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Full-Text Articles in Legal Profession
Specialty Bar Associations And The Marketing Of Ethics: The Example Of The Academy Of Adoption Attorneys, Malinda L. Seymore
Specialty Bar Associations And The Marketing Of Ethics: The Example Of The Academy Of Adoption Attorneys, Malinda L. Seymore
Faculty Scholarship
In a world of lawyer jokes, memes of sleazy lawyers and the ubiquity of bad lawyers in television shows and movies, lawyers have reason to push back against negative public perceptions of lawyers’ ethics. This article examines the role of specialty bar associations, by using the example of the Academy of Adoption Attorneys, in marketing ethics to the public.
Specialty bar associations have been seen as sites of lawyer socialization and professionalism. Though there are thousands of specialty bar associations with aspirational ethical codes, the Academy of Adoption Attorneys is unusual among such associations in having a mandatory ethics code, …
Preventing Legal Malpractice And Disciplinary Complaints: Ethics Audits As A Risk-Management Tool, Susan Saab Fortney
Preventing Legal Malpractice And Disciplinary Complaints: Ethics Audits As A Risk-Management Tool, Susan Saab Fortney
Faculty Scholarship
This column examines the value of firm lawyers conducting and supporting ethics audits as an integral feature of a comprehensive risk-management program. For decades, legal malpractice experts have urged lawyers to implement systems, policies, and procedures related to the delivery of legal services. Once a firm adopts systems, policies, and procedures, a meaningful risk-management system requires a periodic examination to monitor lawyers’ compliance. Rather than waiting for a professional liability insurer to recommend or require such a systematic examination, proactive firm leaders and lawyers should seriously consider devoting time and resources to periodic ethics audits.
The Codification Of Professionalism: Can You Sanction Lawyers Into Being Nice?, Debra M. Curtis
The Codification Of Professionalism: Can You Sanction Lawyers Into Being Nice?, Debra M. Curtis
Faculty Scholarship
On October 31, 2013, the Florida Supreme Court in The Florida Bar v. Norkin made it clear that "it wants the trend of escalating incivility among lawyers to stop." With that decision, in which a lawyer was suspended and publicly reprimanded for his behavior, the court urged that "[m]embers of The Florida Bar, law professors, and law students should study" this case "as a glaring example of unprofessional behavior." This article heeds the court's directive to do so, but also places it in the context of the movement to enhance professionalism statewide.
The Role Of Ethics Audits In Improving Management Systems And Practices: An Empirical Examination Of Management-Based Regulation Of Law Firms, Susan Saab Fortney
The Role Of Ethics Audits In Improving Management Systems And Practices: An Empirical Examination Of Management-Based Regulation Of Law Firms, Susan Saab Fortney
Faculty Scholarship
For decades, legal malpractice experts have urged lawyers to implement risk management measures. To assist law firms in doing so, legal malpractice insurers have provided audit services and self-audit materials. Under the Australian regulatory regime, incorporated legal practices are required to complete a self-assessment process and to report on the firm's compliance with ten objectives of sound law practice. Using management-based principles, this Article discusses steps to take to encourage ethics audits "to merge good ethics and good business" in the U.S.
