Eli Wald (University of Denver Sturm College of Law) has posted Lawyers, Facts, and the Rule of Law (39 Geo. J. Legal Ethics XXX (2026)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Facts are the cornerstone of the rule of law. They are the foundation of legal reasoning and decision-making — the law is applied to facts — constituting the foundation of legality. Therefore, misunderstanding facts, and in particular, conflating facts and opinions, undermines the rule of law and public trust in it. The thesis of this Article is that as masters of facts, lawyers can and should support the rule of law by role-modeling fidelity to facts. The Article explains the centrality of facts to the rule of law, explores the role of lawyers as fact masters, investigates the qualities of legal facts and the process by which they are determined, argues that lawyers should act as civics teachers, educating the public about facts to improve the quality of public discourse and increase trust in the rule of law, and concludes by dismissing objections to the ability and willingness of lawyers to act as civic teachers and role-model fidelity to facts.
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Lawrence Solum