Digital Commons Network^™

Ethics, Law Firms, And Legal Education, Milton C. Regan Jr.

Maine Law Review

A rash of recent corporate scandals has once again put professional ethics in the spotlight. It's hard to pick up the Wall Street Journal each day and not read that authorities have launched a new investigation or that additional indictments are imminent. Stories of financial fraud and outright looting have galvanized the public and shaken the economy. What ethical lessons can we draw from these events? Two explanations seem especially prominent. The first is a story of individuals without an adequate moral compass. Some people's greed and ambition were unchecked by any internal ethical constraints. For such deviants, no amount …

The Lawyer As A Public Citizen, Cruz Reynoso

Maine Law Review

The Eleventh Annual Frank M. Coffin Lecture on Law and Public Service was held on October 17, 2002. Cruz Reynoso, Boochever and Bird Professor of Law at the University of California at Davis, School of Law and retired Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court, delivered the lecture. Established in 1992, the lecture honors Judge Frank M. Coffin, Senior Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, an inspiration, mentor, and friend to the University of Maine School of Law. The Board and Staff of Volume 55 are honored to continue the tradition of publishing …

Turns Of The Contingent Fee Key To The Courthouse Door, Douglas R. Richmond

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Strengthening Democracy: The Challenge Of Public Interest Law, Scott Harshbarger

Maine Law Review

The Twelfth Annual Frank M. Coffin Lecture on Law and Public Service was held in the fall of 2003. Scott Harshbarger, former President of Common Cause and Massachusetts Attorney General, delivered the lecture. Established in 1992, the lecture honors Judge Frank M. Coffin, Senior Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, an inspiration, mentor, and friend to the University of Maine School of Law.

Faith, Pluralism, And The Practice Of Law, Robert K. Vischer

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Vol. 53, No. 12 (November 13, 2017)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

Oklahoma Lawyers For America's Heroes Program: Actions Speak Louder Than Words, Darla Jackson

Other Faculty Publications

Article details the legal needs of veterans and active duty service members and describes the Oklahoma Bar Association's programs designed to help address these needs.

Jacob's Blessing, Cooperative Grace, And Practicing Law With A Limp, John M.A. Dipippa

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Learning From The Unpleasant Truths Of Interfaith Conversation: William Stringfellow's Lessons For The Jewish Lawyer, Russell G. Pearce

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

A Challenge To Lawyers, Robert F. Drinan, S.J.

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

On Encouraging Lawyers To Serve The Poor, John F. Castellano

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Vol. 53, No. 09 (October 23, 2017)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

The Shifting Frontiers Of Law: Access To Justice And Underemployment In The Legal Profession, Nandini Ramanujam, Alexander Agnello

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The article examines two interrelated issues attracting attention from the legal academy, the profession, and policy makers: i) the crisis of access to justice among ordinary Canadians, and ii) the increasing number of qualified and underemployed lawyers. This article sets out to understand the interrelated factors underlying these two trends, and explores long-term, accessible solutions to address the misalignment between the supply of underemployed law graduates and a demand for affordable legal services. In response to these twin problems, we examine how legislative reform, open source networks, and the automation of legal work can allow lawyers to create more cost-effective …

Reflections On Forty Years Of Private Practice And Sustained Pro Bono Advocacy, Stephen H. Oleskey

Maine Law Review

I am going to address two topics. The first is the one Judge Coffin asked me to address in October 2009, when I was invited to give the 2010 Coffin Lecture: how to combine the private practice of law with an active pro bono practice. The second topic is the one Dean Peter Pitegoff and I agreed to add: a brief discussion of legal developments in national security law since 9/11. My pro bono involvement in Guantanamo Habeas litigation began in 2004 and led directly to my interest in national security law and to my recognition of how difficult it …

Leveraging Academic Law Libraries To Expand Access To Justice, Paul Jerome Mclaughlin Jr.

Library Faculty Publications

Academic law libraries are in a unique position to help citizens gain access to the court system and legal information. By creating clinics that focus on helping pro se patrons find and complete legal forms, academic law libraries would not only benefit their schools but also the justice system.

The Pro Bono Collaborative Project Spotlight: Increasing Access To Justice Just Got A Little Easier In Rhode Island 10-05-2017, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Pro Bono Collaborative Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Vol. 53, No. 07 (October 2, 2017)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

Nebraska Transcript (University Of Nebraska College Of Law), Volume 50, Number 2, Fall 2017

Nebraska Transcript

Dean’s Message

New Schmid Clinic Building enhances College's ability to provide students with hands-on legal education

Susan Poser's portrait joins those of fellow deans

Donors make the Marvin & Virginia Schmid Clinic Building a reality

Nebraska Law's new Children's Justice Clinic trains students to advocate for state's youth

Preeta Bansal delivers spring commencement address

Client Counseling Competition: From an excuse to hang out to win after win

Jenna Cope and Kari Schmitz are the 2017 ABA Law Student Division Client Counseling Competition National Champions.

