Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall—Biased Impartiality, Appearances, And The Need For Recusal Reform, Zygmont A. Pines

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The article focuses on a troubling aspect of contemporary judicial morality.

Impartiality—and the appearance of impartiality—are the foundation of judicial decision-making, judicial morality, and the public’s trust in the rule of law. Recusal, in which a jurist voluntarily removes himself or herself from participating in a case, is a process that attempts to preserve and promote the substance and the appearance of judicial impartiality. Nevertheless, the traditional common law recusal process, prevalent in many of our state court systems, manifestly subverts basic legal and ethical norms.

Today’s recusal practice—whether rooted in unintentional hypocrisy, wishful thinking, or a pathological cognitive dissonance— …

The Legal Ethics Of The Two Kingdoms, Thomas L. Shaffer

Thomas L. Shaffer

No abstract provided.

On Living One Way In Town And Another Way At Home, Thomas L. Shaffer

Thomas L. Shaffer

No abstract provided.

The Cost Of Avoidance: Pluralism, Neutrality, And The Foundations Of Modern Legal Ethics, Melissa Mortazavi

Florida State University Law Review

This Article offers an answer to key questions in modern American legal ethics: when and why did the legal profession stop talking about professional conduct in moral terms? Mining the history of current rules governing lawyer conduct, this Article reveals that while the 1969 Model Code of Professional Responsibility sought to revolutionize legal ethics by creating a professional code that was more transparent, democratized, and less hierarchical than the preceding 1908 Canons of Legal Ethics, that effort also excised a moral understanding of lawyering in order to facilitate a particular understanding of pluralism.

The drafters of the 1969 Model Code …

Henry Knox And The Moral Theology Of Law Firms, Thomas L. Shaffer

Thomas L. Shaffer

No abstract provided.

Forming An Agenda - Ethics And Legal Ethics, Robert E. Rodes

Robert Rodes

The law profession is unique in the scope of the mandate it gives those within it to intervene in other people's affairs. As a result of this unique power of intervention, lawyers encounter a number of unique problems. This paper elucidates upon, and applies, the moral standards and intuitions to be used in approaching these problems. It argues that we should form our consciences in dialogue with our clients and that once they are formed we must follow them and limit our representation accordingly. If lawyer and client cannot agree on an agenda with which both are comfortable, the lawyer …

Christian Service In The Practice Of Law, Kenneth W. Starr

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Misplaced Fidelity, David Luban

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper is a review essay of W. Bradley Wendel's Lawyers and Fidelity to Law, part of a symposium on Wendel's book. Parts I and II aim to situate Wendel's book within the literature on philosophical or theoretical legal ethics. I focus on two points: Wendel's argument that legal ethics should be examined through the lens of political theory rather than moral philosophy, and his emphasis on the role law plays in setting terms of social coexistence in the midst of moral pluralism. Both of these themes lead him to reject viewing legal ethics as an instance of "the …

Defending Against The Defenders Why I Can Be A Good Prosecutor And A Good Person, Sarah Montana Hart

Sarah Montana Hart

This article discusses the choice to become a prosecutor, specifically in light of the critics of the profession from writers like Paul Butler and Abbe Smith.

From Archetypes To Architects: Re-Envisioning The Role Morality Of Trial Level Judges, Richard Devlin Frsc

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In this article, I build upon the concepts of role-differentiated behaviour and role morality to reflect upon the privileges and responsibilities of being a trial judge. In particular, I will suggest there are at least two (potentially competing) professional archetypes for judicial role morality, which at this point I will tentatively describe as the mechanics and the innovators. Both of these archetypes agree that the governing principles should be integrity, honesty, independence, impartiality, fairness, et cetera, but they differ in their understanding of how best to put these ideals into effect in the real world. In due course, I will …

What Oaths Meant To The Framers’ Generation: A Preliminary Sketch, Steve Sheppard

Steve Sheppard

To the Framers’ generation, oaths of office were understood as commitments, both public and personal, which stemmed from a source of morality. Recent discussions have raised concerns over whether or not the closing phrase in many oaths of office, “so help me God,” demonstrates a possible preference by the Framers for religious leaders and commitments to God. Oaths are not only an acceptance of an office itself, but also the acceptance of the office’s obligations. While oaths state an office’s obligations generally, the obligations include all that could be reasonably inferred from the nature of the office, including the use …

The Inevitability Of Conscience: A Response To My Critics, David Luban

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay by Professor David Luban is written in response to critics of his book, Legal Ethics and Human Dignity.

In part I Professor Luban addresses the primacy that he assigns conscience over the professional role and focuses mainly on the arguments of his critics, Professors Norman Spaulding and W. Bradley Wendel. Part II explores the challenge of pluralism, replying primarily to Professors Katherine Kruse, Spaulding, and Wendel. Part III, in response to Professors Kruse and William Simon, elaborates on the concept of human dignity. Part IV discusses institutions and ethics, focusing on Professors Susan Carle and Simon. The …

Forming An Agenda - Ethics And Legal Ethics, Robert E. Rodes

Journal Articles

The law profession is unique in the scope of the mandate it gives those within it to intervene in other people's affairs. As a result of this unique power of intervention, lawyers encounter a number of unique problems. This paper elucidates upon, and applies, the moral standards and intuitions to be used in approaching these problems. It argues that we should form our consciences in dialogue with our clients and that once they are formed we must follow them and limit our representation accordingly. If lawyer and client cannot agree on an agenda with which both are comfortable, the lawyer …

Professing Professionals: Christian Pilots On The River Of Law, Daniel O. Conkle

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

On Living One Way In Town And Another Way At Home, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

The title of this Lecture is from Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird. The occasion for the proposition is when the smalltown southern gentleman-lawyer Atticus Finch is given an opportunity to lie to protect his son from harm. He refuses. He says that the most important thing he has for his son is not protection but integrity. He says, "I can't live one way in town and another way in my home. "

The separation of town from home is an old one in the history of lawyers in America. When you trace the nineteenth-century development of legal ethics, …

Values, Pierre Schlag

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Legal Ethics Of The Two Kingdoms, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

The question I propose to address while I am with you is this: Is there a special morality for professional life? In terms of convention and argot, the answer to that question would appear to be: Yes, there is a separate morality for the professional lives of lawyers and judges. We do not follow the same morals in public and professional life as we follow in personal life.

Henry Knox And The Moral Theology Of Law Firms, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

One of the reasons we modern American lawyers find the "golden age" of our 19th century forebears attractive is that it was morally unambiguous. It seems to have been an age of giants who were consistent. The "republican" lawyers who wrote our first statements on legal ethics were moral theologians as well as leaders—and they found no difficulty in being both. David Hoffman, who attracted as much applause from the conservative Calvinists at Princeton Theological Seminary as he attracted from the bench and bar, drew no distinction between the morals he practiced at home and the morals he practiced in …