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Full-Text Articles in Law
Drawing The Ethical Line: Controversial Cases, Zealous Advocacy, And The Public Good: Foreword, Lonnie T. Brown
Drawing The Ethical Line: Controversial Cases, Zealous Advocacy, And The Public Good: Foreword, Lonnie T. Brown
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Are lawyers handling controversial matters justified in being myopically fixated upon achieving their client's or the state's objectives, whatever the costs? Or is there a point at which the interests of the system or perhaps even the public must take precedence, requiring that unbridled zeal and loyalty take a backseat? Such fascinating questions were skillfully examined during the 10th Annual Legal Ethics and Professionalism Symposium, "Drawing the Ethical Line: Controversial Cases, Zealous Advocacy, and the Public Good." The published remarks and the articles that follow provide a glimpse into the difficult ethical line-drawing that was engaged in by a distinguished …
Crime Doesn't Pay And Neither Do Conflicts Of Interest In Land Use Decisionmaking, Patricia E. Salkin
Crime Doesn't Pay And Neither Do Conflicts Of Interest In Land Use Decisionmaking, Patricia E. Salkin
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Conflicts of interest, bias, and appearance of impropriety continue to plague players in the land use game whose conduct, as public sector officials, must be beyond reproach. This article provides an annual review of reported cases and opinions involving allegations of unethical conduct in land use decision making. Conflicts of interest cases focus on attorneys, and address issues including of counsel relationships, disqualification and fees. Conflicts based upon financial interests for board members are explored, as well as unique relationships that may arise when colleges and universities seek approvals. Criminal aspects of decision maker conduct are also reported. Appearance of …
"Lawyers" Not "Liars": A Modified Traditionalist Approach To Teaching Legal Ethics, Lonnie T. Brown
"Lawyers" Not "Liars": A Modified Traditionalist Approach To Teaching Legal Ethics, Lonnie T. Brown
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As attorneys, we undeniably should be faithful confidantes to, and staunch allies for, our clients, but we must also never lose sight of the fact that we are not simply client representatives; we are concurrently officers of the court and keepers of the public trust. Though I strive diligently to make my students aware of the specific ethical duties owed to clients, I always stress even more intently the importance of these latter two components of their professional obligation. They are what set the practice of law apart from other occupations, and they are what should serve to inspire us …
The Curious Incident Of The Law Firm That Did Nothing In The Night-Time, Nancy B. Rapoport
The Curious Incident Of The Law Firm That Did Nothing In The Night-Time, Nancy B. Rapoport
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This essay argues that organizations (here, the Milbank, Tweed law firm) often ignore obviously bad behavior by their employees because of various psychological and sociological factors that prevent them from recognizing the behavior as bad in the first place.
The Relationship Between Defense Counsel, Policyholders, And Insurers: Nevada Rides Yellow Cab Toward "Two-Client" Model Of Tripartite Relationship. Are Cumis Counsel And Malpractice Claims By Insurers Next?, Jeffrey W. Stempel
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It happens constantly in civil litigation. An insurance company hires a lawyer to defend its policyholder from a third party’s claim of injury. But just who is the lawyer’s “client?” Is it the policyholder who is the named defendant in the case and is “represented” in court proceedings? Or is it the insurer who, in most cases, selected the attorney, pays the attorney, supervises the litigation, and has (by the terms of the liability insurance policy) the right to settle the case, even over the objections of the policyholder? Ordinarily, the liability insurer has both the duty to defend a …
Lawyer Professional Responsibility In Litigation, Jeffrey W. Stempel
Lawyer Professional Responsibility In Litigation, Jeffrey W. Stempel
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A perennially-vexing litigation issue concerns the limits of permissible attorney argument. More than a few lawyers have been tripped up by the occasional fuzziness of the line between aggressive advocacy and improper appeals to passion or prejudice. See Craig Lee Montz, Why Lawyers Continue to Cross the Line in Closing Argument: An Examination of Federal and State Cases, 28 Ohio N.U. L. Rev. 67 (2001-2002)(problem of violations results from lack of uniformity and clarity of ground rules as well as errors of counsel). In Cohen v. Lioce, 149 P.3d 916 (Nev. 2006) the Nevada Supreme Court both provided significant guidance …
Eliminating Political Maneuvering: A Light In The Tunnel For The Government Attorney-Client Privilege, Patricia E. Salkin, Allyson Phillips
Eliminating Political Maneuvering: A Light In The Tunnel For The Government Attorney-Client Privilege, Patricia E. Salkin, Allyson Phillips
