Ethics

The ABA Journal has a story on lawyers referring to their religious faith on their websites:

Among the mentions on [the lawyer's] firm site are the numerous mass tort cases that he handles, the multimillion-dollar settlements or verdicts he has won for clients and the Bible literacy classes, with a link, that he teaches at Champion Forest Baptist Church. The community page also mentions the Christian Trial Lawyers Association, which Lanier founded. Both his firm?s website and the association?s site mention Lanier?s faith and his profession.

For many reasons, I support a lawyer's integration of their own faith commitments with their professional lives.  I also think that it's important for clients to be aware of the ways in which a lawyer's personal beliefs might shape, or even limit, the services she offers.  At the same time, advertising a lawyer's religious identity makes me a little uneasy.  In a major metropolitan area, I don't think it's a problem because there will always be a robust marketplace of legal services providers who have no desire to scare off potential clients, or who have no relevant religious (or other personal moral) commitments to advertise in the first place.  I could imagine, though, that in a small Bible-belt town, it could be a different story.