Digital Commons Network^™

The Informed Consent Doctrine In Legal Malpractice Law, Vincent R. Johnson

Faculty Articles

The doctrine of informed consent is now deeply embedded into the law of legal ethics. In legal malpractice litigation, the doctrine holds that a lawyer has a duty to disclose to a client material information about the risks and alternatives associated with a course of action. A lawyer who fails to make such required disclosures and fails to obtain informed consent is negligent, regardless of whether the lawyer otherwise exercises care in representing a client. If such negligent nondisclosures cause damages, the lawyer can be held accountable for the client's losses.

Shifting the focus of a legal malpractice action from …

The Trial Preparation Procedures—Civil, Will Rhee, L. Richard Walker

Law Faculty Scholarship

In an effort to provide scholarship immediately useful to the litigator, this Article proposes a detailed systems workflow to plan and coordinate preparing for federal civil trials called the Trial Preparation Procedures—Civil or "TrialPrepPro—Civil" for short. Although there is an abundance of anecdotal "learning from doing" trial preparation guidance, empirically testable "learning about doing" trial preparation guidance is rare. We present our TrialPrepPro to learn more about doing.

The TrialPrepPro is modeled after the battle-proven U.S. Army Troop Leading Procedures used, with modifications, by all U.S. military services, our NATO allies, and many other foreign militaries. Although there is ample …

Judges And The Deregulation Of The Lawyer's Monopoly, Jessica Steinberg, Anna Carpenter, Colleen Shanahan, Alyx Mark

Faculty Articles

In a revolutionary moment for the legal profession, the deregulation of legal services is taking hold in many parts of the country. Utah and Arizona, for instance, are experimenting with new regulations that permit nonlawyer advocates to play an active role in assisting citizens who may not otherwise have access to legal services. In addition, amendments to the Rules of Professional Conduct in both states, as well as those being contemplated in California, now allow nonlawyers to have a partnership stake in law firms, which may dramatically change the way capital for the delivery of legal services is raised as …

Seeing Those We’Ve Rendered Invisible – A Clarion Call For Criminal Justice, Stephen E. Henderson, Jordan Thomas

Faculty Articles

Jonathan Rapping, Gideon’s Promise: A Public Defender Movement to Transform Criminal Justice (Beacon Press 2020) In this brief review, we situate Rapping’s work among those demanding criminal justice reform, praise an unrelated bonus, and propose a friendly amendment to nudge his vision over the finish line of justice. It will not be enough to provide newly enabled and supported public defenders to those our systems consider indigent. We ought to provide them to us all.

Radical Reformation: Diverse Pathways To Attorney Licensure Will Yield A More Diverse Profession, Carla Pratt

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

The Duty Of Legislative Counsel As Guardians Of The Statute Book: Sui Generis Or A Professional Duty Of Lawyers?, Andrew Flavelle Martin

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Legislative counsel—those who draft legislation for the executive or for legislative assemblies—are largely overlooked in the Canadian legal literature and case law. One respect in which legislative counsel appear to be unique is their duty as guardians or keepers of the statute book. This article argues that this Guardian duty is best understood as a professional duty of legislative counsel as lawyers. In the same way that all lawyers have professional duties as officers of the court, though these duties are most relevant to litigators, all lawyers have professional duties as officers of the statute book, though these duties are …

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

Faculty Articles and Papers

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 …

Lawyers For The Undocumented: Addressing A Split Circuit Dilemma For Asylum-Seekers, Jayanth K. Krishnan

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The immigration crisis at the border, since 2016, has seen children separated from parents, the detention of noncitizens increase, and record-breaking numbers of applicants denied entry into the United States. For individuals fleeing their home countries because of persecution, the hardship has been particularly severe. To start, the chances of gaining asylum have dwindled significantly. For those who are successful, a subsequent and crucial question is whether the lawyers who represent them can recoup their legal fees from the government.

