Digital Commons Network^™

The Lawyer's Duty Of Public Service: More Than Charity?, Tigran W. Eldred, Thomas Schoenherr

Faculty Scholarship

The question of whether lawyers have an ethical duty to perform public service-and, in particular, whether the obligation requires that a percentage of time be devoted to providing free legal services to the poor'-has a disjointed and uneven history. Leaders of the bar, espousing various and often conflicting views of morality, compassion, noblesse oblige, and individual autonomy, have contributed to this state of affairs, creating a complicated web of vague ideals that today jeopardizes the legal profession's sense of its own public obligations. On the one hand, the legal profession remains dedicated to the traditional view that public service …

Culture Clash In The Quality Of Life In The Law: Changes In The Economics, Diversification And Organization Of Lawyering, Carrie Menkel-Meadow

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

There is no question that law practice has changed in recent decades. More lawyers work in larger units or newer forms of practice. Increasing numbers of lawyers come from previously excluded groups, including both women and minority demographic groups. After a period of economic boom there is general economic anxiety about the continued health and growth of the law "industry." This occurs as there is a general "speed up" in American work, the forms of law practice organization and billing for legal work are being renegotiated, and rates of dissatisfaction with the practice of law increase, especially among younger and …

The Word On Trial, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Milner Ball's extraordinary book, The Word and the Law, begins with a narrative account of "seven practices in law." The seven practitioners Ball brings to life for the reader share two powerful traits: they all, in quite different ways, use law to lessen the multiple sufferings of various communities of poor people, and they all, by doing so, strengthen the communities within which and for which they labor. The reader gains from these accounts not only a sympathetic understanding of the lives of seven lawyers, but a renewed sense of the possibilities their practices present. This can be put any …

Nonrefundable Retainers Revisited, Lester Brickman, Lawrence A. Cunningham

Articles

Amidst widespread public attention to fee abuses, a court recently held for the first time that nonrefundable retainers violate professional ethics. The court in In re Cooperman essentially adopted the argument of Professors Brickman and Cunningham that nonrefundable retainers are against public policy because they impair a client's right to discharge his attorney at any time without penalty. Because declaring such agreements unethical is tantamount, in the eyes of the practicing bar, to declaring them void, In re Cooperman has sparked a national outcry from those who profit from enforcing nonrefundable retainers. In this Article, Professors Brickman and Cunningham analyze …

Lawyers At The Prison Gates: Organizational Structure And Corrections Advocacy, Susan P. Sturm

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article attempts to fill the gaps in the discussion of public interest advocacy by exploring the roles of various legal organizations in providing representation to inmates challenging the conditions and practices in prisons, jails, and juvenile justice institutions. It is an outgrowth of a study conducted for the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation on the extent and quality of representation in corrections litigation. It puts forward an organizational change model of public interest advocacy as the most promising strategy for legal representation in the corrections area. It then identifies the major organizational providers of representation, assesses where they fall on …

Fall 1993

Bill of Particulars

No abstract provided.

Jacob Burns, Simon J. Liebowitz

Cardozo Law Review

The demise of Mr. Jacob Bums is a great loss not only to his family but to his many friends. Folks who met him in the course of his manifold humanitarian activities were deeply impressed by his sincerity, kindness, and love for humanity. As a practicing lawyer his great ability served his clients well. Providing pro bono legal services to the poor was a way of life to him.

An Introduction To The European Community's Legal Ethics Code - Part Ii: Applying The Ccbe Code Of Conduct, Laurel Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

This article, which is Part 2 in a series, examines the CCBE Code of Conduct and continues where the prior article left off. See An Introduction to the European Community's Legal Ethics Code Part I: An Analysis of the CCBE Code of Conduct, 7 Georgetown J. of Legal Ethics 1 (1993). "CCBE" is the acronym used to describe the Council of the Bars and Law Societies of the European Community; the CCBE has been recognized as the official representative of the legal profession with the European Community. In 1988, the CCBE adopted a code of conduct that was intended to …

Clark Memorandum: Fall 1993, J. Reuben Clark Law Society, J. Reuben Clark Law School

The Clark Memorandum

• Becoming J. Reuben Clark's Law School (Marion G. Romney)
• Integrity, the Evidence Within (Neal A. Maxwell)
• Growing Up (Elaine L. Jack)
• Satisfaction in the Law (David C. Campbell)

Meeting Agenda - September 28, 1993, Las Vegas Chapter Of The National Bar Association

Membership Meetings

No abstract provided.

Lawyers, Please Check Your First Amendment Rights At The Bar: The Problem Of State-Mandated Bar Dues And Compelled Speech, James B. Lake

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pro Bono Legal Work: For The Good Of Not Only The Public, But Also The Lawyer And The Legal Profession, Nadine Strossen

Michigan Law Review

I agree with Judge Edwards that "the lawyer has an ethical obligation to practice public interest law - to represent some poor clients; to advance some causes that he or she believes to be just." I also concur in Judge Edwards' opinion that "[a] person who deploys his or her doctrinal skill without concern for the public interest is merely a good legal technician - not a good lawyer."

Rather than further develop Judge Edwards' theme that lawyers have a professional responsibility to do pro bono work, I will offer another rationale for such work, grounded in professional and individual …

Stewardship, Donald B. Ayer

Michigan Law Review

While I agree with much that Judge Edwards has proposed, I thus submit that his formulations of the problem are partial - a bit like those of the blind men examining different parts of the elephant. The law's current unhappiness is only partly described as that of law schools and practicing lawyers going in different directions, of law practice becoming too commercial, or of law schools failing to serve the needs of the practicing lawyers and judges with practical teaching and scholarship. All of these observations, while correct as far as they go, miss the root of the problem, which …

The Growing Disjunction Between Legal Education And The Legal Profession: A Postscript, Harry T. Edwards

Michigan Law Review

In this essay I offer a postscript to "The Growing Disjunction." It is not possible for me to "respond" directly to the other participants in this symposium, because I had no opportunity before publication to read what they have written. I will therefore limit myself to two tasks. First, I will briefly discuss several issues raised in the article. Second, and most important, I wish to share a representative sample of the responses I have received regarding the article. These responses, I think, provide good evidence of the magnitude of the problem that we face.

