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, 19 Stud. Am. Fiction 129 (1991). See generally: Symposium: To Kill a Mockingbird, 45 Ala. L. Rev. 389-584 (1994).

2. The novel, first published in 1960, was republished in a new hardcover edition in 1995. Sales of To Kill A Mockingbird is hard to determine; estimates range from 12 to 30 million copies sold. [See Timothy Huff, Influences on Harper Lee: An Introduction to the Symposium, 45 Ala. L. Rev. 389, 401 n.75 (1994); Bryan K. Fair, Using Parrots to Kill Mockingbirds: Yet Another Racial Prosecution and Wrongful Conviction in Maycomb, 45 Ala. L. Rev. 403, 404 n.9 (1994)]

3. For a revisionist view, and an argument that To Kill a Mockingbird is far less the morally instructive story than some of us have thought it to be, see Rob Atkinson, Liberating Lawyers: Divergent Parallels in Intruder in the Dust and To Kill a Mockingbird, 49 Duke L. J. 601 (1999); Steven Lubet, Reconstructing Atticus Finch, 97 Mich. L. Rev. 1339 (1999). For responses to Lubet's efforts to deconstruct Atticus Finch as icon, see Ann Althouse, Reconstructing Atticus Finch? A Response to Professor Lubet, 97 Mich. L. Rev. 1363 (1999); Rob Atkinson, Comment on Steven Lubet Reconstructing Atticus Finch, 97 Mich. L. Rev. 1370 (1999); Burnele V. Powell, A Reaction: "Stand Up, Your Father [a Lawyer] is Passing," 97 Mich. L. Rev. 1373 (1999); William H. Simon, Moral Icons: A Comment on Steven Lubet's Reconstructing Atticus Finch, 97 Mich. L. Rev. 1376 (1999); Randolph N. Stone, Atticus Finch, in Context, 97 Mich. L. Rev. 1378 (1999).

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