Legal Profession Commons^™

The Aba Guidelines And The Norms Of Capital Defense Representation, Russell Stetler, W. Bradley Wendel

W. Bradley Wendel

The ABA Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases (“Guidelines”), as revised in 2003, continue to stand as the single most authoritative summary of the prevailing professional norms in the realm of capital defense practice. Hundreds of court opinions have cited the Guidelines. They have been particularly useful in helping courts to assess the investigation and presentation of mitigating evidence in death penalty cases. This Article will discuss how these Guidelines have come to reflect prevailing professional norms in this critical area of capital defense practice and how that practice has developed in the …

Re-Examining Hearsay Under The Federal Rules: Some Method For The Madness, Paul S. Milich

Paul Milich

No abstract provided.

Tell Us A Story, But Don't Make It A Good One: Resolving The Confusion Regarding Emotional Stories And Federal Rule Of Evidence 403, Cathren Page

Cathren Page

Abstract: Tell Us a Story, But Don’t Make It A Good One: Resolving the Confusion Regarding Emotional Stories and Federal Rule of Evidence 403 by Cathren Koehlert-Page Courts need to reword their opinions regarding Rule 403 to address the tension between the advice to tell an emotionally evocative story at trial and the notion that evidence can be excluded if it is too emotional. In the murder mystery Mystic River, Dave Boyle is kidnapped in the beginning. The audience feels empathy for Dave who as an adult becomes one of the main suspects in the murder of his friend Jimmy’s …

Panelist, Can Law Schools Prepare Students To Be Practice Ready?, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

No abstract provided.

Strategic Austerity: How Some Law School Affordability Initiatives Could Actually Improve Learning Outcomes, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

The legal profession is facing profound and perhaps irreversible changes. Whether you view these striking demographics as a “crisis” likely depends on the location of your perch. If you are a tenured professor at a T14 law school or a senior partner at an NLJ 250 firm, you may view the trends we have been discussing today as cyclical corrections. If you are an unemployed graduate looking for work or an untenured professor at a lower-tier school that is struggling to stay afloat, you may be more likely to view these trends as permanent and paradigm shifting.

While applications to …

Integrating Professional And Personal Values, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

No abstract provided.

Beyond Practical Skills: Nine Steps For Improving Legal Education Now, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

It has been five years since the Carnegie Report “Educating Lawyers” called upon law schools to adopt an integrated approach to professional education that teaches practical skills and professionalism across the curriculum. Yet so far, very few schools have responded to this clarion call for wholesale curricular reform. Considering the inertial effect of traditional law school pedagogy and the institutional impediments to change, this delay is not surprising. A fully integrated approach to teaching professional skills (such as the medical school model) would require major resource reallocations, realignment of teaching responsibilities, redesign of courses, and a change to graduation requirements. …

The Proscription Of Incorporated Law Practices (Ilps) In Nigeria: The Legal And Constitutional Issues Arising, Abdullahi Saliu Ishola

Abdullahi Saliu Ishola

This paper critically examines the legality and constitutionality of the provision of Rule 5 sub-rule (5) of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners, 2007 (the Rules), prohibiting the practice of law in Nigeria as a corporation. The appraisal is done on the scales of the provisions of Sections 40 and 42 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended (the Constitution), providing for rights to freedom of association and peaceful assembly and freedom from discrimination, respectively; on one hand, and, Section 18 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), allowing any two or …

The Model Penal Code’S Wrong Turn: Renunciation As A Defense To Criminal Conspiracy, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

While the Model Penal Code was certainly one the most influential developments in criminal law in the past century, the American Law Institute (ALI) took a seriously wrong turn by recognizing a defense of “renunciation” to the crime of conspiracy. Under the Model Penal Code formulation, a member of a conspiracy who later disavows the agreement and thwarts its objective (for example, by notifying authorities of the planned crime in order to prevent its completion) is afforded a complete defense to conspiracy liability. This defense has enormous implications for crimes involving national security and terrorism, which are typically planned covertly …

Virtue And Criminal Punishment, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

No abstract provided.

Personal Use Of Workplace Computers: A Threat To Otherwise Privileged Communications, Louise Hill

Louise L Hill

This article is an adaptation of "Gone but Not Forgotten: When Privacy, Policy and Privilege Collide" originally published in the Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property, Volume 9, Issue 8, 2011

Where Did My Privilege Go? Congress And Its Discretion To Ignore The Attorney-Client Privilege, Don Berthiaume, Jeffrey Ansley

Don R Berthiaume

“The right to counsel is too important to be passed over for prosecutorial convenience or executive branch whimsy. It has been engrained in American jurisprudence since the 18th century when the Bill of Rights was adopted... However, the right to counsel is largely ineffective unless the confidential communications made by a client to his or her lawyer are protected by law.”[1] So said Senator Arlen Specter on February 13, 2009, just seven months before Congress chose to ignore the very privilege he lauded. Why then, if the right to counsel is as important as Senator Specter articulated, does Congress maintain …

El Manejo De La Incertidumbre Judicial: La Construcción De La Duda Razonable En El Sistema Procesal Penal / Management Of Judicial Uncertainty: The Construction Of The Reasonable Doubt Standard Under The Criminal Procedure System, Claudio Fuentes Maureira

Claudio Fuentes Maureira

The Chilean criminal procedure reform introduced to the Chilean legal culture many foreign institutions. In every case the idea behind it was to change specific behaviours of the old system. One of these institutions was the concept or idea of the standard of proof, mainly the introduction in article 340 of the current Code of Criminal Procedure of the beyond reasonable doubt standard.

