Digital Commons Network^™

[email protected], Bruce A. Green, Carole Silver

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

The transformative potential of technology in legal practice is well recognized. But wholly apart from how law firms actually use technology is the question of what law firms say about how they use and relate to technology—in particular, how law firms communicate whether technology matters and has value in what they do. In the past, firms in the BigLaw category, especially at the top echelon, have grounded their reputations on the credentials and achievements of their lawyers. In this paper, we explore whether elite law firms use technology similarly by describing it as an additional tool of inter-firm competition—a sort …

Take Note: Teaching Law Students To Be Responsible Stewards Of Technology, Kristen E. Murray

Catholic University Law Review

The modern lawyer cannot practice without some deployment of technology; practical and ethical obligations have made technological proficiency part of what it means to be practice-ready. These obligations complicate the question of what constitutes best practices in law school.

Today’s law schools are filled with students who are digital natives who don’t necessarily leverage technology in maximally efficient ways, and faculty who span multiple generations, with varying amounts of skepticism about modern technology. Students are expected to use technology to read, prepare for class, take notes, and study for and take final exams. Professors might use technology to teach or …

Leading Legal Disruption Editorial: A Vision For The Future Of Artificial Intelligence, Giuseppina D'Agostino, Aviv Gaon, Carole Piovesan

Articles & Book Chapters

Leading Legal Disruption: Artificial Intelligence and a Toolkit for Lawyers and the Law is designed to challenge lawyers with the practical implications that emerging technologies will have on delivering legal services and thinking about legal issues to navigate their digital transformation. By inviting thought leaders across the world and in different disciplines, ranging from privacy, contract law, and torts to governance and policy, this book goes beyond abstract and general philosophical observations on matters that concern practitioners. This practical approach has generated a wide range of global perspectives, which are refreshingly novel and timely for what are increasingly global issues. …

Why Don't We All Just Wear Robes?, Ruthann Robson

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

Lawyers and law professors select our professional outfits each day, often experiencing a mix of consternation and gratification. The dread springs from our failures: to know what constitutes the “right look;” to be able to achieve that “right look;” to anticipate what the day will bring; to have prepared by doing the laundry or other tasks. The joy resides in self-expression; we fashion ourselves as works of art, even within the constraints of professional attire.

It could have been different. We could have sacrificed the satisfaction of self-expression for the complacency of conformity; we could wear robes. Judges—at least …

Advocating For The Future, John C. Dernbach, Irma S. Russell, Matthew Bogoshian

Faculty Works

Attorneys in our varied roles need to step up and address the climate crisis for the sake of every person and for the public good. All lawyers must be sustainability lawyers now. This article explains why; it also offers an illustrative set of suggestions on how to get started and what to do.

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 …

Results Of The Legal Incubator Lawyers' Survey, Aba Standing Committee On The Delivery Of Legal Services, Center For Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction, Luz E. Herrera, Rebecca Sandefur, Briana Morris

Faculty Scholarship

Legal incubators, also known as law firm incubators, in the United States are designed to help lawyers develop and launch law practices while expanding access to underserved populations. Based on business incubator models, legal incubator programs support the creation of new law firms by providing space, mentoring, and training to licensed lawyers. Most of the law firms produced by these legal incubators are solo or small firms that exist as both for profit businesses and nonprofit entities. Since the first legal incubator appeared in 2007, over 70 self-identified legal incubator programs have emerged around the globe.

In 2016, the ABA …

Ai And Legal Scholarship : Reflections On Evolution And Influences, Jonathon W. Penney

Articles & Book Chapters

Leading Legal Disruption: Artificial Intelligence and a Toolkit for Lawyers and the Law is designed to challenge lawyers with the practical implications that emerging technologies will have on delivering legal services and thinking about legal issues to navigate their digital transformation. By inviting thought leaders across the world and in different disciplines, ranging from privacy, contract law, and torts to governance and policy, this book goes beyond abstract and general philosophical observations on matters that concern practitioners. This practical approach has generated a wide range of global perspectives, which are refreshingly novel and timely for what are increasingly global issues. …

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

Journal of Natural Resources & Environmental Law

No abstract provided.