Nebraska Law garners team, individual honors in INADR Law School Mediation Tournament

Nebraska Law team places …

The Ambulance Chasing Epidemic In Texas, Ronald Rodriguez

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

Barratry and solicitation of professional employment is illegal and unethical. The Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct define barratry as ethical misconduct and a serious crime. Unfortunately, for citizens and law-abiding attorneys of Texas, the criminal and ethical prohibitions against barratry have rarely been enforced. Consequently, barratry continues to proliferate rapidly throughout South Texas. For lawyers who engage in this unethical practice, the potential for large financial gain proves irresistible given the virtually nonexistent risk of prosecution. The lack of robust and successful prosecutions has created an optimal environment for barratry to proliferate. This Article discusses the current barratry epidemic …

Lawyers In The Mist: The Golden Age Of Legal Nostalgia, Marc Galanter

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

No one watching the contemporary furor over the litigation explosion and lawsuits devouring America can fail to be impressed by the power of folklore to overwhelm workaday organized social knowledge. Time and again, the protestations of bean-counters and skeptics are vanquished by stories about perverse institutions peopled by malingering plaintiffs, greedy lawyers, capricious jurors, and arrogant judges, proving yet again that it is not what is so that matters, but what people—at least for the moment—think is so. Tenacious belief may not make it so, but can have powerful effects.

In this essay I address another cluster of folklore about …

“The Lost Lawyer” Regained: The Abiding Values Of The Legal Profession, Robert Maccrate

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

No abstract provided.

Money Didn’T Buy Happiness, Lawrence J. Fox

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

No abstract provided.

Changing The Modal Law School: Rethinking U.S. Legal Education In (Most) Schools, Nancy B. Rapoport

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

This essay argues that discussions of educational reform in U.S. law schools have suffered from a fundamental misconception: that the education provided in all of the American Bar Association-accredited schools is roughly the same. A better description of the educational opportunities provided by ABA-accredited law schools would group the schools into three rough clusters: the “elite” law schools, the modal (most frequently occurring) law schools, and the precarious law schools. Because the elite law schools do not need much “reforming,” the better focus of reform would concentrate on the modal and precarious schools; however, both elite and modal law schools …

Alternative Business Structures: Good For The Public, Good For The Lawyers, Jayne R. Reardon

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

There has been a shift in consumer behavior over the last several decades. To keep up with the transforming consumer, many professions have changed the way they do business. Yet lawyers continue to deliver services the way they have since the founding of our country. Bar associations and legal ethicists have long debated the idea of allowing lawyers to practice in “alternative business structures,” where lawyers and nonlawyers can co-own and co-manage a business to deliver legal services. This Article argues these types of businesses inhibit lawyers’ ability to provide better legal services to the public and that the legal …

Law Firm Economics And Professionalism, Ward Bower

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Both Dean Kronman in The Lost Lawyer and Professor Glendon in A Nation Under Lawyers attribute some of the problems and challenges facing lawyers today to economic pressures and to a preoccupation with profits and fees. For Kronman, this economic focus interferes with the “moral detachment” necessary for achievement of the “lawyer-statesman” ideal. For Glendon, professional dilemmas caused by the deterioration of the legal economy, competition in the marketplace, lawyer-shopping by clients, early specialization, lack of mentoring and emphasis on the billable hour have created an unhappy generation of ethically challenged practitioners.

Both authors accurately assess the state of the …

Smu Pro Bono Centre’S New Premises Officially Unveiled, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases and News

“Pro bono legal services represent the highest form of social work that the legal profession can perform in service to the public. Everyone needs some form of legal assistance or advice at one time or another. It is not just free work, but free work for our poor ‘neighbours’ without expectation of any kind of material reward – it is the work of the Good Samaritan. It is free work, given from the heart,” said Mr Chan Sek Keong, former Chief Justice and current Senior Judge at the Singapore Supreme Court, at the official opening of the SMU Pro Bono …

Professional Responsibility Of The Criminal Defense Lawyer Redux: The New Three Hardest Questions, Todd A. Berger

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

In 1966, Professor Monroe Freedman authored Professional Responsibility of the Criminal Defense Lawyer: The Three Hardest Questions, a work that occupies an important place in the cannon of legal ethics. Freedman believed that the three hardest questions facing a criminal defense attorney relate to whether it is ethical to discredit a truthful witness; whether it is proper to knowingly allow a client to testify falsely; and whether a lawyer may provide a client with legal advice when the lawyer suspects the client may use that advice to commit a crime. Beyond Freedman’s queries there are other important, yet largely unaddressed, …

Life After Daca: Immigration Reform In The Age Of Trump, Hasan Shafiqullah, Martin Batalla, Michael Wildes, Anthony Enriquez, Javeria Ahmed

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The symposium examines the revocation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program by the Trump administration, its legal challenges, and the ongoing debate over immigration reform. It highlights the impact on approximately 900,000 DACA recipients and the lawsuits arguing the revocation was arbitrary, capricious, and motivated by racial discrimination. The analysis emphasizes the need for comprehensive immigration reform, advocating for a "clean" Dream Act to provide a pathway to citizenship without compromising the rights of other immigrants or increasing enforcement measures. The discussion also underscores the historical and cultural significance of immigration in the U.S., urging collective action …

On Choosing Clients And Careers: A Speculative Essay On The Problems Of Initial Choice, Joseph P. Tomain

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

July 2017 Newsletter

Ergo

No abstract provided.