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Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons™

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Legal Profession

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

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Articles 1 - 17 of 17

Full-Text Articles in Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility

Rudolph Giuliani And The Ethics Of Bullshit, Bennett L. Gershman Jan 2019

Rudolph Giuliani And The Ethics Of Bullshit, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Lawyers are communicators. They communicate with clients, courts, adversaries, juries, witnesses, and the public. Lawyers have a special responsibility for the quality of justice. Their communications, therefore, are hedged by various ethical rules to ensure that their statements are knowledgeable, truthful, respectful, and not prejudicial to the administration of justice. But lawyers are not always knowledgeable of the facts. In fact, they sometimes behave disrespectfully, and stray from the truth. False statements by lawyers may be made unwittingly, sometimes intentionally, and sometimes with an indifference, even a contempt for the truth. Discourse of the latter kind may be characterized as …

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A Penal Colony For Bad Lawyers, Bennett L. Gershman Jan 2018

A Penal Colony For Bad Lawyers, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In this article I set out what I believe is an extreme and unconventional way to discipline egregiously bad lawyers. For starters, I think it might be useful to survey briefly the kinds of lawyering conduct currently subject to disciplinary sanctions. Regulation of the conduct of defense lawyers in the U.S. is hedged by various legal and professional rules that are enforced by courts and disciplinary bodies essentially to ensure a minimum level of competent and ethical representation. The Sixth Amendment right to counsel--the so-called “sacred” right--seeks to ensure at least a reasonable degree of lawyering skill. Also, professional codes …

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Re-Defining Pro Bono: Professional Commitment To Public Service, Gary A. Munneke Jan 2008

Re-Defining Pro Bono: Professional Commitment To Public Service, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article suggests that the current version of Rule 6.1 of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct has not achieved its objective of fostering universal public and pro bono service among lawyers, and proposes a change to the current rule that hopefully will be more successful in achieving these laudable objectives. From the earliest days of the Anglo-American legal profession, lawyers have understood public, or pro bono publico, service to be fundamental to their identity as professionals. During the last half of the 20th century, however, this evolution became a revolution, as pro bono increasingly came to be identified with …

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Legal Skills For A Transforming Profession, Gary A. Munneke Jan 2001

Legal Skills For A Transforming Profession, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The legal profession is undergoing dramatic changes that will drive a reformation in legal education. Legal educators must anticipate these changes to effectively prepare students for the practice of law in the twenty-first century. In order to be proficient practitioners, these students will require an expanded set of professional skills. Although the current legal skills paradigm was articulated by the American Bar Association MacCrate Task Force in 1991, it is time to reexamine legal skills with an eye toward preparing students to practice law in the new millennium. In Section II, this article examines trends in modern society and the …

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Deja Vu All Over Again, Gary A. Munneke Jan 2001

Deja Vu All Over Again, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Why talk about the future at all? As a professor I am a student of change. But do forecasts about the future matter to the average practitioner. My answer is a resounding YES! To understand my attitude, it's important to look at the work of the Futurist Committee of the ABA Law Practice Management Section.

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Lawyers, Accountants, And The Battle To Own Professional Services, Gary A. Munneke Jan 1999

Lawyers, Accountants, And The Battle To Own Professional Services, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Competition between lawyers and accountants is not a new concept. At various times during the past century, these two professions have clashed over the scope and definition of their respective services. Lawyers traditionally have relied upon a professional monopoly to provide “legal” services as a device to exclude nonlawyers from the practice of law. Supported by statutes in many jurisdictions making the unauthorized practice of law a criminal offense and ethics rules prohibiting lawyers from assisting in the unauthorized practice of law, lawyers have always been able to identify some inner sanctum of professional services that only they could handle. …

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A Nightmare On Main Street (Part Mxl): Freddie Joins An Accounting Firm, Gary A. Munneke Jan 1999

A Nightmare On Main Street (Part Mxl): Freddie Joins An Accounting Firm, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The subject of multidisciplinary practice (“MDP”) has intrigued me for well over a decade. The topic has led me into new areas of research, and sometimes into the cross hairs of colleagues in the legal profession. My views have not always represented the mainstream of thinking among lawyers, and that is reflected in the title of my talk today: “A Nightmare on Main Street (Part MXL): Freddie Joins an Accounting Firm.”