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

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

A New Era Of Legal Services: The Elimination Of Unauthorized Practice Of Law Rules To Accompany The Growth Of Legal Software, Julian Moradian

William & Mary Business Law Review

Since the inception of bar associations in the early twentieth century, states have promulgated rules that prohibit unlicensed individuals from providing legal services. These unauthorized practice of law rules have created a monopoly on legal services, which in turn has inflated the price of obtaining legal services to a point where a significant percentage of individuals who need such services are unable to obtain them. Legal software has the potential to disrupt the market for legal services and make such services available to the mass market. However, for innovation and widespread use of legal software to gain traction, these unauthorized …

Chaos Or Continuity? The Legal Profession: From Antiquity To The Digital Age, The Pandemic, And Beyond, Jan L. Jacobowitz

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The idea of individuals entering into a social contract to relinquish some of their rights in order to have a civilized society protect their fundamental rights originates at least as early as ancient Greece, where it was espoused by the philosopher Epicurus. Implicit in a social contract is the enactment of laws to achieve a democratic, civilized society and the concept of advocacy. Advocacy exists to protect an individual’s rights. The legal profession originated organically as the citizens of ancient Greece and Rome recognized the need for professional advocates. From this nascent beginning, the legal profession has evolved over centuries …

Vol. 60, No. 04 (January 25, 2021)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

Vol. 60, No. 03 (January 18, 2021)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

Mindfulness For Legal Professionals: An Appeal For Positive Change, Dianna Mejia

Mindfulness Studies Theses

Recent studies and reports address growing concerns about high rates of chronic stress, depression, and substance use by lawyers and law students. The National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being identified the practice of law as a profession that is struggling and urged leaders to act now to improve the state of mental health and well-being of legal professionals. Among the recommendations in the 2017 report, The Path to Lawyer Well-Being: Practical Recommendations for Positive Change, the National Task Force included mindfulness as a practice to address the psychological and psychosomatic disorders permeating the legal profession. The National Task Force urged …

“Listserv Lawyering”: Definition And Exploration Of Its Utility In Representation Of Consumer Debtors In Bankruptcy And In Law Practice Generally, Josiah M. Daniel Iii

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

The author examines the communications and activities of bankruptcy lawyers participating in the listserv of the Bankruptcy Law Section of the State Bar of Texas and finds that those activities constitute a previously unrecognized form of “lawyering,” which he has defined as the work of lawyers in and through the legal system to accomplish the objectives of their clients. Review of specific postings about legal issues and practical problems by Texas bankruptcy lawyers, whose practices are primarily on behalf of individual debtors in cases under Chapters 7 and 13 of the Bankruptcy Code, and observations about the voluntary, collaborative, and …

Where's Rudy?, James E. Moliterno

Scholarly Articles

Choice of law in lawyer discipline matters, and the language among the popular choice of law rules in use matters. The core goals of choice of law principles should not limit the choices to the states in which a lawyer has a full, formal license. Doing so undermines the modern choice of law interests analysis by eliminating jurisdictions that may have the greatest interest in the conduct.

Lawyers cross borders physically and electronically on a daily basis. Accordingly, choice of law rules are critical, especially when a lawyer engages in missions that are targeted at particular jurisdictions, as Rudy Giuliani …

Student And Career Services Newsletter 03, Office Of Student And Career Services

Student and Career Services Newsletter

January 2021

Avoiding The Great Divide: Assuring Court Technology Lightens The Load Of Low-Income Litigants Post-Covid-19, Katherine L.W. Norton

Tennessee Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Simultaneity Puzzle: Lawyers Working At Multiple Law Firms, Paul R. Tremblay

Tennessee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Becoming Global Lawyers? A Comparative Study Of Civic Professionalism, John Bliss

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Through their professional education and training, new lawyers are generally encouraged to adopt a civic vision of professional identity. This article explores convergences and diverges in how new lawyers entering an increasingly globalized legal profession conceive of their civic roles in different national contexts. In particular, I examine corporate lawyers-in-training in the U.S. and China, drawing on interviews and a cross-cultural identity mapping method to compare their accounts of the lived experiences of civic professionalism. I find that professional identity formation in the U.S. sample is largely marked by role distancing and a sense of constrained public-interest expression. In contrast, …

Ordinary Clients, Overreaching Lawyers, And The Failure To Implement Adequate Client Protection Measures, Leslie C. Levin

American University Law Review

Every year, thousands of individual clients are victimized by overreaching lawyers who overcharge clients, refuse to return unearned fees, or steal their money. For more than forty years, the American Bar Association (ABA) has considered, and often proposed, client protection measures aimed at protecting clients from overreaching lawyers. These measures include requirements that lawyers use written fee agreements in their dealings with clients and rules relating to fee arbitration, client protection funds, insurance payee notification, and random audits of trust accounts. This Article examines what happened to these ABA recommendations when the states considered them and assesses the current state …

Using Experiential Learning To Create An Inclusive Classroom, Promote Equity, And Develop Professional Identity, Tianna N. Gibbs

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Legal education is changing. As law schools diversify their student bodies, they are being more intentional about the creation of an inclusive and equitable learning environment. Law schools also are engaging in curricular and pedagogical reform to better prepare students for law practice. Incorporating experiential learning into the law school curriculum has been a significant component of these reform efforts. The development of students’ professional identity also has become a focus of preparation for practice.

