Volkswagen A.G. recently admitted that for years it has deceived regulators by selling vehicles in which the software was rigged to conceal noncompliance with clean air standards. As investigators disentangle the web of deceit surrounding the Volkswagen emissions scandal, attention will eventually focus on the role of the company’s American lawyers. If those lawyers knowingly aided Volkswagen in criminal or fraudulent conduct, they should be disbarred.
No principle of legal ethics is clearer than the rule that a lawyer shall not assist a client in conduct that the lawyer knows is criminal or fraudulent. Volkswagen’s installation of so-called “defeat devices” into cars for the purpose of thwarting the requirements of air pollution laws, and the company’s related deceptive advertising about its “clean diesel” engines are likely to be found to be criminal and fraudulent on multiple grounds.
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