Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

Dol Fiduciary Rule 3.0 Strikeout, Base Knock, Or Home Run?, Antolin Reiber

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Money Is Morphing - Cryptocurrency Can Morph To Be An Environmentally And Financially Sustainable Alternative To Traditional Banking, Clovia Hamilton

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Survey Evidence In Trademark Actions, Ioana Vasiu And Lucian Vasiu

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Corporate Governance And Compelled Speech: Do State-Imposed Board Diversity Mandates Violate Free Speech?, Salar Ghahramani

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Real Persons Are The Corporations We Made Along The Way, Leonard Brahin

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Is The Use Of Artificial Intelligence In Alternative Dispute Resolution A Viable Option Or Wishful Thinking?, Samuel D. Hodge Jr.

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article delves into the evolving relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and the legal profession, particularly in the context of alternative dispute resolution (ADR). The introduction sets the stage by highlighting AI's transformative potential in reshaping legal practice through automation, efficiency, and data-driven insights. While acknowledging the uncertainty surrounding AI's long-term impact on the legal landscape, it emphasizes the need for investigation and adaptation as the technology evolves. Key considerations, such as AI technology's limitations, regulatory challenges, and ethical implications, are also addressed. Despite the promises of efficiency and accessibility, questions remain about AI's ability to replicate human reasoning and …

Purpose, Practical Wisdom, And The Formation Of Trustworthy Lawyers, Kenneth Townsend

Mercer Law Review

Lawyers have a “special responsibility for the quality of justice” in our nation and are expected to “further the public’s understanding of and confidence in the rule of law and the justice system” since “legal institutions in a constitutional democracy depend on popular participation and support to maintain their authority.” Upholding these and other commitments enables the profession to promote the “public interest,” according to the Preamble to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct.

Foreword: Symposium On Current Issues In Professional Identity Formation, Patrick Longan

Mercer Law Review

On March 8, 2024, the Mercer Center for Legal Ethics and Professionalism, in partnership with the Mercer Law Review, held the 24th Annual Georgia Symposium on Ethics and Professionalism. These symposia rotate among Mercer University School of Law, Georgia State University College of Law, Emory University School of Law, and the University of Georgia School of Law. Funding for the symposia comes from endowments created by the settlement of claims of litigation misconduct against the DuPont Corporation and its counsel in litigation in the 1990s. The initiative for the structure of the settlement came from the late Judge Hugh Lawson …

Reflections On Purpose And Professional Identity Formation, Harmony Decosimo

Mercer Law Review

I am very grateful to Professor Daisy Floyd for starting this important conversation about the role of purpose in professional identity formation, and for inviting me to participate in it. As I know my co-panelists agree, this is an important conversation not simply to us as lawyers, but as humans, trying to help each other figure out how to live good, meaningful lives.

I think what might be most useful in my response to Professor Floyd is to turn at least initially from the theoretical to the personal and practical by offering some insight into my own experience with purpose …

What About Us? How Law Schools Can Help Historically Underrepresented Law Students Develop Their Professional Identities, David A. Grenardo

Mercer Law Review

Talking about race, gender, and sexual orientation can be painful, messy, and difficult. This country’s history of discrimination and violence against historically underrepresented, marginalized, excluded individuals—racial and ethnic minorities, women, LGBTQIA+, those living with disabilities, the socioeconomically disadvantaged/lower class—makes these topics fraught with controversy and risk. We can easily offend someone accidentally when we try to address these topics even with the best of intentions. For example, some people may get nervous trying to figure out whether to use the words African-American, Black, BIPOC, person of color, or all of the above when discussing these topics and referring to someone …

The Rule Of Law, The Lawyer’S Role As A Public Citizen, And Professional Identity: How Fostering The Development Of Professional Identity Can Help Law Schools Address The Crisis Facing American Democracy, Kendall Kerew

Mercer Law Review

American democracy is in crisis. The January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol must serve as a renewed wake-up call for the legal profession. We can no longer keep our heads down, focused solely or even primarily on serving our clients, without being mindful that what we do every day as lawyers starts and ends with our duty to uphold the rule of law and our system of justice. We must acknowledge that lawyers are the ones who have put democracy at risk. Lawyers are the ones who, in their role as zealous advocates, attempted to overturn the 2020 …

Putting The Lawyer First: Framing Well-Being In Law As An Ethical Dilemma, Aric Short

Mercer Law Review

A disturbingly high percentage of our students continue to be unwell. In the most recent and comprehensive survey of law student well-being in 2021, almost 70% of law students responded that, in the past twelve months, they believed they needed to seek help for emotional or mental health problems. Embedded screening tools in the survey suggested that 34% of respondents were clinically depressed and 54% suffered from clinical anxiety. 44% of respondents reported being drunk in the past thirty days, 33% had engaged in binge drinking in the preceding two weeks, and 38% had smoked marijuana in the past twelve …

