Digital Commons Network^™

The Chicken Or The Egg? Public Service Orientation And Lawyer Well-Being, Melissa H. Weresh

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Paternalistic Interventions In Civil Rights And Poverty Law: A Case Study Of Environmental Justice, Anthony V. Alfieri

Michigan Law Review

Low-income communities of color in Miami and in cities across the nation both share aspirations of equal justice and democratic participation and suffer the burdens of legal underrepresentation and political disenfranchisement. Such burdens become crippling when, as in Miami, local legal aid offices, public interest organizations, and bar associations lack the resources to provide meaningful private access to justice or to muster significant public engagement in the political process. These burdens become especially crippling when, again as in Miami, local and state governments adopt policies that engender inner-city neglect, economic displacement, and racial exclusion. In these circumstances, volunteer lawyers from …

Litigation Investment And Legal Ethics: What Are The Real Issues?, Anthony J. Sebok

Articles

One of the foundational principles of legal ethics is that the lawyer owes an obligation of undivided loyalty to the client, and no other interests or relationships can be permitted to interfere with the lawyer's exercise of independent professional judgment on behalf of the client. The strongest objections to litigation investment by third parties is that it may compromise a lawyer's independence. This article examines this objection in the context of a recent report from the Ethics Committee of the Commercial and Federal Litigation Section of the New York State Bar Association and argues that it misses the real legal …

Why U.S. Jurisdictions Should Adopt ‘Regulatory Objectives’ For The Legal Profession, Laurel S. Terry

Howard Lichtenstein Distinguished Professorship in Legal Ethics Lectures

As a Lichtenstein Distinguished Lecturer, Professor Terry was asked to write an article for the Hofstra Law Review. Her article, cited below, may be downloaded from the link at the top of the page.

Laurel S. Terry, Globalization and the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20: Reflections on Missed Opportunities and the Road Not Taken, 43 Hofstra L. Rev. 95 (2014)

The ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 was established in order to “perform a thorough review of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and the U.S. system of lawyer regulation in the context of advances in technology and global …

Why U.S. Jurisdictions Should Adopt ‘Regulatory Objectives’ For The Legal Profession The Legal Profession, Laurel Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

This link goes to the Professor Terry’s Lichtenstein lecture, which was on the topic of her recent article about regulatory objectives for the legal profession. For Professor Terry’s scholarship on this topic, see her long article here, a short article here, and the “regulatory objectives” research area section on her personal webpage. As Professor Terry noted in her lecture, t “regulatory objectives movement” can be traced to the adoption of the 2007 UK Legal Services Act. Section 1 of that Act, which was hotly debated, set forth the regulatory objectives that the Act—and its implementation—should achieve. The UK Act was …

The Professional, Winter 2014, Henry Latimer Center For Professionalism

The Professional Newsletter

The Professional is a publication of The Florida Bar Henry Latimer Center for Professionalism. It is published triannually and provides practical information regarding professionalism relevant to the practice of law in Florida.

Ethics 20/20 Successfully Achieved Its Mission: It "Protected, Preserved, And Maintained", James E. Moliterno

Scholarly Articles

The legal profession tends to look inward and backward when faced with crisis and uncertainty. The legal profession could make greater advances by looking outward and forward to find in society and culture the causes of and connections with the legal profession’s crises. Doing so would allow the profession to grow with society, solve problems with rather than against the flow of society, and be more attuned to the society the profession claims to serve.

The Professional, Spring 2014, Henry Latimer Center For Professionalism

The Professional Newsletter

The Professional is a publication of The Florida Bar Henry Latimer Center for Professionalism. It is published triannually and provides practical information regarding professionalism relevant to the practice of law in Florida.

Remedial And Preventive Responses To The Unauthorized Practice Of Immigration Law, Monique C. Lillard

Articles

No abstract provided.

Overstepping Ethical Boundaries? Limitations On State Efforts To Provide Access To Justice In Family Courts, Jessica Dixon Weaver

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Family law courts in America are overwhelmed with self-represented parties who try their best to navigate an unfamiliar territory laden with procedural and evidentiary rules. Efforts to level the playing field in these courts have resulted in state entities and judges taking on roles that previously belonged to attorneys. State supreme court judges and state agencies draft and promulgate family law forms, such as divorce pleadings and paternity acknowledgments, to provide poor citizens access to justice. While these efforts have resulted in positive outcomes for some families, reliance on the state’s imprimatur has caused significant harm to others. Upon closer …

Paternalistic Interventions In Civil Rights And Poverty Law: A Case Study Of Environmental Justice, Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

No abstract provided.

