Legal Profession Commons^™

Law Firm Malpractice Disclosure: Illustrations And Guidelines, Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Systems Analysis On Criminal Law And Procedure: A Critique Of A Style Of Judicial Decision-Making, Bernard E. Harcourt

Faculty Scholarship

This draft analyzes the birth and emergence of the idea of the “criminal justice system” in the 1960s and the fundamentally transformative effect that the idea of a “system” has had in the area of criminal law and criminal procedure. The manuscript develops a critique of the systems analytic approach to legal and policy decision making. It then discusses how that critique relates to the broader area of public policy and contemporary cost-benefit analysis.

The draft identifies what it calls “the systems fallacy” or the central problem with approaching policy questions from a systems analytic approach: namely, the hidden normative …

The Maryland Legal Aid Bureau: Decades Of Service And Reform, José F. Anderson

All Faculty Scholarship

In a legal and judicial career that spans nearly five decades, few issues have affected retiring Chief Judge Robert Mack Bell more than access for the poor to civil justice. As a student at Harvard University in the late 1960s, he would work at the Boston Legal Aid Society. As a young lawyer at a prominent Baltimore law firm, he did community and poverty law work and impressed his colleagues as one "committed to the use of the law not only to serve his clients, but also to improve society. The zeal of Chief Judge Bell for supporting access to …

Foreword To The Conference: The Law: Business Or Profession? The Continuing Relevance Of Julius Henry Cohen For The Practice Of Law In The Twenty-First Century, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Trends In Global And Canadian Lawyer Education, Laurel S. Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

Globalization and technology have changed the practice of law in dramatic ways. This is true not only in the U.S. and Canada, but around the world. Global regulatory trends have begun to emerge as lawyer regulators have had to respond to new developments. In 2012, Australian regulators Steve Mark and Tahlia Gordon and the author, who is a U.S. academic, documented some of these global trends in lawyer regulation. See Laurel S. Terry, Steve Mark, & Tahlia Gordon, Trends and Challenges in Lawyer Regulation: The Impact of Globalization and Technology, 80 Fordham L. Rev. 2661 (2012), https://works.bepress.com/laurel_terry/95/. Their article concluded …

Transnational Legal Practice (International), Laurel S. Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

This article covers three years of Transnational Legal Practice developments outside of the US. (It is the companion piece to 47 Int'l Law. 499 (2013) which discusses US developments.) This article discusses the approval of an Alternative Business Structure licensing system by the UK Solicitors Regulation Authority and its subsequent issuance of ABS licenses. The second section reviews the emergence of the “Troika” as a new regulatory influence in Europe, citing as an example the joint ABA-CCBE letter to the IMF. (The Troika refers to the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank, and the European Commission.) The third section …

Educating For The Future: Teaching Evidence In The Technological Age, Denise H. Wong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The advent of the technological age has had significant effect on litigation practice, none more so than in the area of evidence gathering and presentation in court. A significant proportion of evidence that is gathered for both criminal and civil matters is now electronic in nature, and this necessitates a change in the way that lawyers think and advise on evidential issues. It is argued here that rather than simply focusing on principles relating to the admissibility of evidence in court, the traditional course on evidence law should be modified to equip students with an intellectual framework that conceives of …

Roger Williams University School Of Law 20th Anniversary Celebration Announcements, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Visual Jurisprudence, Richard Sherwin

Articles & Chapters

Lawyers, judges, and jurors face a vast array of visual evidence and visual argument inside the contemporary courtroom. From videos documenting crimes and accidents to computer displays of their digital simulation, increasingly, the search for fact-based justice is becoming an offshoot of visual meaning making. But when law migrates to the screen it lives there as other images do, motivating belief and judgment on the basis of visual delight and unconscious fantasies and desires as well as actualities. Law as image also shares broader cultural anxieties concerning not only the truth of the image, but also the mimetic capacity itself, …

The Benefits Of Mindfulness For Litigators, Jan Jacobowitz

Jan L Jacobowitz

“I am calling for an all-out revolution.” These words reverberated through the federal district courthouse in Miami in the spring of 2012, but there was no one calling for security. In fact, it was eerily quiet in the conference room in which the call for revolution was sounded. How can that be? Well, the audience was a group of well-regarded litigation counsel and judges and the revolutionary leader a prominent federal district court judge. The revolution: Mindfulness in law as a vehicle for restoring civility, decreasing stress, and enhancing the fundamental fabric of the legal community.