Draining Chicago’S Food Swamps: Legal Approaches, Sofia Fernandez

DePaul Journal of Health Care Law

Public health is a collective responsibility of society to improve the health and wellbeing of communities, focusing on preventing disease and promoting health as opposed to providing medical care for those already ill.1 The law consists of rules issued and enforced by government entities “through which populations organize their governments, regulate social and economic interactions, and guide behavior.”2 Public health law exists at the intersection of these two fields, comprising “the legal powers and duties of the state to identify, prevent, and ameliorate risks to the health of populations, as well as the study of legal structures that have a …

Generative Artificial Intelligence And The Practice Of Law: Impact, Opportunities, And Risks, John Villasenor

Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology

No abstract provided.

Practicing Law In The Age Of Ai - Practice Guide: How To Integrate Ai And Emerging Technology Into Your Practice And Comply With Model Rule 3.1, Kevin Frazier

Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology

No abstract provided.

Generative Ai, Plagiarism, And Copyright Infringement In Legal Documents, Amy B. Cyphert

Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology

No abstract provided.

Beyond “Hard” Skills: Teaching Outward- And Inward-Facing Character-Based Skills To 1ls In Light Of Aba Standard 303(B)(3)’S Professional Identity Requirement, Marni Goldstein Caputo, Kathleen Luz

Brooklyn Law Review

Newly adopted American Bar Association Standard 303(b)(3) requires law schools to provide “substantial opportunities to students for . . . the development of professional identity” throughout their three-year legal education. For 1Ls, the ideal place to start this process is in their lawyering skills classrooms, which is our domain at Boston University School of Law. Professional identity exploration necessarily requires students to look inward and outward to reflect upon their own role in the legal system and how they interact with others. In our classrooms, we divide what have been referred to as “soft” skills into two distinct categories—outward-facing and …

“A Tale Of National Disgrace”: Applying The Doctrine Of Unconscionability To Establish The Impermissibility Of Secret Non-Prosecution Agreements, Denna Fraley

Journal of Law and Policy

Crime victims are directly harmed by crime and therefore have a stake in, and should be treated as individual participants in the criminal justice process. In recognition of this, Congress passed the Crime Victims’ Rights Act (“CVRA”) in 2004 to enumerate specific rights afforded to crime victims, including the rights to confer with the prosecutor in the case, to be heard at public court proceedings involving a plea or sentencing, to be informed in a timely manner of a plea bargain or deferred prosecution agreement, and to be treated with fairness and respect. Whether the CVRA extends these rights to …

The Word Is "Humility": Why The Supreme Court Needed To Adopt A Code Of Judicial Ethics, Laurie L. Levenson

Pepperdine Law Review

The Supreme Court is one of our most precious institutions. However, for the last few years, American confidence in the Court has dropped to a new low. Less than 40% of Americans have confidence in the Court and its decisions. Recent revelations regarding luxury trips, gifts, and exclusive access for certain individuals to the Justices have raised questions about whether the Justices understand their basic ethical duties and can act in a fair and impartial manner. As commentators have noted, the Supreme Court stood as the only court in America that was not governed by an ethical code. The question …

Burden Of The Bargain: Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel Claims In The Absence Of A Plea Offer, Sriram H. Ramesh

Fordham Law Review

The modern criminal justice system in the United States is a “system of pleas.” Plea bargains have largely supplanted trials as the primary method of resolving criminal proceedings in this country. Acknowledging their prevalence, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel extends to the plea-bargaining process. Thus, defendants may bring ineffective assistance of counsel (IAC) claims for alleged ineffectiveness during the plea-bargaining phase.

In two companion cases, Missouri v. Frye and Lafler v. Cooper, the Court held that its two-pronged test for IAC, laid out in Strickland v. Washington, …

Toward An Ethical Human-Computer Division Of Labor In Law Practice, Abdi Aidid

Fordham Law Review

In this Essay, I explain that responsible and ethical use of AI in law practice requires reconceptualizing the lawyer’s professional relationship to technology. The current commercial-industrial relationship is based on a stylized model of technology as mechanical application, not calibrated to emergent AI-enabled technologies. Put differently, lawyers cannot interact with AI-enabled technologies the way that they traditionally interact with, say, word processors. For AI-enabled technologies, I explain that a “division of labor” framework is more fruitful; like horizontal professional relationships between peers or vertical ones in professional hierarchies, lawyers ought to interact with sophisticated technologies through arrangements that optimize for …

The Legal Imitation Game: Generative Ai’S Incompatibility With Clinical Legal Education, Jake Karr, Jason Schultz

