On Law Day this year, we remember the legacy of a legendary lawyer and public servant, President John Adams, who was a thought leader of his time.
In 1770, nearly two centuries before the U.S. Supreme Court would hold in Gideon v. Wainwright that the criminally accused have a constitutional right to an attorney, Adams defended those accused of the Boston Massacre. He did so because he believed that, in a free country, a lawyer “ought to be the very last thing that an accused person should want.”
