Law Commons^™

End Matter

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Improving State Capital Counsel Systems Through Use Of The Aba Guidelines, Robin M. Maher

Hofstra Law Review

The article discusses the reported efforts to improve state capital punishment counsel systems through the use of the American Bar Association's (ABA's) "Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases" which have apparently been adopted by every active death penalty jurisdiction in the U.S. as of March 2014. America's criminal justice system and ineffective assistance of counsel claims in the U.S. are mentioned, along with various state supreme courts.

The Aba Guidelines And The Norms Of Capital Defense Representation, Russell Stetler, W. Bradley Wendel

Hofstra Law Review

Courts interpreting effective representation should look at authoritative statements of what counsel ought to do (such as the ABA Guidelines), rather than what may be customary among practitioners whose clients frequently end up on death row. Most cases avoid death sentences, and the standards are established by practitioners who represent capital clients successfully.

Professional Discipline Of Death Penalty Lawyers And Judges, Monroe H. Freedman

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Title Iii Of The Jobs Act: Using Unsophisticated Wealth To Crowdfund Small Business Capital Of Fraudsters' Bank Accounts?, Benjamin P. Seigel

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Motivation Matters: Guidelines 10.13 And Other Mechanisms For Preventing Lawyers From Surrendering To Self-Interest In Responding To Allegations Of Ineffective Assistance In Death Penalty Cases, Tigran W. Eldred

Hofstra Law Review

Defense lawyers whose clients are sentenced to death are virtually guaranteed to be accused of ineffective assistance of counsel. The question is how they will respond. On one hand, lawyers alleged to be ineffective are obligated under Guideline 10.13 of the American Bar Association’s Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases to continue to safeguard the interests of their former clients, a duty that includes full cooperation in appropriate legal strategies chosen to pursue the ineffectiveness claim. On the other hand, lawyers who are accused of ineffectiveness often react defensively to the allegation, reflexively …

Overlooked Guidelines: Using The Guidelines To Address The Defense Need For Time And Money, Meredith Martin Rountree, Robert C. Owen

Hofstra Law Review

In 2003, Professor Eric M. Freedman, Reporter for the revised ABA Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases, observed that one of the ABA Guidelines’ central virtues was to recognize that the death penalty is expensive. Fairness in the application of the ultimate punishment requires governments to develop systems to allocate essential resources, like compensation for counsel and funds for experts and investigators. Ten years later, this Article revisits Professor Freedman’s observation by exploring the question of resources and urging counsel to increase their use of the ABA Guidelines in fighting for the irreducible …

Foreword: Systematically Thinking About Law Firm Ethics: Conference On The Ethical Infrastructure And Culture Of Law Firms, Susan Saab Fortney

Hofstra Law Review

In 1991 Professor Ted Schneyer wrote a seminal article calling for discipline of law firms. In that article, he used the term “ethical infrastructure” to refer to a law firm’s organization, policies, and operating procedures that cut across particular lawyers and tasks. In questioning how lawyer regulation focuses on the conduct of individual lawyers, he described the dynamics of practice and how various ethical breaches stem from organizational concerns that relate to lawyering in groups. Increasingly, legislators and regulators, as well as bar and firm leaders, have recognized the role of ethical infrastructure and culture in influencing lawyer conduct. Scholars, …

We The People Or We The Legislature? The Stock Act's Compromise Between Politically-Motivated Accountability And Keeping Congress Above The Law, Danielle A. Austin

Hofstra Law Review

The article discusses the U.S. Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 (STOCK Act) and the efforts to curb insider trading by members of the U.S. Congress as of September 2013, focusing on the STOCK Act's reported compromise between politically-motivated accountability and a push to end congressional corruption in America. The relationship between the U.S. securities industry (Wall Street) and the nation's Congress is examined, along with federal legislation and penalties.

The Development Of China's Death Penalty Representation Guidelines: A Learning Model Based On The Aba Guidelines For The Appointment And Performance Of Defense Counsel In Death Penalty Cases, Jie Yang

Hofstra Law Review

The article discusses the development of death penalty legal representation guidelines in China based on the American Bar Association's "Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases" as of 2014. According to the article, law professors, legal advocates, and defense attorneys in China collaborated on the creation of a code for lawyers who represent defendants in death penalty cases. China’s Supreme People’s Court and defendants' rights are examined.

