Corporate Lawyers as Sophists
posted by Dave Hoffman
Who said the following, and when?
“In many cities, however, and especially in Athens, the poorer citizens had towards the rich a double hostility, that of envy, and that of traditionalism. The rich were supposed – often with justice – to be impious and immoral; they were subverting ancient beliefs, and probably trying to destroy democracy. It thus happened that political democracy was associated with cultural conservatism, while those who were cultural innovators tended to be political reactionaries. Somewhat the same situation exists in modern America, where Tammany, as a mainly Catholic organization, is engaged in defending traditional theological and ethical dogmas against the assaults of enlightenment. But the enlightened are politically weaker in America than they were in Athens, because they have failed to make common cause with the plutocracy. There is, however, one important and highly intellectual class which is concerned with the defense of the plutocracy, namely the class of corporation lawyers. In some respects, their functions are similar to those that were performed in Athens by the Sophists”
The answer follows the jump.
Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy (1945) [quote is from Chapter 10]. Note how Russell’s political frame – probably outdated by the early 1940s – is impossible to apply in our vastly more complicated society. Additionally, I’ve come to believe, reading Urofsky’s uneven but sometimes brilliant new biography of Brandeis, that the idea of a corporation lawyer in the sense of a lawyer for the situation was largely the invention of that famous progressive jurist.
November 11, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Posted in: Corporate Law
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