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The long recognized common-law privilege afforded to certain conversations between attorneys and their clients has been the subject of troubling opinions when the lawyer and client are high ranking government officials. In a series of opinions from the 7th, 8th and D.C. Circuit Courts of Appeals, the courts refused to recognize the existence of the attorney-client privilege for the government actors under the circumstances surrounding the cases. However, recent opinions from the 2nd Circuit state that these other courts were simply wrong, setting the stage perhaps, for the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve the issue. Whether this privilege is equally …
A Look At American Legal Practice Through A Perspective Of Jewish Law, Ethics, And Tradition: A Conceptual Overview, Samuel J. Levine
A Look At American Legal Practice Through A Perspective Of Jewish Law, Ethics, And Tradition: A Conceptual Overview, Samuel J. Levine
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Levine examines the roles of legislative and judicial bodies, in the context of a discussion of broader principles of legislation in the Jewish legal system. In recent years, American legal scholars have increasingly looked to Jewish law as a model of an alternative legal system that considers many of the issues present in the American legal system. In relation to the roles of legislative and judicial bodies, the Jewish legal system provides a particularly illuminating contrast to the American legal system, in part because in Jewish law, the same authority, the Sanhedrin, or High Court, serves in both a legislative …
Bankruptcy Ethics Issues For Solos And Small Firms, Nancy B. Rapoport
Bankruptcy Ethics Issues For Solos And Small Firms, Nancy B. Rapoport
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This chapter, in Corinne Cooper & Catherine E. Vance's book Attorney Liability in Bankruptcy, walks the reader through some of the traditional ethics issues triggered by representing consumers and small businesses. It also addresses some of the ethics issues that the recent Bankruptcy Amendments (BAPCPA) have created.
Watch Out For Whistleblowers, Leslie C. Griffin
Smart Ethics: Ethical Considerations In Promoting Smart Growth Principles, Patricia E. Salkin
Smart Ethics: Ethical Considerations In Promoting Smart Growth Principles, Patricia E. Salkin
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No abstract provided.
Popular Culture As A Lens On Legal Professionalism, Alex Scherr, Hillary Farber
Popular Culture As A Lens On Legal Professionalism, Alex Scherr, Hillary Farber
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Why use art to teach lawyering?' Despite divergences in method and intention, the two disciplines overlap. If the prevalence of lawyers in movies, television, literature, and even humor means anything, popular culture remains fascinated with lawyers. Our practices, our ethics, and our professional personae serve as a mine for image and narrative, a target for cultural critique, and a catalyst for expression. Not surprisingly, images of lawyers in cartoons, film, television, and literature offer unique opportunities to teach and explore professionalism. The proliferation of lawyer images in popular culture provides an array of material ranging from career choice to particular …
Lawyers Should Be Lawyers, But What Does That Mean?: A Response To Aiken & Wizner And Smith, Katherine R. Kruse
Lawyers Should Be Lawyers, But What Does That Mean?: A Response To Aiken & Wizner And Smith, Katherine R. Kruse
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Lawyers should be more like social workers. That is the message of Law as Social Work, the provocative essay by Jane Aiken and Stephen Wizner (Aiken & Wizner) in the Washington University Journal of Law & Policy volume, which preceded the conference on Promoting Justice Through Interdisciplinary Teaching, Practice, and Scholarship, hosted by Washington University School of Law in March 2003. Almost as if in reply, Abbe Smith's contribution to the same pre-conference volume reasserts the importance of lawyers as zealous and partisan advocates, using the realities of the criminal defense context to argue for the value of the lawyer's …
Taking Prosecutorial Ethics Seriously: A Consideration Of The Prosecutor's Ethical Obligation To Seek Justice In A Comparative Analytical Framework, Samuel J. Levine
Taking Prosecutorial Ethics Seriously: A Consideration Of The Prosecutor's Ethical Obligation To Seek Justice In A Comparative Analytical Framework, Samuel J. Levine
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This article examines the complex nature of the prosecutor's broad obligation to seek justice through a consideration of the similarly broad directive in Jewish law requiring that "in all [of] your ways acknowledge [God]." While many have critiqued the broad directives governing a prosecutor's ethical duties, through this comparative analytical framework it can be seen that the prosecutor's broad ethical directive to seek justice serves as a workable and appropriate standard for prosecutorial ethics. In many ways, a prosecutor faces an ethical obligation unlike other attorneys. Ethical obligations require that a prosecutor forgo conduct that would increase the likelihood of …
Racial Discrimination In Jury Selection: Professional Misconduct, Not Legitimate Advocacy, Lonnie T. Brown, Jr.
