Law Commons^™

Electronic Case Filing: Is Failure To Check Email Related To An Electronically Filed Case Malpractice?, Jessica Bekskis

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

This article explores electronic case filing and the duties of lawyers with regard to electronic filing. A recent federal district court case held that an attorney’s failure affirmatively to check the status of his case via email or the court’s PACER system, which resulted in dismissal of the case, did not constitute excusable neglect under Rule 60(b)(1) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. This holding imputes a professional duty on lawyers who use the electronic filing system to check email and the status of their case, suggesting that breaching of such duty may constitute malpractice.

The Difference Between Filing Lawsuits And Selling Widgets: The Lost Understanding That Some Attorneys’ Exercise Of State Power Is Subject To Appropriate Regulation, Paul Taylor

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] "It is often argued that all attorneys practicing in the United States – regardless of the function they perform in the American justice system – are purely private actors working in a free market system. This article examines whether it is true that all attorneys in every instance should be equated, as a matter of public policy, with other private actors.

This article explores why not all attorneys function in a free market, and consequently their remuneration should not always remain unregulated. Attorneys who file lawsuits can, by simply filing a complaint at their unfettered discretion, immediately subject defendants …

Tribute To Judge Merhige, Orran L. Brown

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tribute To John Pickering, Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Michigan Law Review

John Pickering was a grand human whose life is just cause for celebration. He taught constantly, through his own work and deeds, how lawyers in private practice can contribute hugely to the public good. John's dear friend, my revered D.C. Circuit colleague, Carl McGowan, spoke of the lawyer of technical competence content to be a working mason. The best of lawyers, Judge McGowan said, serve as architects, planners, builders in law. Along with high technical competence, the best of lawyers have a deep understanding of the nature and purposes of the law, which makes them wise and reliable counselors, broad-gauged …

Tribute To John Pickering, Timothy B. Dyk

Michigan Law Review

It is very appropriate that we are here today to honor John Pickering, who, for more than five decades, was a leading member of our bar. I first met John when I joined the small firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in 1964, two years after it was founded. The three founding fathers of the firm were formidable figures, particularly to a young lawyer, and John Pickering was no exception. I do not mean that John was unkind. He was the kindest of people. But there was something particularly serious about him, and I always wondered whether that had to …

Tribute To John Pickering, Esther Lardent

Michigan Law Review

I want to talk to you about the lessons that so many of us have learned from John, and the qualities that made him so memorable and so extraordinary. The first was his unerring ability to know what was right. Now, many of us want to do right, but John always knew what the right thing was. Despite growing up in a time and place where women and people of color were not valued, where the homeless, the despised, the poor, and the disadvantaged were not considered worthy, John cared deeply about doing right by all of these people.

Tribute To John Pickering, Raymond C. Clevenger

Michigan Law Review

This is my homage to John. I ask you to summon up in your imagination today a grand circus, a sort of Cirque du Soleil of lawyers: full of shining talents performing legal feats of wonder, but presided over by a grand ringmaster. This ringmaster knows his performers very well. He knows how to train and stroke them to high achievement. He knows how to groom the younger workers. He can keep his stars in check. He knows when to sit back with a smile, letting his charges perform and claim the applause, even when the applause rightfully belongs to …

Tribute To John Pickering, Marcia Greenberger

Michigan Law Review

This room is filled with many women lawyers. All of us loved John Pickering and are in his debt, but we are only a small number of those who do. For many decades, John guided young, and I must admit not so young, women lawyers to positions where they could stand up for their own rights and the rights of others. He worked with us to champion the causes that matter most to women and their families. John used his great stature and the enormous respect that he garnered to open doors for women to leadership positions in the bar, …

Tribute To John Pickering, Elaine R. Jones

Michigan Law Review

This talented, persuasive, committed lawyer-leader, John Pickering, had several abiding personal and professional interests, two of which enhanced my life directly, and most of which enhanced my life indirectly. The first was the great personal interest he took in lawyers younger than himself, and the second was his passion about civil rights and combating the effects of racial discrimination.

Tribute To John Pickering, Noël Anketell Kramer

Michigan Law Review

I knew John Pickering from the time that I was a second-year law student- just a few years ago, it seems-when he and Sally Katzen recruited me to join what was then the small firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. We remained friends thereafter, sharing among other interests an avid loyalty to the University of Michigan.

Tribute To John Pickering, Louis F. Oberdorfer

Michigan Law Review

John left word that he did not want a lot of eulogies, so there is much I could say about him that I do not because I honor his request.

