Digital Commons Network^™

Social Enterprise: Who Needs It?, Brian Galle

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

State statutes authorizing firms to pursue mixtures of profitable and socially-beneficial goals have proliferated in the past five years. In this invited response essay, I argue that for one large class of charitable goals the so-called “social enterprise” firm is often privately wasteful. While the hybrid form is a bit more sensible for firms that combine profit with simple, easily monitored social benefits, existing laws fail to protect stakeholders against opportunistic conversion of the firm to pure profit-seeking. Given these failings, I suggest that social enterprise’s legislative popularity can best be traced to a race to the bottom among states …

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.

Representing Social Enterprise, Alicia E. Plerhoples

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article explores the representation of social enterprises—i.e., nonprofit and for-profit organizations whose managersstrategically and purposefully work to create social, environmental, and economic value or achieve a social good through the use of business techniques—in the Social Enterprise & Nonprofit Law Clinic at Georgetown University Law Center. Representation of social enterprises helps create a dynamic curriculum through which law students learn to merge corporate legal theory with transactional law practice. Through service to social enterprises, law students (i) learn about corporate governance and corporate legal theory as well as business models and mechanisms that support social and environmental value creation …

Richmond Law Magazine: Winter 2013

Richmond Law Magazine

Features:

Outsourcing Childcare

The Long Wait for October

Click to Agree

Introduction: Symposium On Eu Law: Developments In Honor Of Judge Konrad Schiemann, Roger J. Gobel

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Boards-R-Us: Reconceptualizing Corporate Boards, M. Todd Henderson, Stephen Bainbridge

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

State corporate law requires director services be provided by "natural persons." This Article puts this obligation to scrutiny, and concludes that there are significant gains that could be realized by permitting firms (be they partnerships, corporations, or other business entities) to provide board services. We call these firms "board service providers" (BSPs). We argue that hiring a BSP to provide board services instead of a loose group of sole proprietorships will increase board accountability, both from markets and judicial supervision. The potential economies of scale and scope in the board services industry (including vertical integration of consultants and other board …

Can Lawyers Stay In The Driver's Seat?, Daniel G. Currell, M. Todd Henderson

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

A Local Official's Guide To Language Access Laws, David Jung, Noemi Gallardo, Ryan Harris

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

Sharp growth in immigration has introduced California to a large number of persons who do not speak and understand English well enough to make use of basic social services. These individuals may not know what public services are available, may not be able to communicate with local officials, and may not receive information that local agencies release to the public. Local agencies throughout California should ensure that all their services are accessible to persons for whom English is a barrier to understanding.

This article first explains why the California and federal constitutions forbid laws requiring that services be provided in …

Crimes Without Punishment: An Update On Violence Against Women And Impunity In Guatemala, Karen Musalo, Blaine Bookey

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

In response to rates of violence against women that rank among the highest in the world, Guatemala enacted the Law Against Femicide and Other Forms of Violence Against Women in 2008. Unfortunately, the law does not seem to be rectifying the deeply rooted problem of gender-based violence that plagues Guatemala. A 2010 report by the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies and later investigation in collaboration with the Refugee and Human Rights Clinic at UC Hastings revealed the degree to which Guatemala is failing to protect women from gender-motivated attack.

This article first surveys the scope of the problem of …

Planting People, Growing Justice: The Three Pillars Of New Social Justice Lawyering, Artika R. Tyner

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

To accomplish meaningful social change, lawyers must move beyond their traditional role as mediaries between clients and the justice system and work collaboratively with marginalized communities. Lawyers should stand as leaders to help underprivileged people obtain the basic necessities of life and dignity. To that end, Dr. Tyner introduces three pillars of new social justice lawyering: social justice lawyering, leadership, and public policy advocacy.

This essay opens with a survey of several theoretical approaches to social justice lawyering. It moves on to examine how lawyers can serve as leaders. Finally, the article explores ways in which lawyers can serve as …

Is The Nfl Playing Dirty With Super Bowl Clean Zones?: Will The Noerr-Pennington Doctrine Be Successfully Applied By The Nfl In Williams V. City Of Arlington And Future Cases Involving The Super Bowl Clean Zone Ordinance, Andrew Sachs

Student Works

No abstract provided.

The Social Media Thicket For Mississippi Lawyers: Surviving And Thriving In An Ethical Tangled Web, Michael H. Rubin

MC Law Review

No abstract provided.

After Dothard: Female Correctional Workers And The Challenge To Employment Law, Brenda V. Smith, Melissa C. Loomis

Project on Addressing Prison Rape - Articles

This article examines a profession where women have made great strides - corrections. Using an equality framework, corrections and other non-traditional professions were the first target of the feminist movement in the 1970s. By and large, feminists were successful in creating greater porosity for women in law enforcement, emergency services, corrections, and the military. While women have entered these traditionally masculine spaces, they still suffer from an achievement gap. They are still underrepresented in leadership positions and marginalized in these settings; are still the targets of discrimination based on race, gender, and perceived sexual orientation; and are less likely than …

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 …

The Business Of Privacy, Fred H. Cate, Christopher Kuner, Christopher Millard, Dan Jerker B. Svantesson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

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.