The paper explores, ten years after the adoption of the new system, how the the tribunals have understood and incorporated this concept, and specifically the beyond reasonable doubt standard. In terms of methodology the paper focuses, in …

Thinking Like Thinkers: Is The Art And Discipline Of An "Attitude Of Suspended Conclusion" Lost On Lawyers?, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

In his 1910 book, How We Think, John Dewey proclaimed that “the most important factor in the training of good mental habits consists in acquainting the attitude of suspended conclusion. . .” This Article explores that insight and describes its meaning and significance in the enterprise of thinking generally and its importance in law school education specifically. It posits that the law would be best served if lawyers think like thinkers and adopt an attitude of suspended conclusion in their problem solving affairs. Only when conclusion is suspended is there space for the exploration of the subject at hand. The …

Prosecutorial Ethics, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

No abstract provided.

Plea Bargaining, Discovery, And The Intractable Problem Of Impeachment Disclosures, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

In a criminal justice system where guilty pleas are the norm and trials the rare exception, the issue of how much discovery a defendant is entitled to before allocution has immense significance. This article examines the scope of a prosecutor’s obligation to disclose impeachment information before a guilty plea. This question has polarized the criminal bar and bedeviled the academic community since the Supreme Court’s controversial decision in United States v. Ruiz (2002). A critical feature of the debate has been the enduring schism between a prosecutor’s legal and ethical obligations – a gulf that the American Bar Association recently …

Plea Bargainng, Discovery, And Waivers, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

No abstract provided.

Panelist, Developments In Criminal Procedure, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

No abstract provided.

Lawyers And Fundamental Moral Responsibility, R. Michael Cassidy, Daniel Coquillette, Judith Mcmorrow

R. Michael Cassidy

The materials in this book are organized around specific problems designed to encourage and focus class discussion. There are two other inherent organizing principles of the materials in this book. First, the philosophical materials are in the rough order in which the ideas themselves evolved in the history of philosophy. The materials have been revised since the book first was published in 1995 to address some of the burning ethical problems of our day, including terrorism, national security, and abuse of government power. The Second Edition also is reorganized to assist students to better appreciate philosophical theories underpinning discourse about …

Régimen De Prisión Preventiva En América Latina: La Pena Anticipada, La Lógica Cautelar Y La Contrarreforma / Pre-Trial Detention Regime In Latin America: The Pre-Trial Punishment, Flight Risk And The Counter Reform, Claudio Fuentes Maureira

Claudio Fuentes Maureira

One of the main reasons that justified the criminal procedure reform in Latin America was the possibility to overcome and changed different practices that were very problematic. One of these complex situations was the excessive use of pre-trial detention in the context of criminal investigations; in particular, the abuse of this institution had a dangerous outcome when it comes to the protection of the human rights of the detainees.

From the mid 90’s onwards, most of the Latin American countries started a reform of their criminal institutions and proceedings. A considerable portion of the legal framework was heavily modified in …

Federal Criminal Discovery: Handbook Regarding Exculpatory & Impeachment Material, R. Michael Cassidy, Douglas Woodlock, Leo Sorokin

R. Michael Cassidy

No abstract provided.

Prosecutorial Ethics, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

This casebook explores the ethical responsibilities of a prosecutor at each stage of the criminal justice process. Focusing on ethical and constitutional constraints on prosecutorial discretion, the texts covers both Supreme Court decisions interpreting Fifth and Sixth Amendment guarantees and state rules of attorney conduct. Topics discussed include a prosecutor’s conduct during criminal investigations, charging decisions, grand jury practice, interviewing and contacting witnesses, plea bargaining, jury selection, trial conduct, and publicity. Each chapter is followed by real-world hypotheticals designed to introduce students to the ethical dilemmas typically encountered by government lawyers in criminal practice. This book is suitable for use …

'Soft Words Of Hope:' Giglio, Accomplice Witnesses, And The Problem Of Implied Inducements, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

Many scholars have criticized the government's practice of rewarding accomplices with leniency in exchange for their cooperation in criminal cases, because such practice provides the accomplice with a tremendous inducement to fabricate in order to curry favor with the government. To date, however, no commentators have approached the complex problem of accomplice fabrication from the perspective of criminal discovery. In the enclosed article, the author takes a fresh look at the subject of accomplice testimony, and argues that what are needed are not further restrictions on the circumstances in which an accomplice may testify, but rather a more vigorous enforcement …

Sharing Sacred Secrets: Is It (Past) Time For A Dangerous Person Exception To The Clergy-Penitent Privilege?, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

In this article, the author discusses the important and previously unexplored topic of whether the law should recognize a future harms exception to the clergy-penitent privilege, similar to that recognized in the area of psychotherapist-patient and attorney-client privileges. After tracing the origins and current application of the clergy-penitent privilege in America, the author discusses how the privilege as currently applied in most states admits of no exceptions, and is unnecessarily expansive in breadth. Using the hypothetical of a homicidal spouse who reveals to his minister an intent to murder his wife, the article compares the ethical and legal duties of …

Case & Statute Comments, "Public Education And Crime: Supreme Court Backs States' Rights, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

No abstract provided.

Massachusetts Grand Jury Practice, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

No abstract provided.

Case & Statute Comments, Search And Seizure-Search Warrants-Identification Of Confidential Informants, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

No abstract provided.

Case & Statute Comments, The New Massachusetts Drug Asset Forfeiture Law: A Dialogue, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

No abstract provided.