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Foreword: Legal Malpractice Is No Longer The Profession's Dirty Little Secret, Susan Saab Fortney Dec 2015

Foreword: Legal Malpractice Is No Longer The Profession's Dirty Little Secret, Susan Saab Fortney

Faculty Scholarship

In 1994, Professor Manuel R. Ramos published a law review article called, Legal Malpractice: The Profession's Dirty Little Secret. As suggested by the title, Professor Ramos argued that legal malpractice was a "taboo subject" that has been "ignored by the legal profession, law schools, mandatory continuing legal education ("CLE") programs, and even by scholarly and lay publications." Thirty years later, legal malpractice is an ever-present threat that lawyers cannot afford to ignore.


Financial Rewards For Whistleblowing Lawyers, Nancy J. Moore, Kathleen Clark Nov 2015

Financial Rewards For Whistleblowing Lawyers, Nancy J. Moore, Kathleen Clark

Faculty Scholarship

The federal government relies increasingly on whistleblowers to ferret out fraud, and has awarded whistleblowers over $4 billion under the False Claims Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform and Consumer Protection Act. May lawyers ethically seek whistleblower rewards under these federal statutes? A handful of lawyers have tried to do so as FCA qui tam relators. They have not yet succeeded, but several court decisions suggest that they might be able to do so under confidentiality exceptions to state ethics law, which several courts have held are not preempted by the FCA. No lawyer has been publicly identified as …


Informed Decision Making On Abortion: Crisis Pregnancy Centers, Clinics, And The First Amendment, Aziza Ahmed Apr 2015

Informed Decision Making On Abortion: Crisis Pregnancy Centers, Clinics, And The First Amendment, Aziza Ahmed

Faculty Scholarship

Shifting laws and regulations increasingly displace the centrality of women's health concerns in the provision of abortion services. This is exemplified by the growing presence of deceptive Crisis Pregnancy Centers alongside new informed consent laws designed to dissuade women from seeking abortions. Litigation on informed consent is further complicated in the clinical context due to the increased mobilization of facts - such as the gestational age or sonogram of the fetus - delivered with the intent to dissuade women from accessing abortion. In other words, factual information utilized for ideological purpose. To preserve a woman's autonomy and decision-making capacity, there …


Virtuous Billing, Randy D. Gordon, Nancy B. Rapoport Mar 2015

Virtuous Billing, Randy D. Gordon, Nancy B. Rapoport

Faculty Scholarship

Aristotle tells us, in his Nicomachean Ethics, that we become ethical by building good habits and we become unethical by building bad habits: “excellence of character results from habit, whence it has acquired its name (êthikê) by a slight modification of the word ethos (habit).” Excellence of character comes from following the right habits. Thinking of ethics as habit-forming may sound unusual to the modern mind, but not to Aristotle or the medieval thinkers who grew up in his long shadow. “Habit” in Greek is “ethos,” from which we get our modern word, “ethical.” In Latin, habits are moralis, which …


Preventing Legal Malpractice And Disciplinary Complaints: Ethics Audits As A Risk-Management Tool, Susan Saab Fortney Mar 2015

Preventing Legal Malpractice And Disciplinary Complaints: Ethics Audits As A Risk-Management Tool, Susan Saab Fortney

Faculty Scholarship

This column examines the value of firm lawyers conducting and supporting ethics audits as an integral feature of a comprehensive risk-management program. For decades, legal malpractice experts have urged lawyers to implement systems, policies, and procedures related to the delivery of legal services. Once a firm adopts systems, policies, and procedures, a meaningful risk-management system requires a periodic examination to monitor lawyers’ compliance. Rather than waiting for a professional liability insurer to recommend or require such a systematic examination, proactive firm leaders and lawyers should seriously consider devoting time and resources to periodic ethics audits.


The Lutheran Lawyer: Some Reflections On The Ethics Contributions Of Susan Martyn, Marie Failinger Jan 2015

The Lutheran Lawyer: Some Reflections On The Ethics Contributions Of Susan Martyn, Marie Failinger

Faculty Scholarship

Recently, Professor Susan Martyn, who is honored in this tribute issue, contributed to a forthcoming volume on Lutheran theological views of secular law of which I am co-editor. Ever the professional, Professor Martyn expressed initial uncertainty about her ability to make a contribution to this volume without more theological expertise. Not to worry, Professor Martyn's prodigious work ethic and creative lawyering produced an insightful chapter entitled, "Can Luther Help Modem Lawyers Understand Fiduciary Duty?" As it turns out, she argued, Martin Luther can help modem lawyers because he understood the ancient roots of fiduciary law that lie at the foundation …


