Digital Commons Network^™

Who Will Regulate Class Action Lawyers?, Nancy J. Moore

Faculty Scholarship

In 2003, I published an article entitled “Who Should Regulate Class Action Lawyers?”1 In that article, I defended the decision of the American Bar Association’s (“ABA”) Commission on Evaluation of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct (the “Ethics 2000 Commission”), for which I was Chief Reporter, not to propose any substantial amendments to the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct (“Model Rules”) concerning the ethical conduct of class action lawyers.

There are many ethical issues that confront class action lawyers. In my 2003 article, I focused on conflicts of interest—an issue that courts and commentators have had difficulty resolving and …

Foreword To The Conference: The Law: Business Or Profession? The Continuing Relevance Of Julius Henry Cohen For The Practice Of Law In The Twenty-First Century, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Financiers As Monitors In Aggregate Litigation, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

Scholarly Works

This Article identifies a market-based solution for monitoring large-scale litigation proceeding outside of Rule 23’s safeguards. Although class actions dominate the scholarly discussion of mass litigation, the ever increasing restrictions on certifying a class mean that plaintiffs’ lawyers routinely rely on aggregate, multidistrict litigation to seek redress for group-wide harms. Despite sharing key features with its class action counterpart—such as attenuated attorney-client relationships, attorneyclient conflicts of interest, and high agency costs—no monitor exists in aggregate litigation. Informal group litigation not only lacks Rule 23’s judicial protections against attorney overreaching and self-dealing, but plaintiff’s themselves cannot adequately supervise their attorneys’ behavior. …

E-Ethics, Michael K. Mcchrystal

Marquette Elder's Advisor

The fit between laws regulating professional ethics and the means of conducting business, particularly telecommunications and computer technology, has become tenuous. Here, McChrystal examines recent legal decisions concerning electronic transmission of information and discusses the impact of Internet messages and e-mail on attorney-client privilege.

Ethical Issues In Representing Husbands And Wives In Estate Planning, Barbara Freedman Wand

Marquette Elder's Advisor

The article discusses the ethical considerations for attorneys representing husbands and wives with potential conflicts of interest. It discusses several common situations that by their very nature raise potential conflicts of interest between the spouses when they consider estate planning. These situations include prenuptial agreements, blended families, and inherited wealth.

The Communitarian Approach In The Elder Law Construct, A. Frank Johns

Marquette Elder's Advisor

Johns suggests that the proposed revisions to the Model Rules do not go far enough in their approach to multiple party representations in elder law issues. He discusses initial client contact, formation of the client-lawyer relationship, client confidences in multiple representation, and intergenerational conflicts. Three interesting case studies are included to highlight the problems that can arise.

Ethics Of The Attorney In Medical Malpractice Litigation, Marshall B. Kapp

Marquette Elder's Advisor

In medical malpractice litigation, providing legal representation to older patients or their healthcare providers carriers significant ethical implication. However, there has been little scholarly or practical discussion of legal ethics concerning circumstances in which the medical malpractice plaintiff is an older person. The author sets forth a tentative outline of key issues that should be included in an analysis of legal ethics in the medical malpractice context, particularly when an older patient is involved.

Lawyers And Social Media: The Legal Ethics Of Tweeting, Facebooking And Blogging, Michael E. Lackey Jr., Joseph P. Minta

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Procedure In Eclipse: Group-Based Adjudication In A Post-Conception Era, Myriam E. Gilles

Articles

No abstract provided.

Lawyer As Peacemaker: A Christian Response To Rambo Litigation, L. Timothy Perrin

Pepperdine Law Review

This article examines and critiques Rambo lawyering. The practice of law has evolved so that the cornerstone principle of client loyalty, together with the economic incentives inherent in law practice, not only create strong motivations for lawyers to pursue their clients' causes vigorously, but also allow lawyers to easily absolve themselves of any moral obligation for their activities as their clients' representatives. Vigorous advocacy is an indispensible part of the modern judicial system, and it is generally believed that truth and justice will be served as long as there are vigorous advocates on both sides and the profession's code of …

Professionalism And Matthew Shardlake, Alex B. Long

Scholarly Works

This Essay/Book Review examines the Matthew Shardlake series by C.J. Sansom. In particular, it examines the question of whether the sixteenth-century fictional lawyer Shardlake can serve as a role model for twenty-first-century lawyers, both in terms of his ethics and his professionalism. An examination of the Shardlake series as a whole yields some uncertain answers, both as to Shardlake and as to what it means to be an ethical and professional lawyer. This is ultimately part of what makes the series so enjoyable for lawyers.

