Digital Commons Network^™

Gone Too Far: Federal Regulation Of Health Care Attorneys, Stacey A. Tovino

Faculty Articles

Outside health care counsel frequently obtain medical records, billing records, health insurance claims records, and other records containing individually identifiable health information in the course of representing health industry clients in medical malpractice, licensure, certification, accreditation, fraud and abuse, peer review, and other civil, criminal, and administrative health law matters. This Article is the first to argue that state rules of professional conduct, not federal health information confidentiality regulations, should govern outside health care counsel’s use and disclosure of confidential client information, and that outside counsel should be excepted from direct federal regulation under the HIPAA Privacy Rule.

The Transformative Potential Of Attorney Bilingualism, Jayesh Rathod

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

In contemporary U.S. law practice, attorney bilingualism is increasingly valued, primarily because it allows lawyers to work more efficiently and to pursue a broader range of professional opportunities. This purely functionalist conceptualization of attorney bilingualism, however, ignores the surprising ways in which multilingualism can enhance a lawyer’s professional work and can strengthen and reshape relationships among actors in the U.S. legal milieu. Drawing upon research from psychology, linguistics, and other disciplines, this Article advances a theory of the transformative potential of attorney bilingualism. Looking first to the development of lawyers themselves, the Article posits that attorneys who operate bilingually may, …

A Blueprint For Change, William D. Henderson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Article discusses the financial viability of law schools in the face of massive structural changes now occurring within the legal industry. It then offers a blueprint for change – a realistic way for law schools to retool themselves in an attempt to provide our students with high quality professional employment in a rapidly changing world. Because no institution can instantaneously reinvent itself, a key element of my proposal is the “12% solution.” Approximately 12% of faculty members take the lead on building a competency-based curriculum that is designed to accelerate the development of valuable skills and behaviors prized by …

A Lawyer For John Doe: Alternative Models For Representing Maryland's Middle Class, Lucy B. Bansal

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

"A Lawyer for John Doe," explores the growing disparity between the legal services available to the upper class and the poor in the state of Maryland. The article offers four models or solutions that creatively show different ways in which middle class citizens can obtain adequate and substantive legal representation for issues that specifically concern them.

The Curious Case Of Transformative Dispute Resolution: An Unfortunate Marriage Of Intransigence, Exclusivity, And Hype, Robert J. Condlin

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

Why do proponents of Transformative Dispute Resolution ("TDR") defend the Theory in such intransigent, exclusivist, and grandiose terms? TDR is a mature theory, and a relatively sophisticated one, and qualities of this sort usually go hand in hand with a balanced, refined, and well-modulated sense of self, but TDR proponents will have none of that. They make ambitious (some would say outlandish) assertions about the Theory's capacity to develop moral and political character, reform deliberative government, and resolve ethno-political conflict, while simultaneously rejecting overtures from sympathetic outsiders to rein in the overstated aspects of these claims, and craft a more …

Rethinking Men And Masculinities In The Contemporary Legal Profession: The Example Of Fatherhood, Transnational Business Masculinities, And Work-Life Balance In Large Law Firms, Richard Collier

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Billable Hour Is Dead. Long Live…?, Robert Hirshon

Articles

The legal profession, of course, quickly comprehended that pursuant to the hourly approach to billing, two factors were paramount: the total amount of hours it took to complete a matter and the amount of dollars charged per hour. As both transactions and litigation became more complex, law firms found it necessary and easy to justify adding bodies (read: hours) to their clients' legal projects. With the number of legal projects increasing as a result of explosive economic growth in both developed and developing nations, the demand for top legal talent during most of the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s was …

Transactional Drafting: Using Law Firm Marketing Materials As A Research Resource For Teaching Drafting, Edward R. Becker

Articles

Since I started teaching drafting, I would like to think that I have continued to learn some lessons about teaching both the substance and the skills of transactional drafting. One of those lessons that I am going to be talking about today is one that I stumbled across by happy accident rather than one that I consciously sought. Specifically, I want to talk about and highlight the ways that law students can use law firm marketing materials to increase their understanding of both drafting and lawyering skills in law school and, hopefully, in practice.

