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Ending Illegitimate Advocacy: Reinvigorating Rule 11 Through Enhancement Of The Ethical Duty To Report, Lonnie T. Brown, Jr.

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This article seeks to draw attention to certain ethical misconduct of litigators that is routinely accepted, tolerated, or ignored by the legal profession. Though there are other examples, the author focuses on conduct prohibited by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11. In particular, the author concentrates on that rule's so-called “safe harbor” provision, which he argues serves to insulate, and possibly encourage, illegitimate advocacy in the form of the assertion and maintenance of frivolous claims, defenses, or other contentions ironically, the very conduct that the rule was ostensibly intended to deter. Regardless of the frequency of this sort of misbehavior, …