Digital Commons Network^™

Character And Context: What Virtue Theory Can Teach Us About A Prosecutor's Ethical Duty To Seek Justice, R. Michael Cassidy

Notre Dame Law Review

No abstract provided.

Protecting Consumers: Attorney Ethics And The Law Governing Lawyers, Christopher M. Fairman

Christopher M Fairman

No abstract provided.

Institutional Professionalism For Lawyers: Realizing The Virtues Of Civic Professionalism, Steven K. Berenson

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Genetic Predictions Of Future Dangerousness: Is There A Blueprint For Violence?, Erica Beecher-Monas, Edgar Garcia-Rill

Law and Contemporary Problems

Beecher-Monas and Garcia-Rill consider the unfortunate probability that behavioral genetics evidence will be misused to substantiate predictions of future dangerousness.

Institutional And Individual Justification In Legal Ethics: The Problem Of Client Selection, W. Bradley Wendel

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Institutional And Individual Justification In Legal Ethics: The Problem Of Client Selection, W. Bradley Wendel

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Monroe Freedman is well known as a proponent of the "standard conception" of legal ethics - that is, that a lawyer cannot be criticized in moral terms for actions taken in a representative capacity. Surprisingly, however, Freedman has argued that client selection is a decision for which a lawyer may be required to provide a justification in ordinary moral terms. This apparent inconsistency reveals a conceptual distinction in normative ethical theory, which is often blurred, between justifying a practice (in this case, the legal system or some specialized practice such as criminal defense) and justifying an action falling within the …

What's Wrong With Being Creative And Aggressive?, W. Bradley Wendel

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

When I tell people that I am a law professor specializing in legal ethics, they usually have one of two reactions: “Legal ethics—that’s an oxymoron!” or “I bet you always have a lot to do.” The second reaction is the more interesting of the two, because it rightly implies that legal ethics is a fascinating field, in part because lawyers are always thinking of new ways to get into trouble. Many run-of-the-mill lawyer disciplinary cases involve simple wrongdoing, such as stealing from client funds, which does not present conceptually interesting issues. Contemporary high-profile legal ethics scandals, by contrast, are made …

Attorney-Client Privilege In The Public Sector: A Survey Of Government Attorneys, Nancy Leong

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Power As A Factor In Lawyers' Ethical Deliberation, Susan D. Carle

Hofstra Law Review

A fundamental disagreement among legal ethics scholars concerns the difference between client-centered and justice-centered approaches to lawyers' ethical obligations. Advocates of client-centered approaches put lawyers' duty to the client first. Justice-centered theorists critique the elevation of the client's interests over other important concerns lawyers affect through the work they do on behalf of clients. Scholars who adopt justice-centered approaches argue that lawyers' ethical obligations should be analyzed with a paramount focus on achieving justice.

Legal ethicists often view these two approaches as inconsistent with each other, but I argue in this Article that they are not necessarily so. Building on …

What Would Make Atticus Finch Flinch?, Robert Westley

Florida A & M University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Building A Better Lawyer Discipline System: The Queensland Experience, Leslie Levin

Leslie C. Levin

In many jurisdictions, lawyer-run discipline systems are inefficient, overly lenient and insufficiently responsive to consumer's concerns. Queensland's Legal Profession Act 2004 (Qld) breaks away from that model by moving lawyer discipline out of lawyers' professional associations and into an independent agency. It articulates a decidedly consumer-oriented approach to lawyer discipline and gives Queensland's new Legal Services Commissioner the power to investigate and prosecute all discipline complaints. This article looks at Queensland's recent reforms, and considers how well the new system is meeting its twin goals of consumer protection and traditional lawyer discipline. Using interviews and other data, the article identifies …

The Audit Committee's Ethical And Legal Responsibilities: The State Law Perspective, Lyman P.Q. Johnson

Scholarly Articles

This paper provides a state law perspective on the post-scandal, post-reform audit committee. Federal law, along with NYSE and Nasdaq (together, "SRO") rules, recently have made sweeping changes in corporate governance, including numerous provisions that bear on audit committees. These changes are unprecedented and dramatic, and rightly have received wide attention and careful study. Certain basic principles underlying the governance functions and duties of audit committees, however, originate in, and are still determined by, state law. Moreover, state law applies to all corporations; federal law and SRO rules on audit committees apply only to those companies coming under federal law …

Counseling Organizational Clients"Within The Bounds Of The Law", Roger C. Cramton

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Creating Space For Lawyers To Be Ethical: Driving Towards An Ethic Of Transparency, Burnele V. Powell

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lawyers' Ethics In An Adversary System - Foreword: Like Gravity, Roy D. Simon

Hofstra Law Review

The adversary system, like gravity, affects us all. We cannot escape it. The adversary system, and the ethical standards of the lawyers who operate within the adversary system, therefore warrant continual study. ...

