Digital Commons Network^™

Artificial Intelligence And The Practice Of Law Part 2: Working With Your New Ai Staff Attorney, Michael D. Murray

Law Faculty Popular Media

No abstract provided.

The Rural Lawyer Shortage As (Surprising) Scholarly Impetus, Lisa R. Pruitt

South Dakota Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Scandal Of Particularity: A New Approach To Rural Attorney Shortages And Access To Justice, Michele Statz

South Dakota Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Analysis Of Third-Party Litigation Funding In The United States And The United Kingdom, Gary Myers

Faculty Publications

Third-Party Litigation Funding (TPLF), which is also known as litigation finance, involves a financial arrangement in which a third party provides funding to support the plaintiff's pursuit of a civil lawsuit. The third party, in return, receives a portion of the proceeds if the litigation is successful. Like a contingent fee agreement, this type funding model enables a party to bring a lawsuit even if it does not have the resources to pay the up-front costs of the litigation. The important difference is that the litigation funder is not counsel to a party in the case, and that TPLF essentially …

Abolish The Mpre, Michael Ariens

Faculty Articles

In nearly every jurisdiction, applicants to the bar must pass the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE). Its purpose, according to its owner, the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), is "to measure candidates' knowledge and understanding of established standards related to the professional conduct of lawyers." It does test whether an examinee has kept in short-term memory the rules and exceptions that make up part of the understanding of what it means to serve as a lawyer. However, success (or initial failure) on the MPRE has not been correlated with ethical conduct or misconduct. For example, the Texas Board of …

Am I My Colleague’S Keeper When It Comes To Disclosing Connections?, Nancy B. Rapoport

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

No abstract provided.

Flattening The Learning Curve For International J.D. Students, Sylvia Lett

Saint Louis University Law Journal

Non-U.S. lawyers entering U.S. law schools in accelerated J.D. degree programs (known as the “AJD” – Advanced Juris Doctor Program at Arizona Law) face particular challenges adapting to 1L legal research, analysis, and communication classes. First, English is not the typical lingua franca for AJD students, many of whom come from civil law countries and are faced with the challenge of learning legal writing methods for an American common-law legal system. Second, AJD students earn a U.S. J.D. degree in only two years because these accelerated programs give one year of “credit” for their non-U.S. law degrees. As a consequence, …

The Role Of Historic Preservation In St. Louis Vacancy Solutions, Mary Webb

Saint Louis University Law Journal

The homes of St. Louis, Missouri reflect the diverse backgrounds of the families who built them. As the need for labor grew during the City’s “brick boom,” families from the American South and from around the world immigrated to St. Louis, bringing unique architectural history with them. This history is now threatened by St. Louis’s rising vacancy rates.

The long-term impacts of racial zoning ordinances, restrictive deed covenants, and redlining have led to dense vacancy in North St. Louis neighborhoods. Crime, public health, and economic concerns follow vacant properties, adversely impacting North St. Louis individuals, families, and businesses.

Demolition has …

Artificial Intelligence And The Practice Of Law: A Chat With Chatgpt, Grant M. Gamm

Saint Louis University Law Journal

In late 2022, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT to the world. At the time of writing this article, ChatGPT and other generative AI models were no longer used only to generate silly responses but were being considered for substantive work in our daily lives. Specifically, this article highlights how ChatGPT and other learned language models can have a strong impact on the practice of law. Within this article, the uses of these forms of AI are explained on multiple levels: the individual attorney, the law firm, and the non-attorney. Along with its diverse applications, this article delves into potential ethical dilemmas and …

Transnationalization Of Legal Education: A Confluence Of Multiple Factors Review Of “The Globalization Of Legal Education: A Critical Perspective” By Bryant Garth And Gregory Shaffer, Md. Rizwanul Islam

Saint Louis University Law Journal

Legal education across many parts of the world is increasingly transnationalized. Transnationalized legal education is a metamorphosis propelled by a combination of factors, some endogenous to the law school and legal community, some exogenous to them. This review essay finds that globalization and reform of legal education are often part of a broader change within a state. Any reform of legal education is often chaotic, as it deals with human actors, not with value-free formulas. The engineers of reform of legal education have not been a single or cohesive force, but more often groups of reformers have coalesced with others …

Navigating Legal Ethics And Law School Curricula: Attempting To Find Technology Competency Without A Compass, Jessica De Perio Wittman, Kathleen (Katie) Brown

