Digital Commons Network^™

Spring 2021

The Weldon Times

A student-run publication from the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University.

Co-Editors in Chief: Tiffany Leung, Madison Ranta

Graphic Design & Layout: Alexandra Fox

What Is A “Case”?, Lynn M. Mather

Journal Articles

This article interrogates the concept of a “case” in court, in an effort to clarify underlying concerns in debates over whether there is “too much” or “too little” litigation. One perspective on litigation takes a bottom-up view, examining the considerations and motives of disputing parties who file civil claims. This perspective includes theories about litigation and social structure, economics, dispute transformation, political participation, and psychology. An alternative top-down view examines litigation from the perspective of government, including its interest in dispute resolution, social control, and institutional capacities of courts. The article reviews and critiques existing literature on these perspectives and …

Legal Services Needs Assessment For Rio Grande Valley Residents In Texas: A Comprehensive T3 Report, Amber Baylor, Nandita Chaudhuri, Luz E. Herrera, Felipe Hinojosa

Faculty Scholarship

This report presents the findings of a legal needs assessment and oral history project that was simultaneously undertaken from August 2019 to September 2020 in the Rio Grande Valley region of Texas. The purpose of the research is to provide a detailed discussion about access to legal information and to document the pertinent legal needs in the Rio Grande Valley. The project documented respondents’ perceptions of the area’s legal assets and needs.

The report captured information from more than 600 individuals who participated in surveys, focus groups, and interviews to create an overview of the historic legal-resource environment that exists …

The Costs Of Separation: Incarcerated Mothers And The Socioeconomic Benefits Of Community-Based Alternatives For Nonviolent Offenders, Rahgan Jensen

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

Using Random Assignment To Measure Court Accessibility For Low-Income Divorce Seekers, James D. Greiner, Ellen L. Degnan, Thomas Ferriss, Roseanna Sommers

Articles

We conducted a field experiment in which 311 low-income individuals seeking a divorce were randomly assigned to receive access to a pro bono lawyer (versus minimal help) to assist with filing for divorce. Examining court records, we found that assignment to an attorney made a large difference in whether participants filed for and obtained a divorce. Three years after randomization, 46% of the treated group had terminated their marriages in the proper legal venue, compared to 9% of the control group. Among “compliers”—participants who obtained representation only if assigned to receive it—those with lawyers were far more likely to file …

Key Tronic V. United States: The Buck Stops Here, Andrew D. Dorisio, Jacqueline Kerry Heyman

Journal of Natural Resources & Environmental Law

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Sharia Banking Notaries In The Development Of Sharia Economic Law In The Digital Era, Rofah Setyowati, Bagas Heradhyaksa, Maskur Rosyid

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Notary has a strategic position in making Islamic banking contracts. This is because the Notary is responsible for the correctness of the contract construction to fulfill the terms of the agreement, as well as sharia principles. This study is intended to analyze the legal consequences that arise in the relationship between the Notary profession and the Islamic banking industry. It is important to find opportunities and challenges of Notaries in supporting the development of Islamic economics in Indonesia. This study uses a philosophical, juridical and empirical approach. The results of the analysis show that the need for a notary who …

Wrongful Incarceration Causes Substantial Bodily Harm: Why Lawyers Should Be Allowed To Breach Confidentiality To Help Exonerate The Innocent, Vania M. Smith

Catholic University Law Review

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct (MRPC) governs the conduct of lawyers and provides the framework for how individual states and territories craft their rules. Rules regarding confidentiality have been central through the many iterations of these rules since their inception. Client confidentiality protections are critical to establishing and maintaining the public trust in the profession. Rule 1.6 of the MRPC gives a lawyer the opportunity to divulge a client confidence under varying circumstances, including the prevention of “substantial bodily harm”. To date, this has not resulted in a wide interpretation that this exception includes wrongful incarceration. This article seeks …

There Is No Justice When Low And Modest-Income D.C. Residents Are Forced To Represent Themselves In Civil Cases, Sheldon Krantz

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

After spending more than twenty years as a white-collar criminal defense lawyer at DLA Piper and prior to that serving as a federal prosecutor, law professor, and law school dean, I had the opportunity to help develop and then share responsibility for directing the non-profit D.C. Affordable Law Firm (“DCALF”). 135 I learned from this experience that lawyers are rarely available for most of the low- and modest income District of Columbia (“D.C.”) residents who find themselves embroiled in civil matters in D.C. Superior Court on matters greatly impacting their lives. They become, as a result, self-represented litigants (“SRLs”) who …

2020 Annual Report, University Of Maine School Of Law

Clinic Annual Report

• Program Overview 3
• General Practice Clinic 5
• Prisoner Assistance Clinic 6
• Juvenile Justice Clinic 7
• Refugee and Human Rights Clinic 9
• Protection From Abuse Program 10
• Staffing 11

State Laws For Due Process Hearings Under The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act Iii: The Pre-Hearing Stage, Andrew M.I. Lee, Perry A. Zirkel

