Ethics

Cyberspace is already full of excellent commentary about the torture memos, so I've been reluctant to add another two cents.  I was struck, however, by John Yoo's recent live Q&A at the Washington Post's web site, where he said the following:

Many people have wondered how much of Yoo's legal advice was shaped by the particular environment in which he found himself after the 9/11 attacks.  For example, I previously speculated that contextual forces, such as those that existed at that time, may have affected Yoo's objectivity and the quality of his advice.  It had been my understanding (correct me if I'm wrong) that Yoo had not previously acknowledged that possibility, but the quote above implies that the high pressure context may have affected his analysis, at least to some degree.   

Of course, none of these observations, even if they are accurate, necessarily tell us whether Yoo should be disciplined.  They do illustrate, however, the importance of understanding how situational forces affect lawyer behavior.  In recent years, legal ethics scholarship (like a lot of legal scholarship) has drawn on insights from behavioral psychology, and the torture memo controversy offers a useful backdrop for studying how some of those conceptual insights intersect with the practice of law.