Faculty Articles and Papers

Comment 8 of Model Rule 1.1 of the Professional Rules of Conduct requires attorneys to be ethically accountable for technology competence. However, the drafting of the language of Rule 1.1 is vague. As a result, attorneys, law firms, and law schools apply Rule 1.1 differently and emphasize topics they deem most important. Per American Bar Association (ABA) Standard 301, law schools must maintain a rigorous program of legal education that prepares their students for effective, ethical, and responsible participation as members of the legal profession. Law schools have summarily responded to Rule 1.1 and Standard 301 by adding and offering …

Never Gonna Change? An Examination Of The 1901 Alabama Constitution, Alexander Aguado

Textbooks

In stark contrast to the U.S. Constitution, which has become a more democratic document since 1865, Alabama’s 1901 Constitution was designed in response to the nation’s broader democratic aspirations. Though the Alabama Constitution was recompiled in 2022, its spirit continues. Never Gonna Change examines the legacy of the 1901 Constitution and its effects on public policy, people, political culture, and democracy. This collection has chapters that reflect on the factors that influence policy change in the Deep South and the likelihood of constitutional reform; The perseverance of inadequate education funding as a structural feature; The contemporary possibility of change through …

Standard 303 And The Development Of Student Professional Identity: A Framework For The Intentional Exploration Of The Profession's Core Values, Neil Hamilton, Jerome M. Organ, David Grenardo, Louis D. Bilionis, Barbara Glesner Fines, Kendall L. Kerew

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Civil Procedure: Pre-Trial & Trial, Amanda Sotak, Don Colleluori, Andrew C. Whitaker

SMU Annual Texas Survey

No abstract provided.

Battling The Form: A Front-End Approach To Default-Use Noncompetes, Rachel Arnow-Richman

UF Law Faculty Publications

A growing consensus holds that employer overuse of noncompete agreements adversely affects workers and the economy. But there is little agreement on how best to regulate these instruments. States have experimented with an array of idiosyncratic reforms that capture the most egregious misuses, while the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), has issued an outright ban that would prohibit all employee noncompetes and comparable instruments nationwide.

This Article argues that any effective reform strategy must target what it terms “default-use” noncompetes—boilerplate restraints imposed by employers as a matter of course without close consideration of their underlying justification. Some unlawful noncompetes are clearly …

From Margins To Center: Elevating The Voices Of Disadvantaged Families In Child Welfare, Jerron R. Wheeler

UF Law Faculty Publications

This essay sheds light on the systemic challenges faced by indigent, minority families within the child welfare system, using personal experiences from my time as a student at the University of Florida Levin College of Law as a lens. This essay aims to highlight the intersection of poverty, race, and the child welfare system, showing how these factors can hinder parents' ability to reunite with their children despite their best efforts. The essay seeks to underscore the urgent need for a more nuanced, multidisciplinary approach to child welfare advocacy that includes legal professionals, social workers, and health professionals working collaboratively …

Attributing Ai Authorship: Towards A System Of Icons For Legal And Ethical Disclosure, Joseph J. Avery, Patricia S. Abril, Alissa Del Riego

Articles

Over the past year, the pervasive role of large language models (LLMs) and artificial intelligence (Al) in text generation has precipitated concerns about ethical usage, authorship, and transparent attribution. This has been true in legal practice, academia, and the corporate world, as well as in countless other arenas. In this Article, we identify the gap that has opened between those demanding proper disclosure (we should know when and to what extent Al is an author) and those struggling to respond to these demands. Part of the problem is that there is no system in place, no lingua franca, no set …

The Vision And Inception Of The Legal Aid Clinic At Smu School Of Law, Amy Kearney

SMU Law Review

This paper examines the impetus behind the creation of the SMU Clinic and analyzes how the clinic actually worked in its early years and whether the clinic accomplished its objectives. I wrote this paper during my last semester of law school while participating in the SMU Clinic as a student attorney. While researching this paper, I had the pleasure of speaking with some of the first student attorneys that participated in the SMU Clinic, many of whom went on to practice law for decades afterwards. I greatly enjoyed hearing their perspectives, and love that I was able to similarly provide …

Can Criminal Defense Attorneys Be Victim-Centered?, Natalie Nanasi, Demetrice Lopez-Loftis

SMU Law Review

Attorneys defending those accused of intimate partner violence, like all lawyers, owe duties of zealous advocacy and confidentiality to their clients. But is there a place within these ethical obligations for them to also consider the safety of the victim? Defense counsel are often uniquely situated—by virtue of their relationships with their clients and victims—to help mitigate potentially serious harm. This article explores the spaces where defending an accused perpetrator of domestic violence and taking actions to limit further harm to a survivor are compatible. It also identifies areas where defense attorneys can obtain additional resources and data to inform …