Fidelity Diluted: Client Confidentiality Gives Way To The First Amendment & Social Media In Virginia State Bar, Ex Rel. Third District Committee V. Horace Frazier Hunter, Jan Jacobowitz, Kelly Jesson

Jan L Jacobowitz

Fidelity and confidentiality are hallmarks of the attorney-client relationship. However, as social media use permeates the legal profession, new challenges have arisen to the traditional interpretation of client confidentiality. The Virginia Supreme Court’s recent holding, which concludes that to deny attorney Horace Hunter the ability to blog about his clients’ cases without client consent, after the case concludes and based upon what is found in the public record, is to deny Hunter his First Amendment right of free speech has spurned controversy. The Hunter opinion arguably undermines the long standing legal ethics rule of confidentiality and strikes at the heart …

The American Legal Profession In Crisis: Resistance And Responses To Change, James Moliterno

James E. Moliterno

Reviewed by Herbert Kritzner in Law and Politics Book Review, 227-231.

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 …

Professional Responsibility, James Moliterno

James E. Moliterno

No abstract provided.

Symposium: Building Global Professionalism: Emerging Trends In International And Transnational Legal Education, Anil Kalhan

Anil Kalhan

It has become a matter of recurring lament and concern — and periodically, an object of satire and derision — that Americans lack basic knowledge, awareness, or interest concerning the world beyond their borders; whether in terms of history, public affairs, culture, language, or even basic geography. Politicians, corporate leaders, scholars, and other observers across a broad spectrum routinely warn of the potential dangers this global awareness deficit poses to the well-being and security of the United States. In an increasingly interdependent world — with a growing array of economic, political, social, and environmental problems that transcend national borders — …

Thinking Critically About International And Transnational Legal Education, Anil Kalhan

Anil Kalhan

It has become a matter of recurring lament and concern — and periodically, an object of satire and derision — that Americans lack basic knowledge, awareness, or interest concerning the world beyond their borders; whether in terms of history, public affairs, culture, language, or even basic geography. Politicians, corporate leaders, scholars, and other observers across a broad spectrum routinely warn of the potential dangers this global awareness deficit poses to the well-being and security of the United States. In an increasingly interdependent world — with a growing array of economic, political, social, and environmental problems that transcend national borders — …

Quantitative Legal Prediction--Or--How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Start Preparing For The Data-Driven Future Of The Legal Services Industry, Daniel Katz

Daniel M Katz

No abstract provided.

In Quest Of The Arbitration Trifecta, Or Closed Door Litigation?: The Delaware Arbitration Program, Thomas Stipanowich

Thomas J. Stipanowich

The Delaware Arbitration Program established a procedure by which businesses can agree to have their disputes heard in an arbitration proceeding before a sitting judge of the state’s highly regarded Chancery Court. The Program arguably offers a veritable trifecta of procedural advantages for commercial parties, including expert adjudication, efficient case management and short cycle time and, above all, a proceeding cloaked in secrecy. It also may enhance the reputation of Delaware as the forum of choice for businesses. But the Program’s ambitious intermingling of public and private forums brings into play the longstanding tug-of-war between the traditional view of court …

A Study Of The Relationship Between Bar Admissions Data And Subsequent Lawyer Discipline, Leslie C. Levin, Christine Zozula, Peter Siegelman

Leslie C. Levin

The research reported here uses information from the admissions files of lawyers admitted to the Connecticut bar from 1989 to 1992 to compare those who were disciplined with those who were not disciplined. It analyzes information reported during the bar admissions process that may predict later lawyer misconduct including, inter alia, prior criminal history, problem credit history, prior employment history, academic misconduct, substance abuse, and psychological history. The study reveals that many of the responses on the admissions application are statistically associated with an elevated risk of future discipline. Nevertheless, these variables nevertheless make very poor predictors of subsequent misconduct. …

One Small Step For Legal Writing, One Giant Leap For Legal Education: Making The Case For More Writing Opportunities In The "Practice-Ready" Law School Curriculum, Sherri Keene