Deconstructing Antisocial Personality Disorder And Psychopathy: A Guidelines-Based Approach To Prejudicial Psychiatric Labels, Kathleen Wayland, Sean D. O'Brien

Hofstra Law Review

Prejudicial psychiatric labels such as antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy have an inherently prejudicial effect on courts and juries, particularly in cases involving the death penalty. This article explains how and why these labels are inherently aggravating, and also discusses the mental health literature indicating that they are subjective, unreliable and non-scientific. The authors conclude that no competent defense lawyer would pursue a mitigation case based on such a damaging and scientifically questionable psychiatric label. Further, a proper life history investigation conducted in accordance with the ABA Guidelines on the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases …

Tax Credits For Tattletales: Legislating To Catch Craigslist Criminals, Michal Ovadia

Hofstra Law Review

The article focuses on the use of tax credits as an incentive to combat the sexual exploitation of children on the Internet in the U.S. in 2013. Topics include the online sex industry in the U.S., the U.S. laws governing interactive computer services (ICSs), and the U.S. Communications Decency Act (CDA) of 1996.

The Case For Proactive Management-Based Regulation To Improve Professional Self-Regulation For U.S. Lawyers, Ted Schneyer

Hofstra Law Review

The article discusses the American Bar Association's (ABA's) Standing Committee on Professional Discipline and its review of the ABA's Model Rules for Lawyer Disciplinary Enforcement, focusing on proactive management-based regulation as a means of improving professional self-regulation for U.S. lawyers as of 2013. Other topics include attorney misconduct claims by clients, law firm management, and the roles of solicitors in assessing a law firm's ethical infrastructure in New South Wales.

The Continuing Duty Then And Now, David M. Siegel

Hofstra Law Review

The “new” recognition in the American Bar Association’s 2003 Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases of a continuing duty on the part of defense counsel to safeguard the interests of former clients by facilitating the work of successor counsel was essential to implementing post-conviction review of the effectiveness of their representation – but it was not unprecedented. Over a century before lawyers, often in capital cases, had been discharging just such a continuing duty to former clients and the article traces these historical antecedents. Making the duty in ABA Guideline 10.13 real, however, …

Ethical Decisionmaking And The Design Of Rules Of Ethics, John S. Dzienkowski

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Forgotten Amendment And Voter Identification: How The New Wave Of Voter Identification Laws Violates The Twenty-Fourth Amendment, Brendan F. Friedman

Hofstra Law Review

The article discusses various state voter identification laws in America as of 2013, focusing on the U.S. Congress' passage of the nation's Help America Vote Act and the claim that the state voter identification laws violate the Twenty-Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (USC). The U.S. Voting Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the USC are mentioned. It states that courts have upheld certain identification laws which imposed merely incidental costs.

Asocial Media: Cops, Gangs, And The Internet, James R. O'Connor

Hofstra Law Review

Criminal street gangs are not a new phenomenon in America, but recent developments in technology and social interactions have changed the game -- gangs are increasingly using social media to accomplish gang objectives and commit crimes. This is no secret to law enforcement. In fact, police departments and prosecutors regularly use the Internet and social media networks to obtain incriminating evidence against gang members -- evidence that is often ruled admissible in court. Although the majority of the information seized in these investigations is highly personal and profoundly private, the details of the government’s specific data-collection and data-storage practices remain …

Front Matter

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Introduction: The Tenth Anniversary Of The Aba Capital Defense Guidelines: The Road Traveled And The Road To Be Traveled Part One, Eric M. Freedman

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Enforcing The Aba Guidelines In Capital State Post-Conviction Proceedings After Martinez And Pinholster, Eric M. Freedman

Hofstra Law Review

This piece, published in Part 1 of Hofstra Law Review’s symposium marking the tenth anniversary of the ABA’s Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases, considers the converging pressures now impelling the states to provide the effective assistance of counsel in state capital post-conviction proceedings. On the one hand, Martinez v. Ryan, 132 S. Ct. 1309 (2012) - a case that will likely be expanded to a number of additional procedural and substantive contexts - warns the states that if they fail to provide such counsel, their capital convictions will be subject to searching …

Applying The Revised Aba Model Rules In The Age Of The Internet: The Problem Of Metadata, Ronald D. Rotunda

Hofstra Law Review

When lawyers receive a document — whether hard copy or an electronic document — that they know the adversary sent them inadvertently (for example, a fax or email mistakenly sent to an adversary lawyer instead of to co-counsel), the black letter rule in Rule 4.4 requires the lawyer to notify the other side. However, this Rule does not require the receiving lawyer to return the document unread. Whether the receiving lawyer can use that document depends, in essence, on the law of evidence. If the court decides that the document lost its privileged status (perhaps because the sending lawyer acted …