Fordham Law Review

In this Essay, we briefly describe key aspects of [generative artificial intelligence] that are particularly relevant to, and raise particular risks for, its potential use by lawyers and law students. We then identify three foundational goals of clinical legal education that provide useful frameworks for evaluating technological tools like GenAI: (1) practice readiness, (2) justice readiness, and (3) client-centered lawyering. First is “practice readiness,” which is about ensuring that students have the baseline abilities, knowledge, and skills to practice law upon graduation. Second is “justice readiness,” a concept proposed by Professor Jane Aiken, which is about teaching law students to …

Foreword, Deborah W. Denno, Erica Valencia-Graham

Fordham Law Review

This Foreword overviews an unprecedented Symposium on these wide ranging topics titled The New AI: The Legal and Ethical Implications of ChatGPT and Other Emerging Technologies. Hosted by the Fordham Law Review and cosponsored by Fordham University School of Law’s Neuroscience and Law Center on November 3, 2023, the Symposium brought together attorneys, judges, professors, and scientists to explore the opportunities and risks presented by AI, especially GenAI like ChatGPT. The discussion raised complex questions concerning AI sentience and personal privacy, as well as the future of legal ethics, education, and employment. Although the AI industry uniformly predicts ever more …

Of Another Mind: Ai And The Attachment Of Human Ethical Obligations, Katherine B. Forrest

Fordham Law Review

We are entering a new world. A world in which we humans will be confronted with our intellectual limitations as we watch the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) that we have created meet and exceed our capabilities. I have a few predictions about this—based first on how technology changes occur, with a layer of how human nature reacts to those changes.

My first prediction is that we may not initially recognize AI’s actual capabilities. We will find ways of describing what AI can do as somehow mimicry—the advances of a stochastic parrot, perhaps; we will not want to recognize our …

Foreword: The Legal Profession And Social Change, Atinuke O. Adediran, Bruce A. Green

Fordham Law Review

Fordham University School of Law’s Stein Center for Law and Ethics has collaborated with the Fordham Law Review every year since the late 1990s to encourage, collect, and publish scholarly writings on different aspects of the legal profession, including its norms, regulation, organization, history, and development—that is, on themes relating to what law schools loosely call “legal ethics.” The legal profession is an important subject of study for legal scholars, among others. Although one U.S. Supreme Court Justice, himself a former law professor, airily derided legal ethics as the “least analytically rigorous . . . of law-school subjects,” we dispute …

Boden Lecture: Of Chameleons And Esg, Ann M. Lipton

Marquette Law Review

Ever since the rise of the great corporations in the late nineteenth and early

twentieth centuries, commenters have debated whether firms should be run

solely to benefit investors, or whether instead they should be run to benefit

society as a whole. Both sides have claimed their preferred policies are

necessary to maintain a capitalist system of private enterprise distinct from

state institutions. What we can learn from the current iteration of the debate—

now rebranded as “environmental, social, governance” or “ESG” investing—

is that efforts to disentangle corporate governance from the regulatory state

are futile; governmental regulation has an inevitable …

Should State Trial Courts Become Laboratories Of Upl Reform?, Bruce A. Green

Fordham Law Review

There is a growing “access to justice” movement that is principally driven by lawyers and judges. It has multiple objectives. One such objective is to make state court proceedings fairer, more reliable, and more accessible. This is important because state courts have a significant impact on peoples’ lives. They are where family members lose custody of children, where property owners obtain permission to evict tenants, where creditors are empowered to repossess people’s cars or garnish their wages, and (in some jurisdictions) where judges send people to jail to compel them to pay judgments or fees that they cannot afford to …

Regulating The Public Defender Identity, Irene Oritseweyinmi Joe

Fordham Law Review

The public defender institution has trouble meeting its mission. This is partly because, despite the specific and clear purpose of representing indigent defendants in criminal proceedings, public defender offices rely on various centering principles to meet this objective. The institution falters if it chooses a centering principle that unwittingly complicates its ability to meet the institution’s central mission. For public defender leaders tasked with developing and maintaining an institutional identity for a particular office, neither legal nor professional regulations supply the type of considerations that guarantee that an adopted identity will comply with core institutional responsibilities. This project seeks to …

Duties Regarding Duties, Ronald J. Colombo

Marquette Law Review

Corporate directors are subject to the fiduciary duties of care and loyalty

in the discharge of their responsibilities. The demands of these duties, from

their precise contours to their application under a particular set of

circumstances, is oftentimes far from obvious.

In order to properly fulfill their duties of care and loyalty, corporate

directors necessarily depend upon corporate counsel: specialized attorneys,

whether in-house or external to the corporation, retained to advise and

represent the corporation. As attorneys, corporate counsel are themselves

subject to a wide array of professional responsibilities, ranging from the

exhortations of codes of ethics to duties the …