Tribute To John Pickering, John Payton

Michigan Law Review

I want to reflect on what we have heard here today, and over the course of the last several weeks, about John Pickering. We have heard simply remarkable things about a remarkable man of consequence. He was not just a remarkable person. He was more than that. He was a remarkable person who did things that actually changed everyone's lives. He mattered. We heard a lot of things today and some of them we heard for the first time. But I do not think that any of us was surprised to hear any of them about John Pickering. We just …

Tribute To John Pickering, William J. Perlstein

Michigan Law Review

One of my colleagues asked me soon after John died, "How could someone live to be eighty-nine years old and yet there is no one who had a bad word to say about him?" This is an intriguing question. It is not because John Pickering did not have strongly held views about things. Anyone who ever tangled with John in crafting a brief knew how tenacious he was. John was direct and candid and you knew where he stood on any matter. It is not because John was easygoing. When he saw something that he wanted changed, he did not …

Tribute To John Pickering, James Robertson

Michigan Law Review

John Pickering was so much involved with both the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and with the bar of this city. It would take too long to recite all of the ways in which John supported and helped our Court and the Court of Appeals, but I will note that, in every one of the ten years since I have been on this bench, John has been invited to speak at the Law Clerks Luncheon Series. That is a big deal. The law clerks …

Tribute To John Pickering, Stanley L. Temko

Michigan Law Review

John was a close friend and a professional colleague of mine for more than fifty years, and he was admired by and very close to a number of members of our firm. Everyone knows his substantial contributions as a lawyer. I will just mention a couple.

"I Didn't Know My Client Wasn't Complying!" The Heightened Obligation Lawyers Have To Ensure Clients Follow Court Orders In Litigation Matters, Mafé Rajul

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

Ensuring a client’s compliance with court orders and federal law is becoming a bigger responsibility for attorneys. This is because courts and Congress are starting to hold attorneys to higher standards with respect to their clients’ compliance with litigation duties and with federal law. This Article will address the duties Congress imposed on lawyers through the Sarbanes-Oxley Act with respect to up-the-ladder reporting and will parallel such standards with those set by the Southern District of New York court in Zubulake with respect to preserving electronic discovery in anticipation of litigation. Although the duties imposed by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and …

The Best Oral Argument I (N)Ever Made, Judith S. Kaye

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.

Incivility And Unprofessionalism On Appeal: Impugning The Integrity Of Judges, Steven Wisotsky

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.

Avoiding Missteps In The Supreme Court: A Guide To Resources For Counsel, Charles A. Rothfeld

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.

What's The Difference? Comparing The Advocacy Preferences Of State And Federal Appellate Judges, David Lewis

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.

Law's Ambition And The Reconstruction Of Role Morality In Canada, David M. Tanovich

Dalhousie Law Journal

There is a growing disconnect and alienation between lawyers and the legal profession in Canada. One cause, which is the focus ofthe article, is philosophical in nature. There appears to be a disconnect between the role lawyers want to pursue (i.e., a facilitator of justice) and the role that they perceive the profession demands they play (i.e., a hired gun). The article argues that this perception is a mistaken one. Over the last fifteen years, we have been engaged in a process of role morality reconstruction. Under this reconstructed institutional role, an ethic of client-centred zealous advocacy has slowly begun …

Private Practice, Public Profession: Convictions, Commitments, And The Availability Of Counsel, Barry Sullivan

West Virginia Law Review

I would like to start by stating a proposition that may strike you as either simple-minded or self-evident, but, more likely, will simply seem strange because of the way in which I state it. My proposition is this: In a democratic society, the legal profession, its rights and privileges, exist to serve public purposes. The legal profession serves two principal public purposes: to provide representation to those who lack the specialized training to represent themselves, that is, non-lawyers, and to promote justice in society. One might object that representing clients is not a public purpose, but that, I would suggest, …

E-Discovery—Can The Producing Party Expect Cost-Shifting?: The New Trend And What Can Be Done To Reduce Production Costs, Mafé Rajul

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

Now that computers and the Internet have radically changed the way businesses create and transmit information, questions about discovery rules in litigation continue to arise, such as which party should pay for producing electronic discovery. The courts are now considering cost shifting when the cost of production is unduly burdensome on the producing party by applying a seven-factor test. However, cost shifting is not always considered or granted, which is why it is important to have electronic documents relevant to anticipated litigation accessible in order to minimize the cost of producing electronic discovery. This Article will examine how courts are …

A Judicial Secretary's Many Roles: Working With An Appellate Judge And Clerks, Stephen L. Wasby

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.

Ethical Standards Of Japanese Lawyers: Translation Of The Ethics Codes For Six Categories Of Legal Service Providers, Kyoko Ishida

Washington International Law Journal

Today, Japanese attorneys and so-called "quasi-lawyers" (jun hōritsuka) face significant regulatory reforms to the legal services they provide. The justice system reform (shihō seido kaikaku) significantly expanded the scope of practice for quasi-lawyers in order to meet the country's growing need for legal assistance. Also, in November 2004 attorneys established new ethical standards which also apply to registered foreign business attorneys for the preparation of upcoming increase of population of attorneys. In contrast to the United States, where attorneys provide legal services almost exclusively, there are several licensed legal service providers other than attorneys (bengoshi …

Diversity: Denied, Deferred Or Preferred, Carl G. Cooper

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Who Is The Corporation's Lawyer, Ethan S. Burger

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Section 307 - The Price Of Accountability: How Will Section 307 Affect The Role Of The Corporate Attorney, Sara B. Smith

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Advocate

The Advocate

No abstract provided.

Observations On The Status And Impact Of The Judicial Confirmation Process, Edith H. Jones

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.