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Criticizing a judge is a taboo subject for many in the legal profession. But Professor Margaret Tarkington believes that lawyers who feel the need to remain silent in instances of judicial misconduct out of fear of disciplinary action is causing harm to the profession as a whole. Her latest book, Voice of Justice: Reclaiming the First Amendment Rights of Lawyers, gets to the heart of this subject, and is the topic of a story in the November 14 issue of Indiana Lawyer.

Professor Tarkington was working as a lawyer in Indianapolis when the matter In Re: Michael A. Wilkins was decided.

The short story: Wilkins, an Indiana attorney, criticized a judge, and faced a 30-day suspension from the practice of law as discipline. Wilkins asked for a rehearing, and a divided Indiana Supreme Court voted to issue a public reprimand instead. This case would prove to be the beginning of Professor Tarkington's research into her new book.

Professor Tarkington turned to academia, teaching at J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University and at the University of Cincinnati College of Law before joining the faculty at IU McKinney. She began writing about attorney First Amendment rights, including "The Truth Be Damned: First Amendment, Attorney Speech, and Judicial Reputation," which was published in Georgetown Law Journal, and A First Amendment Theory for Protecting Attorney Speech  in UC Davis Law Review, among others.

After creating a semester of reading handouts for a constitutional law seminar on the First Amendment rights of lawyers, and receiving a query from a colleague at another law school as to whether she knew of a comprehensive resource regarding lawyer First Amendment rights, Professor Tarkington decided to begin writing her own.

"My whole thesis for the book is that the First Amendment protects the role of the lawyer in the justice system," she said. "Lawyers must have free speech rights, petition rights, and association rights. Yet what I found was that these rights were being left to the good graces of the regulators. Lawyers are the voice of justice, and justice can only be achieved through their voices."

Professor Tarkington's book was published by Cambridge University Press in September 2018. She will present a Faculty Book Talk about the work at IU McKinney on November 29 at 4 p.m. The event will carry 1.0 hour of CLE (includes Ethics).

Professor Tarkington serves as the Association for American Law School's Professional Responsibility Section Chair, and has served as an expert consultant on disciplinary proceedings brought against attorneys for their speech, association, and petitioning. She teaches courses in Professional Responsibility, Civil Procedure, and Federal Courts at IU McKinney.