Sudden Death: A Federal Trial Judge's Reflections On The Aba Guidelines For The Appointment And Performance Of Defense Counsel In Death Penalty Cases, Mark W. Bennett

Hofstra Law Review

An experienced federal district judged discuss the role of the ABA Guidelines for the Appointment Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases. This includes his personal experiences from two lengthy federal death penalty trials where both defendants received the death penalty. The Guidelines were even more crucial in a 18 trial day, 28 U.S.C. 2255 proceeding, where the judge granted an new penalty phase re-trial based, in part, on significant ineffective assistance of counsel for many violations of the Guidelines and the 6th Amendment. It is a sad narrative of what can go wrong when the Guidelines are not …

Front Matter

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Nested Ethics: A Tale Of Two Cultures, Milton C. Regan, Jr.

Hofstra Law Review

This article suggests that a law firm that desiring to promote ethical behavior by its lawyers needs to complement efforts to establish an “ethical infrastructure” and an “ethical culture” with attention to its broader organizational culture. Specifically, research indicates that the perception that an organization treats its members fairly–their sense of organizational justice--is an important factor in prompting members’ ethical behavior.

Many law firms in the last two or three decades have devoted attention to establishing what has been called an “ethical infrastructure” that reflects appreciation of the importance of organizational policies and procedures in encouraging ethical behavior. Such measures …

Freedom From Food: On The Need To Restore Fdr's Vision Of Economic Rights In America, And How It Can Be Done, Evgeny Krasnov

Hofstra Law Review

Within the U.S. policy discourse, it has long been taken for granted that the body of human rights law does not — and should not — include economic rights, which include the right to adequate food, shelter, and health care. This is an irony of history, since the origins of modern-day economic rights law lie in the policies advocated by the U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

This article argues that (1) the common justifications for neglecting economic rights are not sound; (2) there is a pressing need to recognize economic rights in the United States; and (3) the best way …

The Relational Infrastructure Of Law Firm Culture And Regulation: The Exaggerated Death Of Big Law, Russell G. Pearce, Eli Wald

Hofstra Law Review

The Article debunks the highly publicized claim, within the academy and the legal profession, that the demise of Big Law is imminent. Critics have argued that large law firms face a near perfect storm that imperils their future. They argue that increasing sophistication and influence of in-house legal departments, and the exponential leap in legal technology, undermine large law firms’ claims to expertise, market power, and profitability. At the same time, they argue, the internal weakness of large firms makes them less likely to perform the very tasks essential to sustaining large law firms' reputational capital because the traditional partnership …

Ensuring Effective Counsel For Parents: Extending Padilla To Termination Of Parental Rights Proceedings, Sarah Freeman

Hofstra Law Review

The increase in the number of incarcerated women, combined with the severe effects of ASFA's 15/22 rule, has dramatically increased the risk that a incarcerated mother face a termination of her parental rights. Currently, existing ethical and statutory protections have been insufficient to protect these parents’ rights to their children. However, after Padilla v. Kentucky, it is likely that there is a Sixth Amendment obligation on criminal defense attorneys to advise their clients about the effect of the criminal process on a TPR proceeding. This advice should not be limited to a mere suggestion that clients seek legal advice from …

Why Do Europeans Ban Hate Speech? A Debate Between Karl Loewenstein And Robert Post, Robert A. Khan

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

At War With The Robots: Autonomous Weapon Systems And The Martens Clause, Tyler D. Evans

Hofstra Law Review

This Note examines arguments for preemptively prohibiting the development and use of autonomous weapon systems under the Martens Clause. This Note identifies the Martens Clause as a tenuous but discernible threat to such systems under the Law of Armed Conflict because the Clause's "dictates of the public conscience," interpreted broadly, could provide the grounds upon which to prohibit autonomous weapon systems before such systems even exist -- unlike the more traditional pillars of the Law of Armed Conflict, such as distinction and proportionality, which would require, at the very least, an analysis of the weapon systems' use and effects to …

Law Firm Malpractice Disclosure: Illustrations And Guidelines, Anthony V. Alfieri

Hofstra Law Review

Lawyers err every day, in hard and easy cases, in trials and transactions, and in large and small firms. By turns commonplace and noteworthy, the errors fall in both the private shadow and the public light of for-profit, nonprofit, and government practice. The literature of lawyer and, by extension, law firm error spans common law doctrines, state ethics rules and opinions, federal rules, practitioner treatises, restatements, and academic casebooks and commentaries. Despite the breadth of this literature, the intertwined problems of lawyer or law firm error and client malpractice disclosure remain unresolved and surprisingly underappreciated.

Against the backdrop of widening …