This weekend, I plan to see The Antigone Project, an adaptation of Sophocles’ fifth century B.C.E. play, Antigone.  The play is about Antigone who is the daughter and sister of Oedipus (a man, according to Tom Lehrer, with an “odd complex”) and his mother, Jocasta.  Antigone has two other brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, who go to war over the kingship of Thebes.  After Eteocles and Polynices, who are also sons of Oedipus, are killed in a battle, Creon, a brother of Jocasta, succeeds to the Theban throne.  He then ordains that Eteocles’ body be buried with full honors and that Polynices’ remains be left to rot.  Antigone resolves to disobey Creon’s order and bury Polynices, thereby setting up a classic clash between civil authority and natural law:

Nor did I think that your decrees were of such force, that a mortal could override the unwritten and unfailing statutes given us by the gods. For their life is not of today or yesterday, but for all time, and no man knows when they were first put forth. Not for fear of any man’s pride was I about to owe a penalty to the gods for breaking these.

(Sir Richard Jebb, Trans.)

What if Antigone sought your legal advice?  Rule 3-210 of the California Rules of Professional Conduct enjoins:

A member shall not advise the violation of any law, rule, or ruling of a tribunal unless the member believes in good faith that such law, rule, or ruling is invalid. A member may take appropriate steps in good faith to test the validity of any law, rule, or ruling of a tribunal.

Assuming that King Creon properly promulgated his order and that it did not offend the Theban constitution, would you advise Antigone to obey primordial natural law?