Is The Legal Profession Too Independent?, Limor Zer-Gutman, Eli Wald

Marquette Law Review

Faced with mounting pressure to permit national law practice and increase

access to legal services for those who cannot afford to pay for them and

critiques about growing inequality and its failure to lead the battles for greater

gender and racial justice, the legal profession’s response has been to resist

reform proposals by invoking its independence. Lawyers and lawyers alone,

asserts the profession, ought to determine the pace and details of nationalizing

law practice, set the conditions under which nonlawyers and artificial

intelligence can offer legal services, and respond to growing inequality among

lawyers and concerns about the role lawyers …

Tele-Lawyering And The Virtual Learning Experience: Finding The Silver Lining For Remote Hybrid Externships & Law Clinics After The Pandemic, Lucy J. Johnston-Walsh, Alison Lintal

Faculty Scholarly Works

The COVID-19 pandemic has rocked the world in innumerable ways. This Article argues that the COVID-19 pandemic has a silver lining for law students in experiential learning programs. The pandemic has forced law schools across the country to fully utilize remote learning technology. The pandemic similarly forced courts to accept virtual tools in an environment that had previously relied primarily on in-person appearances. The lessons that law faculty and judges have learned from the pandemic will be permanent and may change the methods of operation going forward. Law schools that embrace the lessons they learned can help their law students …

Law Talk In A Brief Advice Clinic, Linda F. Smith

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Over three decades ago, Sarat and Felstiner published a ground-breaking ethnographic study of divorce client-lawyer conversations. They concluded that lawyers portrayed "a chaotic 'anti-system' in which [clients] cannot rely on the technical proficiency, or good faith, of judges and rival lawyers" but need to rely on their own lawyers' insider status to achieve reasonable outcomes.1 Although lawyers initially described the law and procedure to their clients, they rarely referenced that rational description when explaining what had occurred or would occur in their clients' cases. This law talk may have gradually and ultimately persuaded the clients to reach reasonable settlements, but …

Asylum Attorney Burnout (Model Survey And Additional Survey Responses), Lindsay M. Harris, Hillary A. Mellinger

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Civil Rights, Access To Counsel, And Injunctive Class Actions In The United States, Maureen Carroll

Book Chapters

According to a familiar story about class actions in the United States, aggregation promotes access to counsel by increasing the amount of money from which counsel fees can be taken. Courts usually award class counsel a percentage of the monetary recovery obtained on behalf of the class, and class treatment can turn a $30 case into a $3 million case. But what about class actions that do not involve monetary relief at all? Some civil rights plaintiffs seek to stop a violation, rather than to obtain compensation for past harm, and therefore choose to pursue only an injunction or declaratory …

Mitchell Hamline School Of Law Summer 2020 Covid-19 Legal Response Clinic, Natalie Netzel, Ana Pottratz Acosta, Joanna Woolman, Kate Kruse, Jon Geffen

Faculty Scholarship

This essay is a reflection on lawyering in a time of crisis. It details the Mitchell Hamline School of Law Clinical Faculty’s response to the community needs resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic by creating the COVID-19 Legal Response Clinic. It also recounts the impact of the murder of George Floyd and the long overdue national reckoning with systemic racism, sparked in our city. Additionally, against this backdrop, it examines the trauma-informed approach taken in clinical work and the classroom to help students process their own trauma and apply this approach in their work with clients.

Amid these concurrent crises in …

Change At The Speed Of Leadership, Lee Fisher

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

“The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born—that there is a genetic factor to leadership. . . That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.”

“Lawyers are in the anomalous position of serving as leaders but generally lacking leadership training and skills. Competency in lawyering skills often functions as a proxy for leadership skills, despite the evidence that leadership skills are distinct and may take years to develop. Our neglect of leadership skills is reaching crisis proportions because nearly half of all current law firm partners will retire within the next ten …