The Quad (The 2012 Alumni Magazine), Southern Methodist University, Dedman School Of Law

The Quad (Law Alumni Magazine), 1988-present

• Historic Rule of Law Forum - SMU Dedman School of Law hosts Saudi policymakers
• $57 Million+ raised to date in law campaign
• Getting Down to Business: Ten alumni GCs speak about the evolving role of the general counsel
• Alumni Sweep Ethics Awards
• 2012 Distinguished Alumni Awards Ceremony

The Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities: Beginning To Examine The Implications For Canadian Lawyers' Professional Responsiblities, H Archibald Kaiser

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (hereafter the CRPD or the Convention) should herald a new epoch in the way persons with disabilities are treated throughout the world community. The entire panoply of ramifications of this Convention, the purpose of which is “to promote, protect and ensure the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity”, (Article 1) is as yet unascertainable. However, States Parties must “take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination by any person, organization or private enterprise” (Article …

Two And A Half Ethical Theories: Re-Examining The Foundations Of The Carnegie Report, Mark F. Kightlinger

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In the past three years, the American Bar Association, several major state bar associations, the Association of American Law Schools, the New York Times, law students, and many legal educators have called for fundamental changes in the way we educate new lawyers. Some critics have suggested that legal education faces a crisis that will be exacerbated by rising tuitions, declining enrollments, and a precipitous drop in the demand for new lawyers. Most of those calling for change have relied on the critical analysis of modem legal education presented in a 2007 report by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement …

Going Native: Incentive, Identity, And The Inherent Ethical Problem Of In-House Counsel, Pam Jenoff

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Epistemology And Ethics In Relationship-Centered Legal Education And Practice, Susan L. Brooks, Robert G. Madden

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

"Legal Ethics In The Digital Age", Susan David Demaine

Books & Book Chapters by Maurer Faculty

Includes the chapter "Legal Ethics in the Digital Age" by Prof. Susan David deMaine.

Revising Canada's Ethical Rules For Judges Returning To Practice, Stephen Ga Pitel, Will Bortolin

Dalhousie Law Journal

It has recently become more common for retired Canadian judges to return to the practice of law This development raises an array of ethical considerations and potential threats to the integrity of the administration of justice. Although most codes of legal ethics contemplate the possibility of former judges returning to practice, the rules on this particular topic are dated, under-analyzed, and generally inadequate. This article reviews the Canadian ethical rules that specifically relate to former judges and identifies their shortcomings. In doing so, the authors consider, for comparative purposes, Canadian ethical rules directed at former public officers who return to …

Our Federalism: The United States And The Regulation Of Lawyers, Michael J. Churgin

San Diego Law Review

Dedication to the works of Prof. Fred Zacharias.

Images And Aspirations: A Call For A Return To Ethics For Lawyers, Robert P. Lawry

San Diego Law Review

Dedication to the works of Prof. Fred Zacharias.

From Hero To Villain: The Corresponding Evolutions Of Model Ethical Codes And The Portrayal Of Lawyers In Film, Amy S. Beard

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

An Article We Wrote To Ourselves In The Future: Early 21st Century Views On Ethics And The Internet., David Hricik, Prashant Patel, Natasha Chrispin

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

Written from the viewpoint of the year 2050, this Article discusses the clash between legal ethics and the technological revolution of the early twenty-first century. As a result of ethics rules being applied to new technologies in ways never contemplated under traditional circumstances, lawyers had to be overly cautious when they used the Internet to correspond with or seek out clients, or otherwise promote their legal services. The lesson learned is that the legal community should reflect on the harm caused by over zealous regulation and take a more reasoned approach to the use of technology for the benefit of …

Tax Lawyers, Tax Defiance, And The Ethics Of Casual Conversation,, Michael Hatfield

Articles

This essay is to help tax lawyers decide how to handle casual conversations centered on denying, defying, or destroying the tax system. One option is to walk away, ending the conversation and silencing the dialogue. The next option is to engage. I want to persuade tax lawyers that they should usually engage in the conversation. I try to do this in Part III.