The Codification Of Professionalism: Can You Sanction Lawyers Into Being Nice?, Debra M. Curtis Jan 2015

The Codification Of Professionalism: Can You Sanction Lawyers Into Being Nice?, Debra M. Curtis

Faculty Scholarship

On October 31, 2013, the Florida Supreme Court in The Florida Bar v. Norkin made it clear that "it wants the trend of escalating incivility among lawyers to stop." With that decision, in which a lawyer was suspended and publicly reprimanded for his behavior, the court urged that "[m]embers of The Florida Bar, law professors, and law students should study" this case "as a glaring example of unprofessional behavior." This article heeds the court's directive to do so, but also places it in the context of the movement to enhance professionalism statewide.


Class Counsel As Litigation Funders, Morris A. Ratner Jan 2015

Class Counsel As Litigation Funders, Morris A. Ratner

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


The Rise And Fall Of Bad Judge: Lady Justice Is No Tramp, Taylor Simpson-Wood Jan 2015

The Rise And Fall Of Bad Judge: Lady Justice Is No Tramp, Taylor Simpson-Wood

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Promoting Public Protection Through An “Attorney Integrity” System: Lessons From The Australian Experience With Proactive Regulation Of Lawyers, Susan Saab Fortney Jan 2015

Promoting Public Protection Through An “Attorney Integrity” System: Lessons From The Australian Experience With Proactive Regulation Of Lawyers, Susan Saab Fortney

Faculty Scholarship

This essay uses the Australian proactive approach to regulating attorneys as a springboard to discussing the role of proactive regulation of lawyers in advancing public protection. The essay provides information on the genesis and implementation of “proactive management-based regulation, the system in Australia. The essay reviews key research findings from empirical studies on the impact of the new system on complaints registered against lawyers and the conduct of lawyers in firms. The essay suggests possibilities for using management-based principles to improve lawyer regulation and conduct in the United States and other jurisdictions. The author concludes with a challenge for regulators …


When The Lawyer Screws Up: A Portrait Of Legal Malpractice Claims And Their Resolution, Herbert M. Kritzer, Neil Vidmar Jan 2015

When The Lawyer Screws Up: A Portrait Of Legal Malpractice Claims And Their Resolution, Herbert M. Kritzer, Neil Vidmar

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


High Court Pretense, Lower Court Candor: Judicial Impartiality After Capterton V. Massey Coal Co., Lynne H. Rambo Jan 2015

High Court Pretense, Lower Court Candor: Judicial Impartiality After Capterton V. Massey Coal Co., Lynne H. Rambo

Faculty Scholarship

Apolitical, impartial judging has always been our judicial ideal. In the last twenty years, however, special interest groups have sought power over (and through) judges by pouring millions into judicial elections, and the Court has recognized their first amendment right to do so. In the midst of this politicization of judicial elections, the Court five years ago reinforced the impartiality ideal, holding very broadly in Caperton v. Massey Coal Co. that it violates due process for a judge to sit whenever there is a “probability of bias,” i.e., whenever the average judge is unlikely to be neutral. Caperton involved a …


Monroe Freedman: Servant Leader, Bridge Builder, Susan Saab Fortney Jan 2015

Monroe Freedman: Servant Leader, Bridge Builder, Susan Saab Fortney

Faculty Scholarship

Without question, Monroe was dedicated to serving others, wholeheartedly committed to helping clients and community members achieve their potential. As many have attested, Monroe epitomized the servant leader who freely gives time and support to others. I hope that the many people whom Monroe touched will continue to be sustained by Monroe’s ethic of service.


Setting Your Compass: Some Thoughts From A (Former) Djag, Charles J. Dunlap Jr. Jan 2015

Setting Your Compass: Some Thoughts From A (Former) Djag, Charles J. Dunlap Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Arbitrator Bias, William W. Park Jan 2015

Arbitrator Bias, William W. Park

Faculty Scholarship

Seeking to bring arbitration into disrepute, an evil gremlin might contemplate two starkly different routes. One route would tolerate appointment of pernicious arbitrators, biased and unable to judge independently. An alternate route to shipwreck, also reducing confidence in the integrity of the arbitral process, would establish unrealistic ethical standards that render the arbitrator’s position precarious and susceptible to destabilisation by litigants engaged in dilatory tactics or seeking to annul unfavourable awards. To reduce the risk of having cases decided by either pernicious or precarious arbitrators, those who establish and apply ethical guidelines walk a tightrope between the rival poles of …