Lawyering For Groups: The Case Of American Indian Tribal Attorneys, Kristen A. Carpenter, Eli Wald

Publications

Lawyering for groups, broadly defined as the legal representation of a client who is not an individual, is a significant and booming phenomenon. Encompassing the representation of governments, corporations, institutions, peoples, classes, communities, and causes, lawyering for groups is what many, if not most, lawyers do. And yet, the dominant theory of law practice--the Standard Conception, with its principles of zealous advocacy, nonaccountability, and professional role-based morality--and the rules of professional conduct that codify it, continue to be premised on the basic antiquated assumption that the paradigmatic client-attorney relationship is between an individual client and an individual attorney. The result …

Teaching Business Law Through An Entrepreneurial Lens, Michelle M. Harner

Journal of Business & Technology Law

The legal market has changed. Although change creates uncertainty and fear, it also can create opportunity. This essay explores the opportunity for innovation in the business law curriculum, and the role of simulation to help create more practice-aware new lawyers.

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 …

Helping Your Client Create And Grow A Successful Nonprofit Organization: A Checklist For The ‘Non’ Nonprofit Attorney, Dana M. Malkus

All Faculty Scholarship

The following feature is an abridged version of “Helping Your Client Create and Grow a Successful Nonprofit Organization,” an article which appeared in volume 67 of the Journal of The Missouri Bar in October 2011. The purpose of the original article was to provide Missouri attorneys with information and tools designed to enable them to offer pro bono legal assistance to start-up and established nonprofit organizations.

Prescriptions For Ethical Blindness: Improving Advocacy For Indigent Defendants In Criminal Cases, Tigran W. Eldred

Faculty Scholarship

The reasons criminal lawyers so often fail to provide adequate legal representation to indigent defendants are well-­known: severe underfunding, excessive workloads, and other disincentives for competent representation work together to encourage quick disposition of cases, with little regard for the quality of legal services that are provided. Yet, largely overlooked in this equation is whether defense lawyers who provide subpar representation are aware of their own shortcomings. To answer this question, this Article focuses on the psychology of ethical decision making. Relying on research that reveals the subtle ways that self-­interest can cause people to overlook unethical behavior, it argues …

Peel-Off Lawyers: Legal Professionals In India's Corporate Law Firm Sector, Jayanth K. Krishnan

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This study is about hierarchy within the legal profession – how it presents itself, how it is retained, and how it is combated. The socio-legal literature on this subject is rich, with many roots tracing back to Professor Marc Galanter’s famous early 1970s article on the ‘Haves’ and ‘Have-Nots.’ Galanter’s piece and the work of those influenced by him rightly suggest that resources – institutional, financial, and demographic – contribute to whether lawyers are, and remain as, part of the ‘Haves.’ Yet, while resources of course greatly matter, as this study will argue other forces are significant as well. One …

Teaching Social Justice, Expanding Access To Justice: An Introduction, Ngai Pindell, Jackie Gardina

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Relational Infrastructure Of Law Firm Culture And Regulation: The Exaggerated Death Of Big Law, Russell G. Pearce, Eli Wald

Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, the ethical infrastructure and culture of law firms has come under attack from commentators, such as Larry Ribstein, Bill Henderson, and Marc Galanter, who, in related ways, predict "the death of Big Law." They assert that the individualistic ethical infrastructure and culture of large firms undermine their commitment to professional values and will result in their failure to prepare for, and to survive, long term economic and technological trends. We identify a contradiction at the heart of this analysis. While these critiques correctly identify the individualistic flaws of law firm culture, they share the same individualistic assumptions. …

Sensibilities For Social Justice Lawyers, Ascanio Piomelli

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Measuring Justice, Jane H. Aiken, Stephen Wizner

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The research imperative of refining ways to measure justice is important and necessary. Our work as lawyers improves the more we know about our effectiveness and the more our choices are evidence based. Nevertheless, quantifying the work of a lawyer is not easy. How do we ensure that any measure of justice captures outcomes for both trial-based advocacy and non-trial-based advocacy on behalf of clients, including negotiated outcomes? How do we quantify the role lawyers play in listening to our clients, explaining the systems in which they operate, and supporting them through often very difficult times in their lives? How …

Nested Ethics: A Tale Of Two Cultures, Milton C. Regan

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article suggests that a law firm that desiring to promote ethical behavior by its lawyers needs to complement efforts to establish an “ethical infrastructure” and an “ethical culture” with attention to its broader organizational culture. Specifically, research indicates that the perception that an organization treats its members fairly–their sense of organizational justice--is an important factor in prompting members’ ethical behavior.

