A Lawyer in Pursuit of Truth and Unity: Mohandas Gandhi and the Private Practice of Law

Litigation Partner Paul Lannon, Chair of the firm's Non-Competes, Trade Secrets and Defecting Employees Team, authored a Suffolk University Law Review article titled "A Lawyer in Pursuit of Truth and Unity: Mohandas Gandhi and the Private Practice of Law."

Before he was known around the world as Mahatma (or "great soul"), Mohandas K. Gandhi was a private attorney in South Africa and India for over twenty years. In the practice of law, Gandhi endeavored to show readers in his writings and by his example that it is "not impossible to practice law without compromising the truth." At the same time, he expressed a deep ambivalence about the practice of law, at times denouncing the practice as immoral and even calling upon lawyers to give up their profession.

In the article, Mr. Lannon examines these views in depth to discern what value they hold for lawyers practicing today in the United States. He compares current legal practice in the United States with three fundamental aspects of Gandhi's practice of law: his legal education, especially the connection with equity and religion; his representation of individual clients in private practice; and the role of alternative dispute resolution methods, especially arbitration.