75 Years Of Clinical Legal Education: Celebrating The Past While Looking To The Future, Mary Spector

SMU Law Review

In October 2023, the Clinical Program at SMU Dedman School of Law celebrated its 75th anniversary. The occasion provided an opportunity to celebrate seventy-five years of free legal services to thousands of clients over the years: real people with real problems without the means to hire a lawyer. Among the legal services provided were ones that ensured families had safe and affordable places to live, protected the rights of those in the criminal justice system, safeguarded seniors’ financial stability, assisted taxpayers in navigating disputes with the IRS, and ensured that employees obtain the benefits to which they are entitled.

During …

Businesses Beware: The Changing Face Of Attorney-Fee Awards In U.S. Courts, Aaron Bartholomew, Sharon Yamen

American University Business Law Review

The American Rule, creating a presumption against attorney-fee awards, is axiomatic in litigation in United States’ courts. Established by the very early U.S. Supreme Court case of Arcambel v. Wiseman in 1796, the rule rejected the British tradition of a “loser-pays” system, in which the losing party pays all parties’ attorney fees and litigation costs. While the Court’s reasoning for the rules creation is murky, later decisions have justified it on various grounds. Critics of the American Rule argue that the rule encourages the assertion of unmeritorious claims and defenses and fails to sufficiently encourage the settlement of those that …

Brief For Claimant-Appellant, Hamill V. Mcdonough, No. 24-1543 (Fed. Cir.), Yelena Duterte

Court Documents and Proposed Legislation

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Indigent Defense In South Dakota, Neil Fulton, Brooklyn Bollweg

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Leveraging Technology And Pro Se Clinics To Enhance Rural Access To The Courts, Marilyn Trefz, Kelly Collinsworth

Faculty Publications

The integration of technology and the formation of law school pro se clinics offers a promising outcome to the challenges faced by pro se divorce and custody litigants in rural areas. This innovative approach promotes rural access to justice and provides law students with practical training opportunities. By embracing these advancements, legal systems can bridge the justice gap and create a more equitable and efficient environment for rural litigants involved in divorce and custody proceedings while encouraging students to embrace rural legal practice.

When Commanders Decide: Military Prosecutorial Decision-Making In Sexual Assault Cases, Chris Cox

Scholarly Works

Congress enacted legislation that went into effect in 2023, which transferred prosecutorial decision-making for serious cases, including sexual assault, from Commanders to military lawyers. While there is some research on the military’s criminal justice system that supports shifting the decision-making to military lawyers, there is a large body of research that suggests lawyers, too, suffer from similar impediments when handling decision-making for sexual assault cases. In the wake of this new amendment, it is important to continue assessing how the change will impact case processing, by first clearly understanding what was happening when Commanders had complete authority. This article explores …

Are Collective Joint Employers Of College Athletes? Empirical Analysis Of Nil Deals And School Policies, Michael H. Leroy

Marquette Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

Masthead

Marquette Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

Framing Online Speech Governance As An Algorithmic Accountability Issue, Mehtab Khan

Indiana Law Journal

Automated tools used in online speech governance are prone to errors on a large-scale yet widely used. Legal and policy responses have largely focused on case-by-case evaluations of these errors, instead of an examination of the development process of the tools. Moreover, information on the internet is no longer simply generated by users, but also by sophisticated language tools like ChatGPT, that are going to pose a challenge to speech governance. Yet, legal and policy measures have not responded adequately to AI tools becoming more dynamic and impactful. In order to address the challenges posed by algorithmic content governance, I …

A Framework For Applying Copyright Law To The Training Of Textual Generative Artificial Intelligence, Art Neill, James Thomas, Erika Lee

Faculty Scholarship

The rise in the popularity of consumer-facing generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has created considerable confusion and consternation among some copyright owners. The ability to automate the generation of original works based on user input is considered by some copyright holders to have been made possible by large-scale direct infringement by OpenAI, Microsoft, and other major GenAI developers. This article explores the application of copyright law to the training of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, specifically focusing on the legal issues surrounding the unauthorized use of copyrighted textual works in the GenAI training process.

The large language models (LLMs) that drive ChatGPT and similar …

Professional Liability, Shelby Taylor, R. Max Ward, Josh Sherman

SMU Annual Texas Survey

This Article describes and analyzes major developments in professional liability law that occurred in Texas between December 1, 2022, and November 30, 2023.