The Good Solicitor – Mark Mutz & Richard Gunderman

David Hoffman’s Course of Legal Study was a popular guide to the study of law in the early nineteenth century .

Hoffman 's Course aimed to form the character of lawyers so that they possessed the virtues necessary for excellence in the law.

Hoffman argued that the aspiring lawyer needed more than knowledge; he also needed to be a virtuous person.

Hoffman ’s Course listed works regarding the lives of eminent lawyers of Rome , Greece , Great Britain , and America .

Also included in the Course were biographies of lawyers.

These biographies shed light on the “legal character, notions, and revolutions of their age” Resolutions were designed to instill habits and practices to form character.

Hoffman ’s Course and the 50 Resolutions would probably have been long forgotten by now if not for their influence on the Model Rules of Professional Conduct .

The Resolutions identified temptations, like anger, laziness, envy and cowardliness, and prescribed practices to guard against them.

Hoffman knew that avoiding these temptations would require discipline.