Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

Kentucky Law Survey: Professional Responsibility, Eugene R. Gaetke, Rebecca G. Casey

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In the face of persistent criticism of the legal profession, from within as well as without, the Kentucky Supreme Court exhibits a certain degree of ambivalence toward issues of professional responsibility. This ambivalence manifests itself in two ways.

First, the Court's treatment of different categories of professional misconduct seems at times unjustifiably inconsistent. The Court reacts to certain misconduct in an almost uniformly harsh manner, evincing the attitude of a strict disciplinarian for the practicing bar. Occasionally, however, the Court responds to various other kinds of equally gross misconduct with apparently undue leniency. In such cases the Court seems to …

Solicitation And The Uncertain Status Of The Code Of Professional Responsibility In Kentucky, Eugene R. Gaetke

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In 1969 the Kentucky Supreme Court adopted the American Bar Association's Code of Professional Responsibility as the disciplinary rules binding upon attorneys practicing in the state. The Court adopted the Code as an apparent attempt to provide the Kentucky bench and bar the certainty and guidance offered by a codification of the frequently subjective and occasionally nebulous body of law known as legal ethics. The Court used particular language in its rule adopting the Code, however, which renders uncertain the precise status of the Code in Kentucky. As a result, a conscientious practitioner in Kentucky cannot confidently look to the …

The Moral Theology Of Atticus Finch, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

Heroes are identified by the needs of those who choose them. In the case of Atticus Finch, heroism centered on his insistence in telling the truth. In this article, Thomas L. Shaffer explores the idea that this truth was (I) an expression of the person he was and of the community he sought for his children and neighbors; (II) an expression of the virtue of courage and also (and therefore) the expression of a theology; (III) a political act; and (IV) a professional act. As early as 1854, Judge Sharswood (chief justice, law dean and eminent lawyer) could draw a …

Balzacian Legality, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Journal Articles

The study of law and literature is an area of growing interest to legal scholars in the United States. Honore de Balzac incorporated in his works a panoramic view of the social reality of nineteenth century France. In this context, the fidelity of Balzac's plots and characters to their external models has been well-documented in a number of fields, including sociology, commerce, and finance. In addition to this penchant for realism, however, Balzac laced his novels with an equally evident moral content. This commitment to accuracy and morality also influenced Balzac's novelistic treatment of the law and lawyers.

Balzac's work …

The Myth Of Legal Ethics, Eric Schnapper

Articles

The moral platitudes found in the Code of Professional Responsibility have little to do with legal ethics as actually enforced.

Legal Ethics And The Government Lawyer, Eric Schnapper

Articles

All litigation presents to some degree, real though not always perceived, a conflict between each attorney's responsibility as a representative of his or her client and as an officer of the court. Winning the case and seeing that justice is done must be inconsistent goals for counsel on at least one side in a case, if not on both. However substantial this problem may be regarded, it is certainly more complex for counsel for the government. Unlike a private attorney subject to dismissal for ignoring a client's wishes, counsel for the government often has, subject to the variables of intragovernmental …

Review Of Freedman’S “Lawyers’ Ethics In An Adversary System”, Ronald D. Rotunda

Law Faculty News Articles, Editorials, and Blogs

No abstract provided.

Professional Responsibility: Education And Enforcement, Robert H. Aronson

Articles

The fallout from the Watergate scandals has had a profound effect upon the legal profession because many of the prominent offenders were attorneys. The severity of the conduct involved and the suspicion that the activities publicized represent merely the tip of the iceberg have caused the American Bar Association, state and local bar committees, and law schools to seek new ways of educating prospective lawyers with respect to their ethical duties, and to seek more effective sanctions against ethically deficient attorneys. It is ironic, however, that increased awareness and activity in the area of legal ethics should be motivated by …

False Or Suppressed Evidence: Why A Need For The Prosecutorial Tie, Ronald L. Carlson

Scholarly Works

Many United States Supreme Court decisions have overturned criminal convictions for the reason that the government employed false evidence to obtain the conviction or failed to disclose relevant evidence important to the defense. In reversing federal or state judgments, the Court often has located direct proof of wrongdoing by the prosecutor. The notorious "bloody shorts" case is an example in point.' There, the state introduced as evidence a pair of men's "blood-stained" undershorts to achieve conviction of the accused. When the blood turned out to be red paint, the Supreme Court granted habeas corpus relief to the defendant because "[it …

An Inquiry Concerning The Functions Of Procedure In Legal Education, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

Procedure has always been the bete noire of the law school teacher. No other subject has developed such divergent opinions or such endless debates. None recurs with such periodic frequency and in no field of legal pedagogy has discussion seemed so barren of results. Three different general sessions of the Association of American Law Schools during the last ten years have been devoted largely or wholly to the subject of teaching procedure, and yet no substantial progress seems to have been made toward a standardized scheme of treatment. Individual teachers and schools have their individual views and policies, and they …

An Inquiry Concerning The Functions Of Procedure In Legal Education, Edson R. Sunderland

Other Publications

Procedure has always been the bete noire of the law school teacher. No other subject has developed such divergent opinions or such endless debates. None recurs with such periodic frequency and in no field of legal pedagogy has discussion seemed so barren of results. Three different general sessions of the Association of American Law Schools during the last ten years have been devoted largely or wholly to the subject of teaching procedure, and yet no substantial progress seems to have been made toward a standardized scheme of treatment. Individual teachers and schools have their individual views and policies, and they …