Sherri Keene

Legal writing is more than an isolated practical skill or a law school course; it is a valuable tool for broadening and deepening one’s knowledge and understanding of the law. If experienced legal professionals, both professors and practitioners alike, take a hard look back at their careers, many will no doubt remember how their work on significant legal writing projects advanced their own knowledge of the law and enhanced their professional competence. Legal writing practice helps the writer to gain expertise in a number of ways: first, the act of writing itself promotes learning; second, close work on legal writing …

It’S All About The People: Hierarchy, Networks, And Teaching Assistants In A Civil Procedure Classroom Community, Jennifer E. Spreng

Jennifer E Spreng

This article provides a blueprint for a “civic community in a law school classroom” that would better prepare many students for what is likely to be their professional future based on natural social hierarchy and network dynamics. It uses experiences from the author's own teaching career to illustrate hierarchy and network dynamics and how to use them to enrich the pedagogical and social experience of a first year course. It also roots those experiences in principles from social psychology, organizational behavior, transformative leadership and all levels of education literature.

Modern law school classrooms fall into two categories: the "polar model" …

Introduction, Justice, Lawyering And Legal Education In The Digital Age (Symposium Editor With M. Lauritsen), Ronald W. Staudt

Ronald W Staudt

No abstract provided.

Technology: A Motivation Behind Recent Model Rule Revisions, Louise L. Hill

Louise L Hill

No abstract provided.

Overcoming Writer's Block And Procrastination For Attorneys, Law Students, And Law Professors, Meehan Rasch

Meehan Rasch

Law is a particularly writing-heavy profession. However, lawyers, law students, and law professors often struggle with initiating, sustaining, and completing legal writing projects. Even the most competent legal professionals experience periods in which the written word just does not flow freely. This article provides a guide for legal writers who are seeking to understand and resolve writing blocks, procrastination, and other common writing productivity problems.

When Socrates Meets Confucius: Teaching Creative And Critical Thinking Across Cultures Through Multilevel Socratic Method, Erin Ryan

Erin Ryan

The Court And The Visual: Images And Artifacts In U.S. Supreme Court Opinions, 88 Chicago-Kent Law Review 331 (2013) (Symposium)., Nancy S. Marder

Nancy S. Marder

No abstract provided.

Popular Legal Journalism In The Writings Of Maria Vérone, Sara L. Kimble

Sara L Kimble

No abstract provided.

No Money, Mo' Problems: Why Unpaid Law Firm Internships Are Illegal And Unethical, Eric M. Fink

Eric M Fink

The practice of law firms offering unpaid internships in lieu of paid employment should concern law students and law school graduates who face an increasingly tight market for entry-level legal jobs. This article argues that such unpaid internships are impermissible under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). It further argues that lawyers who illegally hire unpaid interns should be subject to discipline under the ethics rules of the legal profession.

While law students collectively have an interest in ending this exploitative practice, they have a disincentive against taking action themselves, lest they hurt their prospects in the already unfavorable postgraduate …

The Cost Of Law: Promoting Access To Justice Through The (Un)Corporate Practice Of Law, Gillian K. Hadfield

Gillian K Hadfield

The U.S. faces a mounting crisis in access to justice. Vast numbers of ordinary Americans represent themselves in routine legal matters daily in our over-burdened courts. Obtaining ex ante legal advice is effectively impossible for almost everyone except larger corporate entities, organizations and governments. In this paper, I explain why, as a matter of economic policy, it is essential that the legal profession abandon the prohibition on the corporate practice of law in order to remedy the access problem. The prohibitions on the corporate practice of law rule out the use of essential organizational and contracting tools widely used in …

Silence Is Golden: Using A "Silent Scrolling Powerpoint" Series To Enhance Your Course Dynamic, Julia M. Glencer Professor

Julia M. Glencer

This article explores the use of an alternative teaching tool in a law school classroom as a method of inspiring law students and prompting excited engagement in both the underlying course and the legal profession. The author, a seven-year Legal Research & Writing Professor, first explains how she has used the automatic advance feature in Microsoft PowerPoint to create a semester series of weekly “Silent Scrolling PowerPoints,” 5 to 7 minutes in length, on a variety of topics of interest and inspiration to her first-year law students. She then summarizes the six benefits observed while experimenting with this tool over …