Many law firms in the last two or three decades have devoted attention to establishing what has been called an “ethical infrastructure” that reflects appreciation of the importance of organizational policies and procedures in encouraging ethical behavior. Such measures …

Next Generation Civil Rights Lawyers: Race And Representation In The Age Of Identity Performance, Anthony V. Alfieri, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Articles

This Book Review addresses two important new books, Professor Kenneth Mack's Representing the Race: The Creation of the Civil Rights Lawyer and Professors Devon Carbado and Mitu Gulati's Acting White? Rethinking Race in Post-Racial America, and utilizes their insights to both explore the challenges that face the next generation of civil rights lawyers and offer suggestions on how this next generation of civil rights lawyers can overcome these difficulties. Overall, this Book Review highlights one similarity in the roles of black civil rights attorneys past and present: the need for lawyers in both generations to perform their identities in …

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.

Lawyers’ Professional Independence: Overrated Or Undervalued?, Bruce A. Green

Faculty Scholarship

This article explores the concept of lawyers’ "professional independence" in the literature of the U.S. legal profession. It begins with some reflections on the conventional meanings of professional independence, which encompasses both the bar’s collective independence to regulate its members and individual lawyers’ independence in the context of professional representations, including independence from clients, on one hand, and independence from third parties, on the other. The article suggests that the professional conduct rules are overly preoccupied with protecting lawyers’ professional independence from the corrupting influences of other professionals. The article then turns to an aspect of professional independence that has …

Bypassing Civil Gideon: A Legislative Proposal To Address The Rising Costs And Unmet Legal Needs Of Unrepresented Immigrants, Erin B. Corcoran

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Contingency Enhancements In Attorney Fee Cases: City Of Burlington V. Dague, The End Of Merit Systems Protection Board's Struggle To Understand And Apply Delaware Valley Ii , Cameron P. Quinn, Katharine A. Klos

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Student-Friendly Model: Creating Cost-Effective Externship Programs, James H. Bachman, Jana B. Eliason

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Law As A Profession: Examining The Role Of Accountability, Susan Saab Fortney

Faculty Scholarship

In asserting that law is a profession, not a business, lawyers often refer to the role that self-governance plays in the legal profession. Julius Henry Cohen captured this sentiment in the following exhortation: “Ours is a profession...The sins of one of us are the sins of all of us.” Come, brethren, let us clean house.” Meaningful self-governance requires accountable and independent professionals. This article tackles accountability as fundamental aspects of professionalism. The examination of accountability considers fissures in accountability as demonstrated in lawyers’ rush to jump on the limited liability bandwagon and resistance to mandatory legal malpractice insurance and insurance …

Financiers As Monitors In Aggregate Litigation, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

Scholarly Works

This Article identifies a market-based solution for monitoring large-scale litigation proceeding outside of Rule 23’s safeguards. Although class actions dominate the scholarly discussion of mass litigation, the ever increasing restrictions on certifying a class mean that plaintiffs’ lawyers routinely rely on aggregate, multidistrict litigation to seek redress for group-wide harms. Despite sharing key features with its class action counterpart—such as attenuated attorney-client relationships, attorneyclient conflicts of interest, and high agency costs—no monitor exists in aggregate litigation. Informal group litigation not only lacks Rule 23’s judicial protections against attorney overreaching and self-dealing, but plaintiff’s themselves cannot adequately supervise their attorneys’ behavior. …

Protecting The Public, Not Anyone's Turf: The Unlicensed Practice Of Law In Securities Arbitration , John P. Cleary

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pro Bono Projects Broaden Opportunities, Instill Values, Hannah L. Buxbaum

Hannah Buxbaum (2011-2013 Interim)

No abstract provided.

Mission: Impossible, Mission: Accomplished Or Mission: Underway? A Survey And Analysis Of Current Trends In Professionalism Education In American Law Schools, Mary Ann Robinson

Working Paper Series

This Article identifies common characteristics of effective professionalism instruction to provide guidance in how to design innovative professionalism instruction. After introducing the topic in Part I, Part II of this Article describes the origins and development of the professionalism education movement in American Law schools. Part III of this Article explains our methods for collecting information and identifies and summarizes the predominant trends, and provides examples of noteworthy programs or initiatives. Part IV concludes by describing our method for assessing successful programs and identifying the characteristics of effective professionalism instruction.