Digital Commons Network^™

The Pro Bono Industrial Complex, Tanina Rostain

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Recent settlements between corporate law firms and the Trump Administration, consisting of donations totaling nearly $1billion in free representation, have brought law firm pro bono to the fore. Pro bono has been institutionalized in corporate law firms since the turn of the 21^st century. Pro bono evangelists and corporate law firms contend that pro bono increases access to justice and protects individual rights. Scholarship on pro bono has not challenged these claims, focusing instead on managerial and organizational incentives that could increase the number of hours corporate firms devote to pro bono. Given the prominence of corporate law firm …

Harnessing Your Superpower As A Lawyer, Rebecca Frank Dallet

Marquette Law Review

None

When Lawyers Leave Law Firms - The Ethics & Malpractice Risks, Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum (Iclef)

Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum 2025

Meeting proceedings of a seminar by the same name, held March 26, 2025.

2025 Applied Professionalism, Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum (Iclef)

Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum 2025

Meeting proceedings of a seminar by the same name, held October 30, 2025.

Preventive Transparency In Third-Party Litigation Funding, Seth Katsuya Endo

Northwestern University Law Review

For years, efforts to comprehensively regulate third-party litigation funding have been unsuccessful. But bills requiring mandatory disclosure are being introduced in Congress, and the Advisory Committee for Civil Rules has finally agreed to take up the issue. By grounding the discussion of third-party litigation funding in both the broader civil procedure and professional responsibility scholarship, this Article identifies an easy, uncontroversial reform to preventively address the categorical concerns raised by the practice. The primary contribution is a doctrinal intervention, identifying how legal ethics are an integral part of federal civil procedure and then drawing out the implications for third-party litigation …

Attorneys And Ai: How Lawyers Use Artificial Intelligence And Analyze Its Impacts, Matthew I. Hall, Christian Turner, Eddie A. Gomez Schieber, Nathaniel Kite, Ari Schlesinger

Scholarly Works

AI systems are testing lawyers' professional ethics obligations of competence, confidentiality, and candor. In the legal profession, the widespread availability of AI systems presents opportunities, like improving the review of documents during the discovery stage of a lawsuit, and challenges, illustrated by the handful of high-profile incidents where lawyers submitted legal briefs in court citing and describing fictitious cases based on AI-generated output. We conducted interviews with 44 legal professionals in the U.S. to understand how attorneys are making sense of AI technology and the impacts these technologies are having on their profession, legal ethics, and legal institutions. We describe …

How The Billable Hour Can Survive Generative Ai, Jonah Perlin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The legal profession is rapidly adopting generative AI technology. With this shift has come an increasingly common assumption that generative AI will significantly reduce or even bring an end to hourly billing. The logic underlying this conclusion seems intuitive: if AI reduces the time lawyers spend on certain tasks while eliminating others altogether, then the total number of billable hours will fall. That decline, in turn, could threaten the financial viability of hourly billing, despite its place as the dominant law firm compensation model over the past half century.

This Article challenges this assumption. It argues instead that the billable …

Chatgpt Didn’T Write This . . . Or Did It? The Emergence Of Generative Ai In The Legal Field And Lessons From Mata V. Avianca, James H. Curlin Iv

Arkansas Law Review

It’s no secret: Artificial Intelligence (“AI”), for better or worse, is revolutionizing the world. The legal field and legal education at large are not immune to this explosion of possible uses for AI technology. However, as with any technological advancement, AI and Generative Language Models bring with them many challenges, including the implications of their use. One such challenge was vividly presented in the case of Mata v. Avianca, often referred to as “The ChatGPT Case.” Mata is a cautionary tale of the potential missteps that can trip up the unwitting user who naively relies on the lofty promises of …

How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bot: What I Learned About Ai And What You Can Too, John Lande

Faculty Publications

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools play an increasingly prominent role in legal education, legal practice, and dispute resolution. People’s understanding of how these tools work varies widely. This article outlines a framework to improve AI literacy among dispute resolution practitioners, parties, ADR program managers, faculty, students, and scholars. It highlights emerging trends and offers practical suggestions and resources to support AI literacy and the responsible integration of AI into their work. A companion article, Getting the Most from AI Tools: A Practical Guide to Writing Effective Prompts, helps users, especially those in dispute resolution roles, learn how to write effective …

Brief Of Amici Curiae 775 Law Professors In Support Of Plaintiff's Motion For Summary Judgment And Declaratory And Permanent Injunctive Relief, Wilfred U. Codrington Iii, Haiyun Damon-Feng, Rebecca Ingber, Rachel Landy, Jacob Noti-Victor, Alexander A. Reinert, Anthony J. Sebok