This issue collects nearly all of the papers delivered at the conference. Of equal interest, each paper is followed by a transcript of the fascinating exchanges that occurred between the speaker and members of the audience during a lengthy question and answer session after each speech.

The Ethics Of Invalid And 'Iffy' Contract Clauses, In Symposium: Contracting Out Of The Uniform Commercial Code, Christina L. Kunz

Faculty Scholarship

This Symposium focuses on the extent to which attorneys can use agreed terms to supplant or “bump” the provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). The articles in this Symposium demonstrate that the degree to which attorneys customarily “contract out” varies considerably from UCC article to article. In reality, though, the issues surrounding contracting out of UCC provisions are not limited to the UCC, statutes, or other codified rules. Most “repeat players” in the market periodically ask their lawyers to redraft their standard-form contracts in ways that increasingly favor the drafter. Some of these lawyers may intentionally draft clauses that …

The Legal Profession As A Blue State: Reflections On Public Philosophy, Jurisprudence, And Legal Ethics, Russell G. Pearce

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

After Confidentiality: Rethinking The Professional Responsibilities Of The Business Lawyer, William H. Simon

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lawyers, Citizens, And The Internal Point Of View, W. Bradley Wendel

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

The "Bad Man" Goes To Washington: The Effect Of Political Influence On Corporate Duty, Jill E. Fisch

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Triage Trilemma, Steven Lubet

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legal Ethics And The Constitution, Alan Dershowitz

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Monroe Freedman's Solution To The Criminal Defense Lawyer's Trilemma Is Wrong As A Matter Of Policy And Constitutional Law, Stephen Gillers

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Secret Evidence Is Slowly Eroding The Adversary System: Cipa And Fisa In The Courts, Ellen Yaroshefsky

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Do Bar Association Ethics Committees Serve The Public Or The Profession? An Argument For Process Change, Hon. David G. Trager

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Zeal Shortage, Anita Bernstein

Hofstra Law Review

Although the duty of zealous advocacy enjoys nominal approval in most state bar rules and the secondary literature, today the majority of writings about zeal in the practice of law present zeal in a negative light. Critics use this word to object to lawyers' dishonesty, hyperpartisanship, aggressive or confrontational work styles, rudeness, and disregard for the interests of adversaries, the courts, and the public. This article, part of a Hofstra University symposium, builds on the literature that praises zealous advocacy (much of it written by symposium honoree Monroe Freedman) to identify a shortage of zeal in American legal practice and …

Henry Lord Brougham And Zeal, Monroe H. Freedman

Hofstra Law Review

In a recent article, Professors Fred Zacharias and Bruce Green undertook to "reconceptualize" advocacy ethics. In the course of that article, they rejected the ethic of zeal, and stated erroneously that Henry Lord Brougham had himself repudiated his famous statement on zealous advocacy.

Inspired by Brougham almost two centuries ago, the "traditional aspiration" of zealous advocacy remains "the fundamental principle of the law of lawyering" and "the dominant standard of lawyerly excellence" among lawyers today. To paraphrase the ABA's 1908 Canons of Professional Ethics, the ethic of zeal requires that the lawyer give entire devotion to the interests of the …

The Fall Of Legal Ethics And The Rise Of Risk Management, Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Corporate Lawyer And 'The Perjury Trilemma', Thomas D. Morgan

Hofstra Law Review

This paper extends Monroe Freedman's idea of the criminal lawyer's "perjury trilemma" to current issues faced by corporate lawyers dealing with perceived pressures on the attorney-client privilege. The duties of criminal defense and corporate lawyers are more similar than they often seem. Corporate lawyers' duties of honesty in dealing with third parties are closely analogous to criminal lawyers' duties of honesty in dealing with a court. Both sets of lawyers also have an important interest in fostering open communications with their clients. Where their situations differ is not with respect to lawyer obligations but with respect to their clients' rights. …

Tortured Legal Ethics: The Role Of The Government Advisor In The War On Terror, Jessica Radack

University of Colorado Law Review

The so-called "torture memos" beg for a re-examination of government lawyers' ethical obligations, especially when acting as advisors, not advocates. This article explores the two major models of government lawyers' ethics: the "agency" approach, which stresses the duties of loyalty, zeal and confidentiality and disfavors attorney interference with client goals, and the "public interest" approach, which places greater weight on fairness and justice, and wants lawyers to weigh in on the wisdom and morality of what their clients are considering. This article argues that an Eighth Amendment analysis should be employed to determine what constitutes a "morally perilous question. " …