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The Standard Of Care In Legal Malpractice: Do The Model Rules Of Professional Conduct Define It?, Gary A. Munneke Jan 1998

The Standard Of Care In Legal Malpractice: Do The Model Rules Of Professional Conduct Define It?, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article will review existing case law and commentary, and propose a new formula for application of rules of professional conduct in determining the standard of care to which attorneys should be held in malpractice cases. The authors will argue in favor of establishing a position that state rules of professional conduct create certain specific standards of lawyer behavior that constitute a minimum standard of conduct and a minimum standard of care for every individual attorney practicing in each jurisdiction.

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Themes Of Injustice: Wrongful Convictions, Racial Prejudice, And Lawyer Incompetence, Bennett L. Gershman Jan 1993

Themes Of Injustice: Wrongful Convictions, Racial Prejudice, And Lawyer Incompetence, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The U. S. criminal justice system has undergone radical changes in the past generation. Crime is more complex; prosecutors are more powerful; and courts, corrections agencies, and defense services are burdened with larger case loads and tighter budgets. It is not the best of times to talk about justice. Yet, it is a subject that needs to be constantly addressed, particularly in times of crisis. The following essay focuses on some of the problems that present themselves in the criminal justice system today, including the conviction of innocent defendants, especially in capital cases; racial prejudice; and lawyer incompetence.

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The Adversarial System At Risk, Bennett L. Gershman Apr 1990

The Adversarial System At Risk, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The most ominous recent development affecting the balance of forces in the adversary system is the unprecedented attack by prosecutors on criminal defense lawyers themselves. Grand jury subpoenas to attorneys, law office searches, disqualification motions, fee forfeiture proceedings, and, most recently, IRS attempts to enforce currency-reporting regulations do not seem to be isolated occurrences or mere happenstance. Rather, perhaps inspired by Shakespeare's injunction in Henry VI to "kill all the lawyers," some prosecutors appear to have concluded that the most effective way to prevail in the battle against crime is to cripple the defense lawyers, particularly those who represent defendants …

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The Lawyer's Duty To Keep Clients Informed: Establishing A Standard Of Care In Professional Liability Actions, Gary A. Munneke Jan 1989

The Lawyer's Duty To Keep Clients Informed: Establishing A Standard Of Care In Professional Liability Actions, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article will explore the problem of the attorney's duty to provide clients with adequate information to make informed decisions. It will discuss situations in which such a duty is appropriate, and suggest that a cause of action for informed consent must be limited to those fact patterns where courts have established the right of the client to make the decision. The analysis rejects establishment of a broad right of the client to control all aspects of the representation. The Article will first review the history of the development of professional liability law with particular emphasis on the medical profession, …

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How Do You Decide On A Nonlegal Career?, Gary A. Munneke Jan 1985

How Do You Decide On A Nonlegal Career?, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Recent surveys have indicated that many young lawyers are dissatisfied with the direction that their careers have taken. There are always other options, and an increasingly attractive choice for many young lawyers is the nonlegal career.

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Review Of Kanter On Hiring: A Lawyer's Guide To Lawyer Hiring, Gary A. Munneke Jan 1984

Review Of Kanter On Hiring: A Lawyer's Guide To Lawyer Hiring, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Review Of Managing The Recruitment Process, Gary A. Munneke Jan 1983

Review Of Managing The Recruitment Process, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Singing Those Law Office Blues, Gary A. Munneke Jan 1981

Singing Those Law Office Blues, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

There were 2,750 young lawyers, 1.8 percent of all young attorneys in the ABA, who responded to the Career Satisfaction Survey. The preliminary survey involved in-depth interviews with 150 young lawyers. The final questionnaire was based upon these interviews. The responses were many and varied, and it was difficult to find many answers "In common. Some respondents found it necessary to elaborate on their answers by writing comments in the columns of the survey. A few of these answers are included because they were both humorous and enlightening.

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Is Your Career On Target?, Gary A. Munneke Jan 1979

Is Your Career On Target?, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The author writes about nonlegal careers for lawyers.

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If We Don't Take Care Of Young Lawyers, Who Will?, Gary A. Munneke Jan 1978

If We Don't Take Care Of Young Lawyers, Who Will?, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

There are now more than 450,000 lawyers in this country, almost double the number of 20 years ago. The American Association of Law Schools estimates that the number of law student graduates averages about 34,000 a year. And the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the Department of Labor projects that there will be 26,400 new legal jobs each year until 1985. If law school enrollments stay at their current level, that would mean about 8,000 graduates each year would not be able to find a law-related job.

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