The Growth Of Interdisciplinary Research And The Industrial Structure Of The Production Of Legal Ideas: A Reply To Judge Edwards, George L. Priest

Michigan Law Review

This brief response will attempt to repair these various deficiencies, though only in part because of the difficulty of the subject. It will try to explain more fully the rise of interdisciplinary legal research and will sketch the broader structure of the production and dissemination of new ideas about law and the legal system. The relationship between legal education and legal practice implicates an understanding of the "market" for legal ideas. To describe ideas as the subject of a "market," of course, has become conventional. In my view, however, the market metaphor most typically distorts our understanding of the issue, …

An Introduction To The European Community's Legal Ethics Code - Part I: An Analysis Of The Ccbe Code Of Conduct, Laurel Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

This article, which is Part 1 of two articles, examines the CCBE Code of Conduct. CCBE is the acronym used to describe the Council of the Bars and Law Societies of the European Community; the CCBE has been recognized as the official representative of the legal profession with the European Community. In 1988, the CCBE adopted a code of conduct that was intended to apply to situations in which lawyers from one CCBE Member of Observer State were involved with lawyers from another CCBE State. This article summarizes the development of the CCBE Code of Conduct, explains who it applies …

An Essay On The Regulation Of The Legal Profession And The Future Of Lawyer's Characters, Patrick L. Baude

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Meeting Agenda - June 10, 1993, Las Vegas Chapter Of The National Bar Association

Membership Meetings

No abstract provided.

Determining The Appropriate Time Limitations On Attorney Malpractice Lawsuits In West Virginia: A Brief Overview, Vincent Paul Cardi

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Are Criminal Defenders Different?, David Luban

Michigan Law Review

No one has done more to expose the jurisprudential incoherence of this view of legal practice than William Simon. In his 1978 article, The Ideology of Advocacy, Simon demonstrated a series of internal contradictions in the most promising attempts to justify the ideology of advocacy. Subsequently, in Ethical Discretion in Lawyering, Simon elaborated an alternative view according to which lawyers must exercise independent judgment in both their choice of clients and their choice of means in pursuing client ends.

In Simon's view, those who carve out the criminal defense exception have been taken in by what he calls …

Vol. 3, No. 1 (Spring 1993)

IU Law Update

No abstract provided.

Class Of 1993 Five Year Report Alumni Comments, University Of Michigan Law School

UMLS Alumni Survey Class Reports

This addendum is a compilation of alumni responses to the open-ended comments sections.

Class Of 1993 Five Year Report, University Of Michigan Law School

UMLS Alumni Survey Class Reports

This report summarizes the findings of a questionnaire sent to University of Michigan Law School alumni five years after graduation.

Law Firm Restructuring: The Big Picture, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The term "restructuring" has become a buzzword for law firm efforts to improve the bottom line by altering the composition of the firm's personnel. In many instances, this is accomplished by "downsizing," a word more easily spoken than "firing." As opportunities for ownership interest in law firms evaporate, firms talk about "nonequity partners" and "rainmaking" skills. Such euphemisms are often used to sugarcoat the bitter medicine of economic reality. It may be useful to look more closely at the phenomenon of restructuring, although cynics might say lawyers should look at structuring first. In either case, taking a look at the …

Lawyering For Social Change: The Power Of The Narrative In Domestic Violence Law Reform, Jane C. Murphy

All Faculty Scholarship

The role of the narrative or story in legal discourse has been explored and developed in legal scholarship over the last several years. The goals of the various calls for more storytelling in the legal context vary. They generally relate, however, to a desire to move away from exclusive reliance on abstract legal argumentation to persuade. The goals of ‘storytellers‘ are also linked to furthering an understanding of the dynamics of oppression based on race or gender, or both.

The judicial and legislative processes have always included a narrative component. Clinical legal scholarship has also explored the critical role of …

Kentucky Lawyer, 1993, University Of Kentucky College Of Law

Annual Magazines

No abstract provided.

The Material Basis Of Jurisprudence, Richard A. Posner

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Joint State-Federal Regulation Of Lawyers: The Case Of Group Legal Services Under Erisa, Julia Field Costich

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Tribute To Professor Willie Moore, Okianer Christian Dark

University of Richmond Law Review

I first met Professor Willie Moore during the 1989-90 recruitment season for law faculty. Willie came to our law school to meet with the Dean, faculty and students. There was much excitement among the faculty concerning his visit to the law school. Many persons had already reviewed his credentials - valedictorian of his high school class; an honors graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; graduate of Yale University Law School; law clerk to Judge Damon J. Keith on the Federal Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit; former associate at Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp in Los …

Where Were The Lawyers? A Behavioral Inquiry Into Lawyers' Responsibility For Clients' Fraud, Donald C. Langevoort

Vanderbilt Law Review

Where were the lawyers? Perhaps rhetorical, even sarcastic, this question is being asked all too frequently after large financial frauds. "[W]ith all the professional talent involved," mused Judge Sporkin in a decision growing out of the Lincoln Savings & Loan scandal, "why [didn't] at least one... [blow] the whistle to stop the overreaching that took place in this case[?]" The Lincoln matter alone ensnared a number of the country's most prominent law firms," and many others have been blamed in comparable, if less notorious, banking delicts. Clark Clifford's indictment in the BCCI proceeding has extended the dark shadow even further …