The Rainmaker

“A client’s not supposed to become personally involved with his client. But there’s all kinds of lawyers. And all kinds of clients, too.” The Rainmaker portrays Rudy Baylor, a young, prospective lawyer, trying to make it in the legal world. Upon just entering this “new world,” he is thrown into the middle of three cases and left to handle them practically on his own. Under much stress and pressure, Rudy makes some important decisions in this movie. Although these decisions were significant, were they ethical? When dealing with his cases involving Kelly Riker, Mrs. Birdie, and Great Benefit, Rudy may have gotten a little too personal and crossed the line between lawyers and clients in some events.

These codes of professional responsibility for lawyers were broken in the case with Kelly Riker. Rudy discovered Kelly Riker, an abused patient at a hospital, through his partner, Deck Schefflit. Deck finds Kelly one day while he is seeking potential injury cases at the hospital, whether they are compensatory or punitive. This act alone is unethical but it is unfortunate that this does happen in the real world. Rudy is instantly hooked on Kelly and offers her help outside of his professional practice. Although Rudy was very attracted to Kelly, he let this attraction go too far. His involvement became too great between Kelly and Cliff Riker. It was ethical of him to have concern for her condition and her future, but he did not make the right choices after this. Rudy crossed the imaginary line between lawyers and clients, one that forced him to get stuck in the middle of Kelly and Cliff’s relationship. Rudy encourages Kelly to file for divorce, an action which is ethical because he was exercising his professional judgment on behalf of his client. He was concerned with the best interest of his client which is completely ethical. Spending excessive time and beating Cliff, however, were the immoral actions taken by Rudy. He did not maintain the integrity and competence of the legal profession when he battered Cliff Riker. These activities are considered unethical and unprofessional, despite the fact that they were concealed.

Rudy's smaller case is preparing a will for Mrs. Colleen Birdsong, or Ms. Birdie as he calls her. She believes she has a large fortune to leave behind when in reality it is not very much at all. She wishes to leave all of her money and assets to a TV evangelist who she believes deserves the money. One thing she is adamant about is completely cutting her children out of her will. Rudy proposes some objection to this and suggests reconsidering. As Rudy is exiting her house, he spots a backyard "apartment". He asks Ms. Birdie about possibly renting it for a small fee in exchange for helping her with little things around her home and garden. She agrees, and this is when their unethical client-lawyer relationship begins. Moving into a client’s home breaches the Code of Professional Responsibility regarding professional impropriety. Also, when Ms. Birdie's children come to visit her, Rudy picks up on how rude and impolitely they treat their mother. He tricks them and says she has a large amount of money that is going into her will. He does this so they start to treat her with the respect she deserves in hopes to wheedle their way into her will. Though this is a thoughtful gesture, it is considered improper behavior because lawyers are not supposed to interfere with their client's personal lives and they are especially not supposed to lie to get what they want. Rudy just wanted to see Ms. Birdie happy and as considerate as that is, it is still deemed as unethical behavior for a lawyer to possess.

The largest case monetarily for Rudy was between the Black family and Great Benefit Insurance Company. Rudy is put up to this big trial by his boss, Bruiser (J. Lyman Stone), who at the time is too busy dodging the police due to his own unethical practices. Rudy covers this case along with Deck who does not even have