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

This article is the third in a triad of analyses of state law additions to the basic requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for due process hearings (DPHs). The first two articles of this series covered the hearing and post-hearing stages of IDEA DPHs. The purpose of this follow-up analysis is to supplement the earlier articles by canvassing state law provisions specific to the pre-hearing stage. After an introduction and overview of the literature, this article covers IDEA foundational requirements for DPHs, and then summarizes and codes the state law provisions that supplement the federal template. As …

A Fresh Start: Surveillance Tech And The Modern Law Firm, Titus R. Willis

Duke Law & Technology Review

The legal community is rapidly evolving: firms are more beholden to clients than ever, associates are growing more competitive with one another, and younger firm employees are more willing than ever to subject themselves to surveillance from their employers. These evolutions come alongside a boom in surveillance technology. Tech companies now provide services that can track every keystroke a lawyer makes on a company computer, analyze the content of their computer screens, or even develop algorithms to measure employee productivity. How does the modern law firm respond to these new technologies? How do they weigh their obligations to clients with …

Law And Technology In Legal Education: A Systemic Approach At Ryerson, Sari Graben

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The Faculty of Law at Ryerson University has undertaken extensive curricular reforms aimed at engaging with technology as a central requirement of legal practice. These reforms reflect an undertaking to develop practice-based education and an undertaking to teach students to think critically about the impact of automating and mechanizing legal information. Teaching students to identify how to use technology, how to design it, and how to challenge its effects are key to providing a systemic approach to law and technology. This is an approach that teaches students to identify how law and legal services can be fundamentally altered by computational …

Attorney Fee Shifting: A Roadmap For The Unwary--The Smcra Example, William T. Gorton Iii

Journal of Natural Resources & Environmental Law

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Deaf People’S Access To Justice In Northern Ireland: Implementing Article 13 Of The Un Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities, Bronagh Byrne, Brent Elder, Michael Schwartz

College of Education Departmental Research

Article 13 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) specifies that disabled people have the right to ‘effective access to justice’ on an equal basis with others. This includes Deaf people. There is a distinct lack of research which explores the extent to which Article 13 UNCRPD is implemented in practice and which actively involves Deaf people in its implementation and monitoring. This paper shares findings from a rights-based research study co-produced with a Deaf Advisory Group and a Deaf-led organisation. It explores the implementation of Article 13 UNCRPD in Northern Ireland through the …

The Regulation Of Paralegals In Ontario: Increased Access To Justice?, Lisa Danielle Trabucco

PhD Dissertations

The legal profession throughout most of Canada enjoys the privilege of self-regulation and a (purported) monopoly over legal practice. In Ontario, the Law Society must regulate so as to facilitate access to justice and protect the public interest. Critics argue that self-regulation is anti-competitive it allows the profession to control the market for legal services, increasing the cost of services and restricting access to them and serves professional interests over the public interest. The Ontario government introduced paralegal regulation to enhance access to justice. Regulation would increase consumer choice and the competence and affordability of non-lawyer legal service providers. The …

Mmu: 03/08/21–03/14/21, Student Bar Association

Monday Morning Update

This Week @ NDLS

General Announcements and Reminders

• Crossings is open Monday thru Friday 7:30-4:00. Daily Specials.
• Order Crossings through Grubhub (8 a.m. to 2 p.m.)
• CDO Announcements
• AccessLex Information
• SBA Store
• Mass Schedule
• Christian Legal Society Monday Morning Prayer
• Masterpiece Cakeshop, the Moralization of Commerce, and the Price of Citizenship
• Global Lawyering in Practice: In-House Counsels Abroad
• Lexis for Litigation
• Conversation with Professor Marcus Montooth
• Immigration in the Biden Era (Roundtable)
• Immigration Roungtable
• Tax Chat with Professor Kirsch–The Tax Consequences of COVIDDriven Remote Work
• Housing Discrimination Today
• IP in House: Paul Coletti, Johnson & Johnson, Patrick Bottini, Jack Link’s …

Vol. 60, No. 10 (March 8, 2021)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

Lawyering From Below: Activist Legal Support In Contemporary Canada And The Us, Irina Ceric

PhD Dissertations

A vast literature has considered the proactive use of law as a tool by progressive social movements, but far less attention has been paid to the way activists respond to involuntary engagement with law as a result of repression and criminalization. This dissertation explores the legal support infrastructure of grassroots protest movements in Canada and the US by tracing the evolution of contemporary activist legal support through two periods. The tactic of jail solidarity and an emerging legal collective model are highlighted as the key features of the global justice organizing era (1999-2005) while in the second age of austerity …

Third-Party Sexual Harassment: The Challenge Of Title Ix Obligations For Law School Clinics, Ty Alper

Washington Law Review

Law faculty who teach and train students in clinical settings regularly expose students to the potential for sexual harassment. Because clinics involve actual cases in real-world contexts, students may encounter sexual harassment from third parties such as clients, witnesses, and judges. Do faculty who tolerate this exposure run afoul of their obligations under Title IX to stop and remedy sexual harassment about which they are, or should be, aware?

