Law Commons^™

Clinical Professors' Professional Responsibility: Preparing Law Students To Embrace Pro Bono, Douglas L. Colbert

Douglas L. Colbert

This article begins by examining the current crisis in the U.S. legal system where approximately three out of four low- and middle-income litigants are denied access to counsel's representation when faced with the loss of essential rights - -a home, child custody, liberty and deportation - - and where most lawyers decline to fulfill their ethical responsibility of pro bono service to those who cannot afford private counsel. The article traces the evolving ethical standards of a lawyer's professional responsibility that today views every attorney as a public citizen having a special responsibility to the quality of justice.

The author …

Broadening Scholarship: Embracing Law Reform And Justice, Douglas L. Colbert

Douglas L. Colbert

No abstract provided.

Connecting Theory And Reality: Teaching Gideon And Indigent Defendants' Non-Right To Counsel At Bail, Douglas L. Colbert

Douglas L. Colbert

In my article, I critique criminal procedure textbooks' and law professors' limited treatment of the constitutional right to counsel at the bail stage. While explaining that casebook authors usually praise the Supreme Court's landmark decisions in Gideon v. Wainwright and Argersinger v. Hamlin for guaranteeing trial counsel to indigent state defendants, I suggest that they shed minimal light on Gideon's irrelevance to most state defendants when they first appear before a judicial officer. Reviewing leading criminal procedure casebooks, I demonstrate that it is the rare text which informs law students that accused defendants should not expect to find a defense …