Regulating Electronic Legal Support Across State And National Boundaries, Cassandra Burke Robertson

Faculty Publications

Technology and globalization are changing the practice of law and creating new challenges for lawyer regulation. Middle-class litigants who struggle to afford legal services — but are comfortable using online resources — are increasingly seeking and finding legal support online. State and national boundaries dissolve in the online marketplace, making it easy for attorneys to provide services to litigants in other jurisdictions. Differences in national economies make it cost effective for both clients and lawyers to engage in transnational practice, so that attorneys in India and other jurisdictions can offer legal support and advice to American litigants for as little …

The Cost Of Avoidance: Pluralism, Neutrality, And The Foundations Of Modern Legal Ethics, Melissa Mortazavi

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

If You Can't Trust Your Lawyer, Who Can You Trust?: Why Conflicts Of Interest And Client Loyalty Require An Exception To The Intra-Firm Attorney-Client Privilege For Current Clients, Lindsey B. Sciavicco

Georgia Law Review

Until 2013, no court of last resort had ever addressed the issue of whether the attorney-client privilege shields communications between law firms and their in-house counsel regarding the potential liability to a current client. In that year, the Supreme Courts of Georgia and Massachusetts held that an intra-firm attorney-client privilege could shield such communications from discovery by a current client in a malpractice suit brought against the firm. Shortly after these holdings, the American Bar Association (ABA) adopted a resolution similarly advocating for courts to apply the attorney-client privilege to the intra-firm context. This Note contends that the recent case …

Mindful Ethics - A Pedagogical And Practical Approach To Teaching Legal Ethics, Developing Professional Identity, And Encouraging Civility, Jan L. Jacobowitz, Scott L. Rogers

Articles

Aristotle spoke of virtue and ethics as a combination of practical wisdom and habituation-an individual must learn from the application of critical reasoning skills to experience. Perhaps one of the earliest proclamations of the value of experiential learning, the Aristotelian view, reappears throughout history and is captured once again by the Carnegie Foundation's Report on Legal Education, which includes a call for instruction that provides practical skills and ethical grounding to complement the teaching of legal analysis. The Carnegie Report continues to play a role in the ongoing discussion of the need to reform legal education; a debate that is …

Cultivating Professional Identity & Creating Community: A Tale Of Two Innovations, Jan L. Jacobowitz

Articles

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law—Unauthorized Practice Of Law: Driving Legal Business Without A License, Legalzoom, Inc., And Campbell V. Asbury Automotive, Inc., 2011 Ark. 157, 381 S.W.3d 21., Pierce G. Hunter

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

“Doomed Social Engineering?” Ethics And Professionalism Related To Sexual Orientation: The Florida Experience, Robert W. Lee

Barry Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Client Who Did Too Much, Nancy B. Rapoport

Scholarly Works

Using Hitchcock's MacGuffin as a theme, I discuss the dynamics between client and lawyer when the client so obsesses over the issue driving him that he persuades (or attempts to persuade) the lawyer to do things that are inadvisable from the lawyer's point of view.

Texas Remedies In Equity For Breach Of Fiduciary Duty: Disgorgement, Forfeiture, And Fracturing., George P. Roach

St. Mary's Law Journal

The remedy of fee forfeiture against lawyer fiduciaries has been marginalized. Following Burrow v. Arce, Texas trial courts have frequently applied a no-fracturing rule that effectively bars a claim for breach of fiduciary duty against an attorney. Although the court in Burrow held actual damages were not a prerequisite for fee forfeiture, many Texas trial courts have not followed that precedent. Most Texas trial courts require the plaintiff to prove actual damages to survive a summary judgment motion. Others have openly asserted that not all legitimate claims for breach of fiduciary duty should be allowed as an alternative claim to …

Serving Those Who Served, Edward G. Simpson, Iii, Gregory L. Collins

Law Student Publications

Forward from Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest, Vol. XVII, regarding the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Despite the VA's massive budget and our country's growing veteran population, many veterans' issues are not being adequately addressed, and the legal needs of our veterans require our increased attention.

