Monroe Freedman and Atticus Finch

As Go Set a Watchman passes one million copies in sales, the National Law Journal notes that Monroe Freedman took the position in 1992 suggesting that Atticus Finch was not quite the heroic character everyone else has made him out to be.

“If we don’t do something fast, lawyers are going to start taking him seriously as someone to emulate. And that would be a bad mistake,” Freedman wrote. “I would have more respect for Atticus Finch if he had never been compelled by the court to represent Robinson (a black defendant) but if, instead, he had undertaken voluntarily to establish the right of the black citizens of Maycomb to sit freely in their county courthouse.”

Does Scout's portrait of Atticus in Harper Lee's newly published novel vindicate Professor Freedman's view of him? What do you think?