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Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons™
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Full-Text Articles in Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility
Lawyers As Caregivers, Paula Schaefer
Lawyers As Caregivers, Paula Schaefer
St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics
This Article argues that clients—much like patients in a healthcare setting—need their lawyers to be caregivers. The Article opens by developing a definition of caregiving in medicine and law. It then turns to five key components of caregiving in medicine, explaining the substantial research that this care is crucial for patient satisfaction, trust, and healing. Medical educators have drawn on this research to better prepare medical professionals to be excellent caregivers. The Article then explores the evidence that an attorney’s clients have the same needs and suffer similar harm when attorneys fail to meet these needs. Next, the Article turns …
Patients, Corporate Attorneys, And Moral Obligations, Ioan-Radu Motoarcă
Patients, Corporate Attorneys, And Moral Obligations, Ioan-Radu Motoarcă
St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics
There are two main questions that any account of corporate lawyers’ moral obligations needs to answer: (1) Do corporate lawyers have moral obligations to third parties? and (2) In cases of conflict between obligations to the corporation and obligations to third parties, which should prevail? This Article offers answers to these questions in the context of lawyers working in medical corporations. I argue that lawyers do have moral obligations to third parties, and that in cases where patients’ rights are being violated by a medical company, patients’ rights should prevail. Consequently, attorney–client confidentiality rules should be relaxed to allow for …