This Article is the first to identify and propose a method for addressing a phenomenon that strikes at the intersection of three sets of priorities for clinical faculty: duty to serve …

Some Special Words For Robert Burdick, Mary Connaughton

Faculty Scholarship

Many words can be used to describe Bob Burdick, my supervisor, colleague, and friend at the Boston University Civil Litigation Program since the fall of 1993. BU has recognized him as a “Quiet Legal Giant”; as his colleagues, we have commented on his compassion, low-key humility, creativity and innovation, strength as a mentor, and expertise in negotiation. We share common images and experiences as well: the open door to his office and the light already burning at 6:30 on dark mornings as we arrived early to go to court. His insight and understanding after a disturbing experience with an opposing …

A Tribute To Robert (“Bob”) G. Burdick: A Man Of Vision And Light, Constance A. Browne

Faculty Scholarship

One of Bob’s former students said it best: “Bob was the lawyer I wanted to be. He was the person I wanted to be.”1 Bob was also the mentor, teacher, and innovator I aspired to be. For many marginalized clients, Bob brought the change they needed; the change justice required. He embodied hope—he saw the light and strove to enable others to share in its glow.

Week Of March 1, 2021 - March 5, 2021, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Today at Cardozo 2021

Events occurring this week have been sponsored by:

• Cardozo Art Law Society
• Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal (AELJ)
• Cardozo Dispute Resolution Society
• Cardozo FAME Center
• Cardozo Fashion Law Society
• Cardozo Federalist Society
• Cardozo Financial Services & Compliance Alumni Group
• Cardozo Health Law Society
• Cardozo National Lawyers Guild (NLG)
• Cardozo Office of Student Services & Advising
• Cardozo South Asian Law Students Association (SALSA)
• Cardozo Startup Society
• Cardozo Tech Talk Series
• Cardozo’s Retail & Luxury Alumni Practice Group
• Heyman Center on Corporate Law and Governance
• Intellectual Property Law Society (IPLS)
• Jewish Law Students Association (JLSA)
• Mediation Clinic
• Public Interest Law Student …

Faculty Masthead, Georgia State University Law Review

Georgia State University Law Review

No abstract provided.

How And Why Did It Go So Wrong?: Theranos As A Legal Ethics Case Study, G.S. Hans

Georgia State University Law Review

The Theranos saga encompasses many discrete areas of law. Reporting on Theranos, most notably John Carreyrou’s Bad Blood, highlights the questionable ethical decisions that many of the attorneys involved made. The lessons attorneys and law students can learn from Bad Blood are highly complex. The Theranos story touches on multiple areas of professional responsibility, including competence, diligence, candor, conflicts, and liability. Thus, Theranos serves as a helpful tool to explore the limits of ethical lawyering for Professional Responsibility students.

This Article discusses the author’s experience with using Bad Blood as an extended case study in a new course on Legal …

What You Don't Know Will Hurt You: Addressing The Inequities Of Pro Se Litigation In Ohio Domestic Relations Courts, Allison Mikiciuk

University of Dayton Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lessons From The Present: Three Crises And Their Potential Impact On The Legal Profession, Raymond H. Brescia

Hofstra Law Review

The United States faces three simultaneous crises: a pandemic, a civil-rights reckoning, and a crisis of democracy. The first of these crises has sparked dramatic—though potentially temporary—changes to the practice of law: moving much legal work to remote settings almost overnight, after the profession had largely resisted making such accommodations for decades. The second has sparked an assessment of the extent to which the practice of law and the legal system are both riddled with racism and institutional bias. The third, the crisis of democracy, has lawyers at its center, filing frivolous claims and fomenting an armed insurrection with designs …

Artificial Intelligence And Access To The Patent System, W. Keith Robinson

Nevada Law Journal

How likely is it that the average American will become an inventor? With a novel idea and hard work, it should be a possibility for all Americans. However, the data suggests otherwise. Most patents are obtained by inventors that work for large corporations. Small businesses, solo inventors, women, and minorities lag behind their counterparts in patenting. A common explanation for this phenomenon is that it is a “pipeline” issue. However, the patent system is not accessible to underrepresented innovators for more problematic reasons.

At the same time as information about the disparity in patenting activity has garnered attention, the U.S. …

A Fiduciary Judge's Guide To Awarding Fees In Class Actions, Brian T. Fitzpatrick

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

It is often said that judges act as fiduciaries for the absent class members in class action litigation. If we take this seriously, how then should judges award fees to the lawyers who represent these class members? The answer is to award fees the same way rational class members would want if they could do it on their own. In this Essay, I draw on economic models and data from the market for legal representation of sophisticated clients to describe what these fee practices should look like. Although more data from sophisticated clients is no doubt needed, what we do …

Tribute To Bob Burdick, Naomi M. Mann

Faculty Scholarship

In losing Bob, we have truly lost a legal giant. He was a visionary in poverty law. He led significant litigation that improved the lives of countless individuals in the Commonwealth. It is because of him, a team of legal aid attorneys, and his students that individuals who are considered mentally incapacitated are entitled to Rogers hearings before being administered medication. It is also under his leadership that student attorneys throughout the Commonwealth can get attorney’s fees for their legal services organizations. Through his guidance and teaching, generations of law students have learned how to infuse their work (wherever they …