Identifying The Client In A Corporate Family: The Overreliance On Corporate Affiliation In Attorney-Client Privilege, Anthony Cuesta

Texas A&M Law Review

The attorney-client privilege is a well-established tenet of law that balances two competing interests—the need for a disclosure of facts that could lead to an equitable conclusion in litigation, and the need to protect communications between counsel and client to promote candid and comprehensive discourse that could lead to an equitable conclusion in litigation. The attorney-client privilege has evolved in time to evade obsolescence. This Comment discusses the evolution of the attorney-client privilege in the context of modern corporate law. This Comment addresses when it becomes appropriate to extend the privilege between separate corporations that are affiliated by ownership. Many …

Do Good To Get Barred: The New Empire State Pro Bono Requirement’S Potential Impact On Environmental Law Practitioners, Kim Diana Connolly

Other Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Worker Cooperative Creation As Progressive Lawyering: Moving Beyond The One-Person, One-Vote Floor, Gowri Krishna

Articles & Chapters

Community Economic Development (CED) scholars posit that creating worker cooperatives, businesses owned and managed by their workers, is a progressive approach to CED that has the potential to go beyond job creation and spur grassroots political activism. Yet many workers’ rights organizations and workers’ rights advocates, especially those serving low-wage immigrant workers, struggle with how to connect worker cooperatives to broader efforts for change. This Article argues that forming a worker cooperative that acts as a change agent requires more than simply structuring the business as a worker cooperative. Cooperative corporation laws and cooperative principles set a floor — typically, …

Community Water Systems, Joanne Hilton, Susan Kelly, Sarah Armstrong

Water Matters!

Apart from the major cities along the Rio Grande corridor, much of New Mexico remains relatively rural. Recent studies estimate a 2013population of around 2,085,500 statewide. In the state fiscal year 2011,about 1,836,000 people, or 88 percent of New Mexico’s population obtain their water from community water systems. Approximately 284,000 people, or about14 percent of the population, receive their drinking water from community water systems serving fewer than 5,000 people. As of 2012, there are 1,148 public water systems that provide drinking water in New Mexico. Of these systems, 593are community water systems; of these, 546 serve fewer than 5,000 …

Water Litigation In The Lower Rio Grande, Darcy S. Bushnell

Water Matters!

The water allocation issues are hotly contested in south-central New Mexico and the surrounding area. Today, the river and those who depend on it face more administrative challenges in the face of shrinking water supplies and increased population. These challenges have given rise to two ongoing lawsuits: the Lower Rio Grande Adjudication,New Mexico v. EBID, et al., 96-CV-888 (1996) (N.M. v. EBID) in the New Mexico Third Judicial District Court (adjudication court) and the New Mexico v. United States,et al., D.N.M. 11-CV-691 (2011) (N.M. v.U.S.) in United States District Court of New Mexico (U.S. District Court).

Screening For Elder Mistreatment Among Older Adults Seeking Legal Assistance Services, Sheryl M. Strasser, Megan Smith, Scott Weaver, Shimin Zheng, Yan Cao

ETSU Faculty Works

Introduction: The aging population is a rapidly growing demographic in the United States. Isolation, limited autonomy, and declining physical and mental health render many older adults vulnerable to elder mistreatment (EM). The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence and correlates of EM among a sample of older adults using legal assistance services in Atlanta, Georgia.

Methods: Researchers administered surveys to consenting older adults (aged 60þ) in 5 metro Atlanta community centers that hosted legal assistance information sessions as part of the Elderly Legal Assistance Program. The surveys screened for risk factors and prevalence of EM risk using …

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 …

Increasing Referrals To Small Claims Mediation Programs: Models To Improve Access To Justice, Heather Scheiwe Kulp

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

The justice system is in crisis. In 2011, 85% of Connecticut's family court cases had at least one self-represented litigant. In Massachusetts, 92% of parties appearing in housing cases are selfrepresented. New York saw self-representation in 97% of child support cases. Although judges and attorneys are learning to adapt to this new reality, the strain is felt strongly by bench and bar alike.

This article explores a service that many courts already offer-small claims mediation-and studies how courts may more effectively refer parties to such services. Specifically, this article identifies six primary models courts use to refer parties to small …

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 …

No Longer Left To Their Own Devices: Utilizing And Facilitating Mediation To Give Students Access To Assistive Technology, Eric Slepak

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

This Note seeks to fill that void by examining the unique role AT plays in a student's development and how mediation succeeds (and fails) in helping the student secure desired equipment and services. Part II of this Note examines the background law and facts governing the dissemination of AT devices and services and the mechanisms for resolving disputes surrounding that dissemination. Part III provides an illustrative example to demonstrate the complex legal issues that arise in the determination of technology appropriate for students with disabilities.

Part IV then examines why mediation offers a superior mode of resolution to both parents …

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. …

Financial Retrenchment And Institutional Entrenchment: Will Legal Education Respond, Explode, Or Just Wait It Out?, Ian Weinstein

Faculty Scholarship

Both markets and ideas have turned against the American legal profession. Legal hiring has contracted, and law school enrollments are decreasing. The business models of big law and legal education are under pressure, current levels of student indebtedness seem unsustainable, and a hero has yet to emerge from our fragmented regulatory structures. In the realm of ideas, the information revolution has sparked deep critiques of structured knowledge and expertise, opening the roles of the law and the university in society to reexamination. We are less enamored of the scholar-lawyer and gaze with longing at technocrats. I hope that clinical law …

In Denial: The Role Of Law In Preparing For Death, Barbara A. Noah

Faculty Scholarship

Only approximately 20% of Americans have engaged in any form of advance care planning and, even among older Americans, the process frequently is delayed until an acute illness provides sufficient pressure to act. End of life law, though flawed, offers some opportunity to express individual values and preferences via advance directives of various kinds in order to prepare for death before it is imminent. Yet many people avoid making these preparations because the thought of death is uncomfortable to confront. This Article considers the utility of existing law in preventing and resolving end of life disputes and avoiding over-utilization of …