Tax Advisors And Conflicted Citizens, Milton C. Regan

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Thousands of lawyers are involved every day in advising clients outside of litigation. These lawyers counsel clients on how they can benefit from or avoid violating statutes, regulations, and other sources of law. How should we think about the obligations of the lawyer in this setting? This article argues that we should eschew a single prescriptive model of the advisor in favor of a pluralistic conception that bases responsibilities on the salient factors of the context in which the advisor operates.

The model of the advocate that suggests that the lawyer take a relatively aggressive approach to interpreting the legal …

Why Lawyers Do What They Do (When Behaving Ethically), James Moliterno, John Keyser

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

Since the early 1990s, when David Wilkins published his influential paper “Who Should Govern Lawyers” in the Harvard Law Review, legal ethics scholars and professors have paid attention to the range of processes and devices that govern lawyer behavior. This Article will report on the results of a study currently underway that seeks to provide empirical evidence to answer the question posed in this Article’s title: Do lawyers train staff in confidentiality preservation because they fear bar discipline? Because they fear malpractice liability? Because they must comply with malpractice liability carrier demands? Because they honor client confidences for their own …

The Role Of Ethics Audits In Improving Management Systems And Practices: An Empirical Examination Of Management-Based Regulation Of Law Firms, Susan Saab Fortney

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

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.

Online Legal Advice: Ethics In The Digital Age, Paige A. Thomas

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

The rise of the Internet changed the way initial interactions between lawyers and prospective clients happen. Unfortunately, a host of problems concerning privacy rights and consumer usage have emerged. In this digital age, where immediacy and response time are driving factors in an attorney’s online presence, the approach to establish an attorney-client relationship is far more informal. Due to the quick rise of the Internet and social media, the Model Rules of Professional Conduct do not offer a clear answer for attorneys using social media. An inherent danger lies in off-the-cuff remarks, made on the Internet—a platform generally associated with …

Characterizing Ghostwriting., Debra Lyn Bassett

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

It is well known that legal services are costly and that existing pro bono services are inadequate to help every individual who would benefit from legal assistance. Compounding this unmet need are various restrictions on the types of clients and types of cases that qualify for pro bono services. For example, Legal Services Corporation lawyers may not represent undocumented individuals, and may not undertake a representation in an abortion, desegregation, or assisted suicide matter. One attempt to mitigate this unmet need is ghostwriting. Analogous to presidential speechwriting, ghostwriting in the legal context occurs when a lawyer drafts a pleading or …

Friends Of Justice: Does Social Media Impact The Public Perception Of The Justice System?, Nicola A. Boothe-Perry

Journal Publications

Lawyers have long been recognized as being necessary in the effective functioning of an ordered society in roles as both officers of the court and, more broadly, as officers of the system of justice. In 2014, the ABA Task Force on the Future of Legal Education report noted that "[s]ociety has a deep interest in the competence of lawyers, in their availability to serve society and clients, in the broad public role they can play, and in their professional values." Values such as those noted in the Model Rules of Professional Conduct (advisor, counselor, and advocate) are instrumental in the …

Lawyers Beware: You Are What You Post - The Case For Integrating Cultural Competence, Legal Ethics, And Social Media, Jan L. Jacobowitz

Articles

No abstract provided.

Cracks In The Profession's Monopoly Armor, John Sahl

Akron Law Faculty Publications

This article examines the legal profession’s long-held monopoly in the nation’s legal services market in the context of two recent developments. The first development concerns the Conference of Chief Justices’ (CCJ) recent adoption of Resolution 15, “Encouraging Adoption of Rules Regarding Admission of Attorneys Who Are Dependents of Service Members.” Resolution 15 urges state bar authorities to develop and implement rules permitting admission without examination of lawyers who are military dependents. The CCJ’s rule promotes competition by facilitating the movement of lawyers from one geographic market to another.

The second development is Washington Supreme Court’s new Admission to Practice Rule …

What It Means To Be A Lawyer In These Uncertain Times: Some Thoughts On Ethical Participation In The Legal Education Industry, Susan Carle

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Discusses legal employment and salary and how legal education can address the current market.