Law Commons^™

Inadvertent Disclosure Of Documents Subject To Attorney-Client Privilege, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note evaluates these judicial approaches to inadvertent disclosure in the context of document productions. Part I briefly reviews the purposes of the attorney-client privilege and argues that any test of waiver should be based on the client's intent to maintain confidentiality. Part II examines the traditional approach to waiver and rejects the rationales which support it. Part III concludes that a test based on the sufficiency of precautions taken against disclosure, rather than a test based on the intervention of an outside force, best reflects a client's intent. Part IV examines various factors that might be included in the …

Soliciting Sophisticates: A Modest Proposal For Attorney Solicitation, Victor P. Filippini Jr.

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note advocates an amendment to the ethical standards governing attorneys that will permit the personal solicitation for pecuniary gain of sophisticated prospective clients - that is, those persons having general knowledge of their legal needs and the expertise to assess adequately the information and presentation of an attorney. Part I of this Note shows that lawyer solicitation is a form of commercial speech under recent Supreme Court decisions. It also asserts that, though the traditional reasons for banning lawyer solicitation still have some validity, these reasons do not justify prohibiting the solicitation of sophisticated clients. Part II suggests some …

The New Deal Lawyers, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The New Deal Lawyers by Peter H. Irons

Poor People's Lawyers In Transition, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Poor People's Lawyers in Transition by Jack Katz

A Book Review With An Eye To Ethics, William H. Erickson

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Best Defense by Alan M. Dershowitz

The War On Diversity, John W. Reed

Other Publications

Over the past decade or more there have been strong pressures to abolish the diversity jurisdiction of the federal courts. With the strong backing of the prestigious American Law Institute and many scholars, and with the support of the Chief Justice, Senator Kennedy, and others, specific proposals have been introduced in Congress, have been discussed at enormous length, and have passed one or the other House but not both. At the moment, therefore, we still have diversity jurisdiction, and it is safe to predict that abolition of diversity will not occur during the present session of Congress. Nevertheless, the long-term …

The Emergence Of A General Reformation Doctrine For Wills, Lawrence W. Waggoner, John H. Langbein

Law Quadrangle (formerly Law Quad Notes)

Although it has been axiomatic that our courts do not entertain suits to reform wills on the ground of mistake, appellate courts in New York, Michigan, New Jersey, and California have decided cases within the last several years that may presage the abandonment of the ancient "no-reformation" rule. (In re Snide, 52 N.Y.2d 193, 418 N.E.2d 656, 437 N.Y.S.2d 63 (1981); Estate of Kremlick, 331 N.W.2d 228 (Mich. 1983); Engle v. Siegel, 74 N.J. 287, 377 A.2d 892 (1977); and Estate of Taff, 63 Cal. App. 3d 319, 133 Cal.Rptr. 737 (1976).)

The new cases do not purport to make …

Class Of 1983 Fifteen Year Report, University Of Michigan Law School

UMLS Alumni Survey Class Reports

This report summarizes the findings of a questionnaire sent to University of Michigan Law School alumni fifteen years after graduation.

Class Of 1983 Fifteen Year Report Alumni Comments, University Of Michigan Law School

UMLS Alumni Survey Class Reports

This addendum is a compilation of alumni responses to the open-ended comments sections.

Class Of 1983 Five Year Report, University Of Michigan Law School

UMLS Alumni Survey Class Reports

This report summarizes the findings of a questionnaire sent to University of Michigan Law School alumni five years after graduation.

Class Of 1983 Five Year Report Alumni Comments, University Of Michigan Law School

UMLS Alumni Survey Class Reports

This addendum is a compilation of alumni responses to the open-ended comments sections.

The Ethics Of Argument: Plato's Gorgias And The Modern Lawyer, James Boyd White

Articles

In what follows I shall analyze Plato's text and do my best to suggest a response to it. But I should say at the outset that for the modern lawyer and law teacher this is not merely an academic exercise, for we in fact are rhetoricians very much as Plato defines them. What is at stake for us in reading this dialogue is what it means to have devoted ourselves to the set of social and intellectual practices that define the profession of law. We have a special relation to this text, for we can in the full Platonic sense …

The Invisible Discourse Of The Law: Reflections On Legal Literacy And General Education, James Boyd White

Articles

My subject today is "legal literacy," but to put it that way requires immediate clarification, for that phrase has a wide range of possible meanings with many of which we shall have nothing to do. At one end of its spectrum of significance, for example, "legal literacy" means full competence in legal discourse, both as reader and as writer. This kind of literacy is the object of a professional education, and it requires not only a period of formal schooling but years of practice as well. Indeed, as is also the case with other real languages, the ideal of perfect …

Litigation Abuse And The Law Schools, John W. Reed

Articles

At the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference in July, 1983, one session was devoted to a discussion of "Excessive Discovery: A Symptom of Litigation Abuse." (Without knowing, I would guess that a similar title appeared on just about every judicial conference program this year-and last year, and the one before that.) Frank Rothman, President of MGM/United Artists, addressed the subject from the point of view of a corporate client, and his remarks are printed in this issue, beginning at page 342. Judges and trial lawyers expressed their views. And I was asked to comment on the extent to which the law …

The Attorney-Client Privilege And The Corporate Client: Where Do We Go After Upjohn?, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Part I of this Note examines two of the more popular standards, the Seventh Circuit's "subject matter test" and the Eighth Circuit's "modified subject matter test" and concludes that neither approach is entirely consistent with the purposes of the privilege. Part II argues that the courts should adopt the Eighth Circuit's test with two further modifications. One revision is but a demand for clarification and consistency: the courts should explicitly adopt Dean Wigmore's legal advice requirement for corporate clients. The other modification is more radical: the command requirement should be eliminated. Under this approach, every employee may stand in the …