Law Commons^™

Taking Strickland Claims Seriously, Stephen F. Smith

Journal Articles

Every criminal defendant is promised the right to the effective assistance of counsel. Whether at trial or first appeal of right, due process is violated when attorney negligence undermines the fairness and reliability of judicial proceedings. That, at least, is the black-letter law articulated in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 688 (1984). In practice, however, the right to effective representation has meant surprisingly little over the last two decades. Under the standards that emerged from Strickland, scores of defendants have received prison or death sentences by virtue of serious unprofessional errors committed by their attorneys.

This Essay canvasses a line …

Legal Counseling And Lawyers' Fees: A Quadrilogue, Thomas L. Shaffer, Louis M. Brown, Robert S. Redmount, Larry D. Soderquist

Journal Articles

Discusses the relationship between legal counseling and lawyers' fees. Attitudes of lawyers toward legal counseling; Area of legal counseling related to human needs and human interactions; Usefulness of counseling time.

A Lesson From Trollope For Counselors At Law, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

This article is about the process by which a person makes up his mind. In literature, the making up of a character's mind is a stage on which an author lets you know about his people and about his time. An example is Huckleberry Finn deciding whether to report Jim, his companion and a runaway slave. I propose to consider another example of a literary character making up his mind-the story of Septimus Harding and the sinecure, in The Warden, a quaint Victorian ecclesiastical tale by Anthony Trollope.

Lawyers spend hours helping their clients make up their minds. The process …

Undue Influence, Confidential Relationship, And The Psychology Of Transferenc, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

This article attempts to describe a common human relationship as it has been developed in two traditions which are today largely separated from one another. The relationship is referred to as "confidential" in the law and as "transference" in psychoanalytical psychology. Legal insight on the phenomenon is found mainly in the appellate literature on gratuitous transfers obtained by undue influence; psychological insight occurs in the practice and speculation of therapists who have discovered the phenomenon in psychotherapy. Both traditions are useful in understanding the confidential or transference factor in human interaction. The interaction itself has impact beyond the appellate cases …