Racial Discrimination In Jury Selection: Professional Misconduct, Not Legitimate Advocacy, Lonnie T. Brown, Jr.
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This Article examines the paradox between the adversary and disciplinary systems' outward condemnation of discrimination in jury selection and their apparent simultaneous inward acceptance of such conduct as legitimate advocacy.
Professionalism Without Parochialism: Julius Henry Cohen, Rabbi Nachman Of Breslov, And The Stories Of Two Sons, Samuel J. Levine
Professionalism Without Parochialism: Julius Henry Cohen, Rabbi Nachman Of Breslov, And The Stories Of Two Sons, Samuel J. Levine
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Professor Levine addresses the question of whether the practice of law a business or a profession and looks at sources where practitioners might draw inspiration for ethical behaviors. He examines two works: a 1916 book by Julius Henry Cohen - The Law: Business or Profession?; and a tale by Chasidic master Rabbi Nachman of Breslov. Both works tell the story of two sons from two different fathers with different ethical natures that manifest in their different choices of and approaches to their careers. Professor Levine uses these two parables to suggest that a more inclusive question than those posed above: …
Taking Ethics Codes Seriously: Broad Ethics Provisions And Unenumerated Ethical Obligations In A Comparative Hermeneutic Framework, Samuel J. Levine
Taking Ethics Codes Seriously: Broad Ethics Provisions And Unenumerated Ethical Obligations In A Comparative Hermeneutic Framework, Samuel J. Levine
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Ethics scholars have documented the increasingly legislative form of twentieth-century ethics regulations, culminating in the enactment and widespread adoption of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Nevertheless, pointing to the presence of broad ethics provisions, a number of leading scholars have questioned the extent to which ethics codes can accurately be conceptualized as a form of legislation. Responding to these critiques, Levine aims to take seriously both the legislative form of ethics codes and their interpretation. Toward that aim, he looks to interpretive methodologies employed in American constitutional law and Jewish law to provide both descriptive and normative models for …
Judging Ethics For Administrative Law Judges: Adoption Of A Uniform Code Of Judicial Conduct For The Administrative Judiciary, Patricia E. Salkin
Judging Ethics For Administrative Law Judges: Adoption Of A Uniform Code Of Judicial Conduct For The Administrative Judiciary, Patricia E. Salkin
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No abstract provided.
The Intractable Problem Of Bankruptcy Ethics: Square Peg, Round Hole, Nancy B. Rapoport
The Intractable Problem Of Bankruptcy Ethics: Square Peg, Round Hole, Nancy B. Rapoport
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This article continues my earlier research on conflicts of interest in bankruptcy cases, particularly in chapter 11 cases. It suggests that conflicts in interest in chapter 11 bankruptcy cases should not be handled the same way that conflicts are handled under state ethics rules, and it proposes a new section of the Bankruptcy Code to cover conflicts of interest in cases filed under chapter 11.
Ending Illegitimate Advocacy: Reinvigorating Rule 11 Through Enhancement Of The Ethical Duty To Report, Lonnie T. Brown, Jr.
Ending Illegitimate Advocacy: Reinvigorating Rule 11 Through Enhancement Of The Ethical Duty To Report, Lonnie T. Brown, Jr.
