Legal ethics in (climate) freefall

Lawyers' benign, socially stabilising functions are under a significant challenge from key sections of commercial legal culture because of their professional facilitation of rapid climate change. Corporations that are actively expanding fossil fuel extraction are enabling a global ecocide in our lifetime; and the very large law firms that make a conscious decision to act for these emitters, are their collaborators. These firms often claim that they accept the reality of climate change, but are content to ignore a key ethical and now existential obligation of true professionalism: to act with integrity. Current rules of professional conduct do not compel lawyers' integrity in the face of our degrading climate. The rule of law and rights to representation are invoked formulaically to justify ultra-large law firms' business as usual. In this context, any universal role morality is redundant. Climate collapse may occur but the legal profession and law teachers can still play a role in defending the planet's ecosystems. Legal ethics' teachers and law faculty, in general, can and should strengthen the discipline of legal ethics in recognition of our existential crisis and adopt proven experiential education approaches to challenge future lawyers and law firms on their global ecosystem responsibilities.