Since 1980, a federal statute known as the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) has allowed for a “prevailing party” …

Channel Your Inner Kindergartner: Fostering A Culture Conducive To Creativity In Legal Practice, Samantha A. Moppett

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Focus On The Future: An Interview With Monsurat Ottun, Esq., Nicole P. Dyszlewski, Meghan L. Hopkins

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Focus On The Future: An Interview With Kaylin Pelletier-Koening, Esq., Nicole P. Dyszlewski, Meghan L. Hopkins

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Deborah Jones Merritt Center For The Advancement Of Justice, Claudia Angelos, Mary Lu Bilek, Joan W. Howarth

Scholarly Works

When invited to write an essay on clinical legal education honoring our friend, we were struck by the importance of a focus on clinical legal education in any collection of work paying tribute to Professor Deborah Jones Merritt. Legal education has benefited from a fifty-year movement for clinical education. This movement necessarily interrogates and seeks to overcome the anachronistic, inherited Langdellian paradigm that dominates and continues to define the curricula and policies of our law schools. But the movement for clinical education has been exponentially confounded by contemporary legal education’s shape as a pyramid of statuses and privileges accumulated over …

The Rules Of The (Belt And) Road: How Lawyers Participate In China's Outbound Investment And Infrastructure Initiatives, Lawrence J. Liu

Scholarship@WashULaw

This article provides a bottom-up view of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) though an empirical examination of how and why domestic lawyers are engaged in BRI investment and infrastructure projects. Drawing on an original dataset of biographical information of, and eleven semi-structured interviews with, lawyers identified by the state as “BRI and Cross-Border Legal Experts,” I examine these lawyers’ demographic characteristics, the knowledge they rely upon in their work, and their motivations. I find that China’s BRI lawyers work and speak in ways similar to cross-border lawyers from countries like the United States. At the same time, these state-adjacent …

State-Adjacent Professionals: How Chinese Lawyers Participate In Political Life, Lawrence J. Liu, Rachel E. Stern

Scholarship@WashULaw

This article complicates the conventional wisdom that Chinese lawyers are either politically liberal activists or apolitical hired guns by training our attention on the group of lawyers who choose to stand adjacent to the state and participate in governance. Through an examination of how and why winners of the state-sanctioned Outstanding Lawyer Award participate in politics, we illustrate how state-adjacent lawyers provide the state with information and persuade others to behave in ways the state considers appropriate. Although proximity to power affords some social and professional benefits, award winners are also motivated by a commitment to improving Chinese society. By …

Power And Possibility In The Era Of Right To Counsel, Robust Rent Laws & Covid-19, Erica Braudy, Kim Hawkins

Articles & Chapters

New York City (NYC) finds itself in an unprecedented housing crisis as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic reveals with devastating force that safe, sustainable and affordable housing is both a human right and a public health necessity. The profound humanitarian and economic devastation of COVID-19 puts millions of New Yorkers at risk of eviction especially those within Black and Latinx communities. In addition, the pandemic hit just as the legal landscape for tenants was transformed through landmark legislation ensuring the Right to Counsel in eviction proceedings and sweeping reforms of New York's rent laws. The unparalleled COVID-19 pandemic, the influx of …

Judges And The Deregulation Of The Lawyer's Monopoly, Jessica K. Steinberg, Anna E. Carpenter, Colleen F. Shanahan, Alyx Mark

Faculty Scholarship

In a revolutionary moment for the legal profession, the deregulation of legal services is taking hold in many parts of the country. Utah and Arizona, for instance, are experimenting with new regulations that permit nonlawyer advocates to play an active role in assisting citizens who may not otherwise have access to legal services. In addition, amendments to the Rules of Professional Conduct in both states, as well as those being contemplated in California, now allow nonlawyers to have a partnership stake in law firms, which may dramatically change the way capital for the delivery of legal services is raised as …

Focus On The Future: An Interview With Justin S. Smith, Esq., Nicole P. Dyszlewski, Meghan L. Hopkins

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

That's Not Fair Use: Why Rule 68 Copyright Defendants Canno Recover Post-Offer Attorney's Fees, Ryan Kaiser

American University Law Review

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 68 (Rule 68) is a cost-shifting rule that allows a non-prevailing defendant who made an offer of judgment more favorable than the final judgment to recover costs incurred from the point the offer was made. Until the mid-1980s, whether the rule could apply to the attorney’s fees was the source of much debate. In 1985, the U.S. Supreme Court provided a partial answer when it decided Marek v. Chesny, holding that Rule 68 operates to preclude a civil rights plaintiff from recovering post-offer attorney’s fees. The Court stated that Rule 68 costs include all costs …

A Tribute To Professor Catherine Mahern, Lawrence Raful

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Legal Industry's Second Chance To Get It Right, Nancy B. Rapoport, Joseph R. Tiano Jr.

