Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

The Texas Standards For Appellate Conduct: An Annotated Guide And Commentary, Gina M. Benavides, Joshua J. Caldwell

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

The legal profession is bound by ethical rules that govern and guide our conduct and actions as lawyers. One of the under-appreciated, but profoundly important set of guidelines is the Texas Standards for Appellate Conduct. These Standards serve as an excellent practice guide for appellate practitioners and appellate courts and as a model code of conduct for the Bar as a whole.

The goal of this Article is to dissect the Texas Standards for Appellate Conduct and provide useful commentaries for the readers to better appreciate and understand each element of the Standards. The commentaries provide direct case examples and ...

The Paragraph 20 Paradox: An Evaluation Of The Enforcement Of Ethical Rules As Substantive Law, Donald E. Campbell

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

This Article addresses an issue courts across the country continue to struggle with: When are ethics rules appropriately considered enforceable substantive obligations, and when should they only be enforceable through the disciplinary process? The question is complicated by the ethics rules themselves. Paragraph 20 of the Scope section of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct includes seemingly contradictory guidance; it states the Rules are not to be used to establish civil liability, but also that they can be “some evidence” of a violation of a lawyer’s standard of care. Most states have adopted this paradoxal Paragraph 20 language. Consequently ...

Causation And "Legal Certainty" In Legal Malpractice Law, Vincent R. Johnson

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

A line of California cases holds that causation of damages in legal malpractice actions must be proven with “legal certainty.” This Article argues that judicial references to legal certainty are ambiguous and threaten to undermine the fairness of legal malpractice litigation as a means for resolving lawyer-client disputes. Courts should eschew the language of legal certainty and plainly state that damages are recoverable if a legal malpractice plaintiff proves, by a preponderance of the evidence, that those losses were factually and proximately caused by the defendant’s breach of duty.

"Dirty" Experts: Ethical Challenges Concerning, And A Comparative Perspective On, The Use Of Consulting Experts, David S. Caudill

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

U.S. attorneys often hire consulting experts who potentially never get named as testifying experts. The same practice is evident in Australia, where the colloquial distinction is between a “clean” and a “dirty” expert, the latter being in the role of a consultant who is considered a member of the client’s “legal team.” A “clean” expert named as a witness is then called “independent,” signaling that he or she is not an advocate. In contrast to the U.S. discourse concerning consulting and testifying experts, focused on discovery issues, the conversation in Australia betrays immediate ethical concerns that both ...

 The Roots And Branches Of The Medical-Legal Partnership Approach To Health: From Collegiality To Civil Rights To Health Equity, Joel Teitelbaum, Ellen Lawton

Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics

This Article traces the roots of the medical-legal partnership (MLP) approach

to health as a way of promoting the use of law to remedy societal and institutional pathologies that lead to individual and population illness and to health inequalities. Given current forces at work - the medical care and public health systems' foctis on social determinants of health, the increased use of value-based medical care payment reforms, and the emerging movement to train the next generation of health care and public health professionals in structural competency - the time is ripe to spread the view that law is an important lens through ...

 Ethics Of Evidence: Health Care Professionals In Public Benefits And Immigration Proceedings, Jesselyn Friley

Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics

This Article discusses the role of health care professionals in applications for public benefits and immigration relief. Medical-legal partnerships (MLPs) often represent patients who are applying for disability or veterans benefits, or who are seeking asylum based on past persecution. The strength of a patient's medical evidence often determines whether their claim succeeds or fails. Many health care professionals provide corroborating evidence for their patients, but even when they do not, their opinions appear in the proceedings through medical records.

 Medical-Legal Partnerships With Communities: Legal Empowerment To Transform Care, Tamar Ezer

Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics

Medical-legal partnerships (MLPs) integrate legal services into health care settings to provide holistic care and address the social determinants of health. This article brings a legal-empowerment lens to MLP work, arguing for a stronger focus on communities. It examines the application to MLPs of bringing services to communities, investing in rights literacy, and partnering with community-based paralegals. It then outlines the potential for a transformation in health and legal services to a rights - rather than needs-based framework where communities are active partners in program design and development.

 A Mental Health Checkup For Children At The Doctor's Office: Lessons From The Medical-Legal Partnership Movement To Fulfill Medicaid's Promise, Yael Cannon

Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics

Traumatic childhood events and the stress they cause can negatively affect health over a lifetime. For children with Medicaid coverage, visits to the doctor's office present an opportunity to improve this trajectory. Medicaid's Early Periodic Screening Diagnostic and Treatment (EPSDT) mandate requires that children receive more than a basic physical when they see a doctor for regular "well-child checks."

Introduction To The Medical-Legal Partnership Symposium Issue, Susanna D. Evarts, Nathan Guevremont

Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics

Since the first medical-legal partnership (MLP) opened in 1993 at the Boston Medical Center, MLPs have increasingly become integrated into community health centers around the United States. And MLPs are in the business of growth: more than 300 MLPs are currently operating in the United States, and 59 percent of those are fewer than five years old. MLPs are collaborations between physicians and civil attorneys in which the attorneys are integrated into the health care team, and work with the patient to address civil legal needs that impact the social determinants of a patient's health.

Self-Directedness And Professional Formation: Connecting Two Critical Concepts In Legal Education, Larry O. Natt Gantt Ii, Benjamin V. Madison Iii

University of St. Thomas Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Bringing Purposefulness To The American Law School's Support Of Professional Identity Formation, Louis D. Bilionis

University of St. Thomas Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Is There Sufficient Human Resource Capacity To Support Robust Professional Identity Formation Learning Outcomes?, Jerome M. Organ

University of St. Thomas Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Picturing Professionals: The Emergence Of A Lawyer's Identity, Barbara Glesner Fines

University of St. Thomas Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Practical Lessons Learned While Building A Required Course For Professional Identity Formation, Danny Dewalt

University of St. Thomas Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Fostering Wholehearted Lawyers: Practical Guidance For Supporting Law Students' Professional Identity Formation, Susan L. Brooks

University of St. Thomas Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Elusive "High Road" For Lawyers: Teaching Professional Responsibility In A Shifting Context, Bryant G. Garth

University of St. Thomas Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Next Steps Of A Formation-Of-Student-Professional Identity Social Movement: Building Bridges Among The Three Key Stakeholders - Faculty And Staff, Students, And Legal Employers And Clients, Neil Hamilton

University of St. Thomas Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Status Update For Texas Voir Dire: Advocating For Pre-Trial Internet Investigation Of Prospective Jurors, Luke A. Harle

St. Mary's Law Journal

The Internet provides trial attorneys an additional tool to investigate the backgrounds of prospective jurors during voir dire. Online searches of a person’s name and social media accounts can reveal information that could be used as grounds for a challenge for cause or to facilitate intelligent use of peremptory strikes. Texas lawmakers have not yet provided any official guidance as to whether attorneys can investigate prospective jurors online or how they might do so, should it be allowed. Texas’s current voir dire structure, judicial opinions, and ethics opinions, together, support the notion that Texas trial attorneys should be ...

Legal Scholars' Ethical Responsibilities Concerning Neutrality And Objectivity, Candor And Exhaustiveness, Neil Hamilton

Marquette Law Review

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Institutional Pluralism And The (Hoped-For) Effects Of Candor And Integrity In Legal Scholarship, Paul Horwitz

Marquette Law Review

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