Systematically Thinking About Law Firm Ethics: Conference On The Ethical Infrastructure And Culture Of Law Firms, Susan Saab Fortney
Systematically Thinking About Law Firm Ethics: Conference On The Ethical Infrastructure And Culture Of Law Firms, Susan Saab Fortney
Faculty Scholarship
To advance the discourse related to law firm ethics and the impact of formal controls and informal influences on lawyer conduct, we convened on April 5, 2013 the Conference on the Ethical Infrastructure and Culture of Law Firms ("Conference" or "Symposium"). The Conference, conducted under the auspices of the Hofstra Law Review and the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University's Institute for the Study of Legal Ethics, was funded in part by the Abraham J. Gross '78 Conference and Lecture Fund at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University. Experts who have studied issues …
Justadvice: Studying Law In Snapshots, Brenda Bratton Blom, Leigh Maddox
Justadvice: Studying Law In Snapshots, Brenda Bratton Blom, Leigh Maddox
Faculty Scholarship
Access to legal services continues to be a critical need in the United States. Clinical programs in law schools are part of responding to the demand for these services, but often face the challenge of filling gaps left by larger programs serving the poor or responding to unique legal needs. JustAdvice was designed to provide limited advice to a broad range of people with legal needs, unbundling those services where possible. The story of the development, implementation and transformation of the program into a teaching, triage and referral system that importantly links multiple organizations and services is the core of …
Domestic Violence And The Lawyer As Good Samaritan: What Responsibility To Become Involved?, Debra Moss Curtis
Domestic Violence And The Lawyer As Good Samaritan: What Responsibility To Become Involved?, Debra Moss Curtis
Faculty Scholarship
In the United States, "Good Samaritan" laws are designed to protect from liability--in case things go wrong--those who choose to aid an injured stranger. The idea is to "reduce bystander's hesitation to assist" those in distress. Good Samaritan laws are clearly intended to cover immediate physical harm, as they tend to include the provision of first aid and the relief of the responsibility when trained assistance arrives. In other countries, Good Samaritan laws actually may require citizens to assist people, as long as it would not cause harm to the helper. These legal requirements were famously put into play recently …
Licensing And Discipline Of Fiscal Professionals In The State Of Florida: Attorneys, Certified Public Accountants, And Real Estate Professionals, Debra Curtis
Faculty Scholarship
The purpose of this article is to compare the regulation of several professions within the state of Florida. In Florida, attorneys are self-regulated through the Florida Bar. As a branch of the Supreme Court of Florida, The Florida Bar serves as the licensing agency of attorneys within the state. Two other professions--real estate professionals and certified public accountants--in which the public also places fiscal trust and responsibility, are regulated through a different agency, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. This article seeks to examine and explain the different methods of licensing and regulation between these professional groups and looks …
A Public View Of Attorney Discipline In Florida: Statistics, Commentary, And Analysis Of Disciplinary Actions Against Licensed Attorneys In The State Of Florida From 1988-2002, Debra Curtis, Billie Jo Kaufman
A Public View Of Attorney Discipline In Florida: Statistics, Commentary, And Analysis Of Disciplinary Actions Against Licensed Attorneys In The State Of Florida From 1988-2002, Debra Curtis, Billie Jo Kaufman
Faculty Scholarship
This article is intended to serve as a commentary and analysis of a public-eye view of disciplinary actions taken against licensed attorneys in the State of Florida during the past 15 years. The idea for this statistical review arose in 2002, prompted by discussions regarding self-regulation of various professions following the many corporate scandals then playing out in the headlines. Through these discussions, Professors Curtis and Kaufman developed the idea of looking at empirical data--from the Florida Bar to determine how the disciplinary system treated Florida lawyers.
The Lawyer As Citizen, James E. Fleming
The Lawyer As Citizen, James E. Fleming
Faculty Scholarship
The moral schizophrenia of the lawyer-person wrought by the American adversarial system's differentiation of professional morality from personal morality is at once alienating and anesthetizing. Alienating in that it separates a person from her/his actions taken in performing a professional role by attributing responsibility for these actions and their consequences to the role itself rather than to the individual. Anesthetizing in that it permits if not requires a professional to constrict the moral universe inhabited on the job, extruding moral sentiments that she/he otherwise might feel, numbing the moral sense of ordinary personal responsibility.
Professional Responsibility And Liability Issues Related To Limited Liability Law Partnerships, Susan Saab Fortney
Professional Responsibility And Liability Issues Related To Limited Liability Law Partnerships, Susan Saab Fortney
Faculty Scholarship
This article surveys the professional responsibility and liability issues related to attorneys practicing in limited liability law firms. Part I of this article provides background information regarding the development of the limited liability partnership (LLP) and its popularity among legal professionals. Part II tackles the 1996 ethics opinion on LLPs rendered by the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility. This article criticizes the ABA opinion by examining the conclusions and reasoning articulated in the opinion, indentifying disciplinary rules that the opinion did not address, and considering the possible effects of the opinion. Part III focuses on …