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We, the faculty of the ������Ƶ, have the distinct privilege and awesome responsibility of educating future generations of lawyers and legal professionals. We do so by teaching not only the substance of the law, but also its role in shaping society, its power and its limitations, and the ethical duties of those who engage in its practice.

In Washington, where many of our students will practice and where many faculty members currently do so, the Rules of Professional Conduct govern our work as lawyers. The Rules begin by affirming that the “continued existence of a free and democratic society depends upon recognition of the concept that justice is based upon the rule of law.”

The Rules then explain that lawyers, “as guardians of the law, play a vital role in the preservation of society,” and that each lawyer carries out these duties “as a member of the legal profession, a representative of clients, an officer of the court and a public citizen having special responsibility for the quality of justice.”

Our law school is the exclusive public law school for the State of Washington. Our duty as a faculty, therefore, is to educate lawyers who will ethically and effectively advance the rule of law and the quality of justice for all members of the public, regardless of political ideology.

Members of the faculty differ in our individual views. We have and will continue to strenuously debate legal issues. Many of us advance our values through individual work as licensed lawyers. Together, as educators, we all strive to teach and model rule of law values for our students.

In recognition of our shared commitment to the fundamental values that guide our profession, we stand with our colleagues across the country to express our concern about current threats to the rule of law posed by various governmental actors and actions.

These threats are most acute when judges, lawyers, law firms, law school clinics, and other legal services providers — each striving to fulfill their obligations as members of the legal profession — face punishment, retribution, or other penalty from governmental officials who disagree with their lawful decisions or disfavor their representation of certain clients.

In addition to the unjustified fear, derision, and risk of personal, financial, or other harm these actions pose, such sanctions undermine the foundations of our legal system by discouraging, if not preventing, lawyers from fulfilling their duties to clients, the court, and the public.

The faculty of the law school therefore condemns these threats to the rule of law and reaffirms our shared commitment to teaching and modeling the fundamental values that guide our profession to help ensure that our students — past, present and future — will know, understand, and strive to uphold the same.