There are two kinds of legal ethics essays, and one must choose which kind to write, and it is useful to the reader to know upfront which kind the author chose to write. One kind begins with …

On The Scope Of A Professional’S Right Of Conscience, David Lefkowitz

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Under what conditions, if any, do medical professionals enjoy a right of conscience? That is, when must a just state accommodate a physician’s, pharmacist’s, or other medical professional’s refusal to provide legally and professionally sanctioned services to which she morally objects; for example, by enacting laws that enable her to do so without fear of losing her job or her professional privileges? Recent assertions by several pharmacists of a right to conscientiously refuse to fill prescriptions for the so-called morning-after pill, and by a California fertility doctor of a right to conscientiously refuse to provide fertility treatment to a lesbian, …

Ethical Obligations Of Indigent Defense Attorneys To Their Clients, Phyllis E. Mann

Missouri Law Review

This Article is a basic introduction to the provision of indigent defense services in state courts throughout the country and the ethical obligations of the attorneys who provide those services. First, the Article briefly quantifies what currently exists in our right to counsel systems - what we know, and what we do not know. The Article then discusses the rules that generally govern the ethics of representation provided by indigent defense attorneys. Third, the Article examines the measures by which attorneys can know whether they are fulfilling and will continue to fulfill their ethical obligations. Finally, the Article discusses the …

Ensuring The Ethical Representation Of Clients In The Face Of Excessive Caseloads, Peter A. Joy

Missouri Law Review

This Article is divided into three substantive parts. First, I begin with a short discussion of the most important criminal justice right guaranteed to each of us under the Bill of Rights - the Sixth Amendment right to assistance of counsel. For most Americans, the right to counsel is obtained through indigent defense providers, and the quality of the representation is inextricably tied to three lesser known rights, or perhaps wishes, found in the Public Defender Bill of Rights: "[t]he right to meaningful, weighted caseload standards"; "[t]he right to judges who understand my [the public defender's] role in the [justice] …

Lawyering At The Intersection Of Public Law And Legal Ethics: Government Lawyers As Custodians Of The Rule Of Law, Adam M. Dodek

Dalhousie Law Journal

Government lawyers are significant actors in the Canadian legal profession, yet they are largely ignored by regulators and by academic scholarship. The dominant view of lawyering fails to adequately capture the unique role of government lawyers. Government lawyers are different from other lawyers by virtue of their role in creating and upholding the rule of law Most accounts of government lawyers separate public law duties of government from ethical duties of lawyers; for example, acknowledging the "public interest" role ofgovernment lawyers but asserting that this has no impact on their ethical duties as lawyers. Instead of this compartmentalized approach, this …

Teaching Public Citizen Lawyering: From Aspiration To Inspiration, Mae Quinn

Journal Articles

A longtime social justice activist and clinical professor, Douglas Colbert,2 recently sought information from colleagues across the country3 for the second part of an important project examining a lawyer’s ethical obligation to engage in pro bono work during a time of crisis, such as the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina or 9/11.4 He sent out surveys to learn which schools actually taught the Preamble to the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct in ethics or other courses.5 As Professor Colbert’s letter explained, the Preamble states: “A lawyer, as a member of the legal profession, is a representative of clients, an officer …

Entertainment Law - The Specter Of Malpractice Claims And Disciplinary Actions, Jack P. Sahl

Marquette Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

Can Compassionate Practice Also Be Good Legal Practice?: Answers From The Lives Of Buddhist Lawyers, Deborah J. Cantrell

Publications

What does it mean to say that one is a "good lawyer" in the United States? The dominant view is that a lawyer is a zealous advocate owing loyalty to, and taking direction from, the client. The lawyer is singularly focused and hyper-rationality is prized. This article challenges that narrative. Using the real lives of a group of lawyers across the United States, this article offers rich and nuanced descriptive data about the possibilities of "good lawyering" through compassion, equanimity, and an expanded notion of honesty. This article contributes importantly to the debate about what it means to be a …