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Covid-19’S Complications For Family Law Counsel: Domestic Violence And Threats To The Well-Being Of Children, J. Thomas Sullivan

The Arkansas Journal of Social Change and Public Service

No abstract provided.

Student And Career Services Newsletter 02, Office Of Student And Career Services

Student and Career Services Newsletter

November-December 2020

December 2020 Magazine

Ergo

No abstract provided.

Legal Clinics And The Better Trained Lawyer, Part Ii: A Case Study Of Accomplishments, Challenges And The Future Of Clinical Legal Education, Thomas Geraghty

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Billing Without Bilking: Regulating Time-Based Legal Fees, Noel Semple

Dalhousie Law Journal

The billable hour is the most common method for calculating legal fees in Canada. Codes of conduct state that time-based fees must be “fair and reasonable” and “disclosed in a timely fashion,” but provide very little additional guidance. Throughout a time-based retainer, lawyers and clients are confronted with ethical ambiguity. This creates both opportunities for exploitation and conflicts of interest.

This article argues that clear rules and efficient procedures are required to determine what specific billing and disclosure practices are “fair,” “reasonable,” and “timely.” Detailed rules are already replacing vague standards for contingency fees, and time- based fees should move …

Court-Appointment Compensation And Rural Access To Justice, Hannah Haksgaard

Faculty Publications

Hourly rates paid to court-appointed lawyers impact access to justice. Court appointed lawyers provide necessary counsel in civil and criminal cases, yet hourly rates in many jurisdictions are so low that many lawyers cannot afford to take court-appointed cases. This article argues that low hourly rates cause problems: namely, appointed lawyers will be insufficient in number, inaccessible to their clients, and sometimes even ineffective. These problems are heightened in rural America where they are compounded by geographical distance and the rural lawyer shortage. This article concludes by suggesting a number of policy solutions.

The Pro Bono Collaborative Project Spotlight: Can You Help? December 2020, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Pro Bono Collaborative Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

The Appearance Of Professionalism, Elizabeth B. Cooper

Florida Law Review

The dominant image of a lawyer persists: a neatly dressed man wearing a conservative dark suit, white shirt, and muted accessories. Many attorneys can conform to this expectation, but there are a growing number of “outsider” lawyers for whom compliance with appearance norms can challenge their fundamental identities. People of color, women, LGBTQ individuals, religiously observant persons, and those who inhabit intersectional identities are among those who disproportionately remain excluded from the dominant culture and centers of power in the legal profession.

Expectations of appearance conformity create profound concerns that go well beyond style preferences, raising questions of autonomy and …

Okafor V Nweke [2007] 10 Nwlr (Pt. 1043) 521, Oluwakemi A. Dowodu-Sipe

SAIPAR Case Review

No abstract provided.

Nebraska Transcript (University Of Nebraska College Of Law), Volume 53, Number 2, Fall 2020

Nebraska Transcript

Dean's Message - Richard Moberly 1

Professor Anthony Schutz focuses on pedagogy, research as College’s new associate dean for faculty 4

Women Lead 2020 conference spurs attendees to ‘Claim Your Power’ 6

Molly Brummond honored for her outstanding contributions to women 10

John Lenich honored for work with students 12

Bobby Larsen selected as American Constitution Society Next Generation Leader 13

Anna Shavers receives Nebraska Bar Association 2020 Diversity Award 13

Sullivan’s Tenant Assistance Project represents renters facing eviction 14

Alumni, Tenant Assistance Project, a projected conceived by alumna Mindy Rush Chipman, ’07, and professor Ryan Sullivan, ’10, honored with …