NATION : Burger Hits ‘Shyster Ads’

Retired Chief Justice Warren E. Burger today scolded lawyers who engage in “shyster advertising” and prosecutors who try their cases in the news media.

Speaking to the American Inns of Court lawyers group, Burger denounced those in the nation’s legal profession he said “seem bent on turning the practice of law into a trade or business like selling groceries, automobiles or real estate.”

Burger also attacked “the spectacle of prosecutors entering or emerging from the courthouse making statements, often with a battery of TV cameras and a barrage of questions.”

“The higher the rank, the greater is the impropriety--the professional standard must be the same for state prosecutors, federal prosecutors, assistant prosecutors, general prosecutors or special prosecutors,” said Burger, 82.