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This article seeks to draw attention to certain ethical misconduct of litigators that is routinely accepted, tolerated, or ignored by the legal profession. Though there are other examples, the author focuses on conduct prohibited by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11. In particular, the author concentrates on that rule's so-called “safe harbor” provision, which he argues serves to insulate, and possibly encourage, illegitimate advocacy in the form of the assertion and maintenance of frivolous claims, defenses, or other contentions ironically, the very conduct that the rule was ostensibly intended to deter. Regardless of the frequency of this sort of misbehavior, …
The Prudent Prosecutor, Leslie C. Griffin
Litigating Ethics Issues In Land Use: 2000 Trends And Decisions, Patricia E. Salkin
Litigating Ethics Issues In Land Use: 2000 Trends And Decisions, Patricia E. Salkin
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No abstract provided.
Dressed For Excess: How Hollywood Affects The Professional Behavior Of Lawyers, Nancy B. Rapoport
Dressed For Excess: How Hollywood Affects The Professional Behavior Of Lawyers, Nancy B. Rapoport
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This article discusses two related points: first, that the way in which movies portray lawyers shapes how clients view effective/ineffective lawyer behavior, and second, that the portrayal also helps lawyers to forget appropriate professional behavior.
Municipal Ethics Remain A Hot Topic In Litigation: A 1999 Survey Of Issues In Ethics For Municipal Lawyers, Patricia E. Salkin
Municipal Ethics Remain A Hot Topic In Litigation: A 1999 Survey Of Issues In Ethics For Municipal Lawyers, Patricia E. Salkin
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No abstract provided.
Limited Representation: Helping Clients While Protecting Yourself, Mary E. Berkheiser
Limited Representation: Helping Clients While Protecting Yourself, Mary E. Berkheiser
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The lawyer-client relationship is defined by what the client retains the lawyer to do, and that retention may be as general or specific as the lawyer and client desire. The Nevada Supreme Court has recognized that even with regard to “a particular transaction or dispute, an attorney may be specifically employed in a limited capacity.” This freedom to contract for broader or narrower representation benefits both lawyers and clients. No lawyer can be a true generalist anymore, and most clients cannot afford the full range of representation that the legal profession offers on a single matter.
Moral Bankruptcy: Modeling Appropriate Attorney Behavior In Bankruptcy Cases, Nancy B. Rapoport
Moral Bankruptcy: Modeling Appropriate Attorney Behavior In Bankruptcy Cases, Nancy B. Rapoport
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This essay discusses how important it is for lawyers, especially senior lawyers, to model appropriate behavior so that the newest lawyers learn how best to behave professionally.
1998 Survey Of Ethics In Land-Use Planning, Patricia E. Salkin
1998 Survey Of Ethics In Land-Use Planning, Patricia E. Salkin
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No abstract provided.
Our House, Our Rules: The Need For A Uniform Code Of Bankruptcy Ethics, Nancy B. Rapoport
Our House, Our Rules: The Need For A Uniform Code Of Bankruptcy Ethics, Nancy B. Rapoport
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This article argues that there should be a separate code of professional responsibility for lawyers in bankruptcy cases.
The Need For New Bankruptcy Ethics Rules: How Can "One Size Fits All" Fit Anybody?, Nancy B. Rapoport
The Need For New Bankruptcy Ethics Rules: How Can "One Size Fits All" Fit Anybody?, Nancy B. Rapoport
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Short discussion why dormant, temporary, actual conflicts (DTACs) in bankruptcy cases can't be handled appropriately under state ethics rules.
Legal Services Lawyers And The Influence Of Third Parties On The Lawyer-Client Relationship: Some Thoughts From Scholars, Practitioners, And Courts, Samuel J. Levine
Legal Services Lawyers And The Influence Of Third Parties On The Lawyer-Client Relationship: Some Thoughts From Scholars, Practitioners, And Courts, Samuel J. Levine
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Among the challenges facing the lawyer who renders legal services to clients with limited means are ethical and professional questions relating to the influence of third parties on the lawyer-client relationship. Although all lawyers may potentially face ethical dilemmas involving third parties, legal services lawyers are particularly vulnerable to such issues because, unlike most lawyers, legal services lawyers generally rely on the financial support of someone other than their client. These challenges may take many forms, affecting a variety of ethical and professional considerations. Levine examines a number of areas in which bar association committees, scholars, and courts have addressed …