Amicus Briefs

Amicus curiae brief submitted by 775 law professors in support of Susman Godfrey LLP's motion for summary judgment and request for declaratory and permanent injunctive relief in Susman Godfrey LLP v. Executive Office of the President. The brief argues that Executive Order 14263 unlawfully targets a law firm based on its clients, advocacy, and litigation activities, in violation of the First Amendment, Fifth Amendment, and Sixth Amendment. The amici contend that the order constitutes impermissible viewpoint discrimination, interferes with the right to counsel, and threatens the independence of the legal profession and the rule of law.

Mindful Lawyering: Incorporating Mindfulness Into The American Bar Association’S Model Rules Of Professional Conduct, Lyda Creus Molanphy

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

No abstract provided.

Sighting The Scope Of A Lawyer’S Representation, Douglas R. Richmond

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

Clients engage lawyers for many reasons. Regardless of the circumstances, however, the lawyer and the client need to agree on the scope of the lawyer’s representation, meaning the legal services the lawyer will perform for the client. The client must agree to and understand the scope of the lawyer’s representation as aspects of establishing her objectives for the matter and thereafter evaluating whether the lawyer is achieving those objectives. The client must also understand the scope of the representation to be able to decide whether the matter’s potential expense justifies its pursuit and to gauge the reasonableness of the lawyer’s …

Legal Market Decartelization, Milan Markovic, Nuno Garoupa

Faculty Scholarship

American lawyers’ grip on the legal market is receding. Scholars and policymakers increasingly agree that the public has little to lose and potentially much to gain from legal market decartelization - the weakening of the lawyers’ monopoly over the legal services market. Harkening to deregulatory initiatives abroad and in Arizona and Utah, reformers contend that removing restrictions on the corporate delivery of legal services and unauthorized practice of law will slash costs and expand access to justice.

Drawing on economic theory and recent market developments, this Article offers a cautionary rejoinder. Understandable concerns about cartelization and lawyer rent-seeking have led …

Social Movement Lawyering And Due Process Values, Susan D. Carle

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

As I send this Essay off to the Fordham Law Review in early January 2025, many people in the United States remain in a state of shock following the recent election of Donald J. Trump to a second term as President. Theories abound as to why a person who espoused so much hate won the allegiance of a majority of American voters; some commentators have suggested that “anti-wokeism” is to blame. To be sure, the Trump campaign manipulated conservative social values to gain support. But conservative values are not necessarily anti-woke values. Ancient values oppose treating people badly and interfering …

Technologically Competent Reprised: Ethical Practice In An Ai Age And Considerations For Our Courts In A Burgeoning Ai Era, Heidi L. Frostestad

College of Law Faculty Publications

The recent explosion of artificial intelligence and generative AI undeniably impacts our federal and state courts. Currently, ABA Model Rule 1.1 and its Comment include a broad requirement of technological competence for an ethical practice. This Article will identify the technical competence obligations embodied in Model Rule 1.1 and examine the implications of AI for technological competence standards. After reviewing the timeline of cases that invoke AI hallucinations and other issues and current scholarly literature, this Article will propose a more specific ethical standard for baseline knowledge of various AI technologies according to current practice and use of ever-expanding technologies …

Annual Survey Of Georgia Law: Legal Ethics, Patrick Longan

Articles

This Survey covers the period from June 1, 2024–May 31, 2025.1 The Article discusses developments with respect to lawyer discipline, bar admission and reinstatement, malpractice, ineffective assistance of counsel, disqualification of counsel, judicial misconduct and recusal, attorney’s fees and liens, contempt and other sanctions, unauthorized practice of law, attorney-client privilege, prosecutorial misconduct, amendments to the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct, advisory opinions, one miscellaneous matter, and potential reforms to the delivery of legal services.

Crown Prosecutors And Government Lawyers: A Legal Ethics Analysis Of Under-Funding, Andrew Flavelle Martin

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Crown prosecutors and government lawyers are reliant on governments for their funding but exert no meaningful influence or control over such funding decisions. Nonetheless, this article demonstrates that as a question of law, under-funded Crown prosecutors and government lawyers risk violating their professional duties. If so, they must promptly inform the government, refuse new matters and, if necessary, withdraw from existing matters. If the government purports to block such refusal or withdrawal and does not provide adequate funding, resignation will become necessary. While law societies will likely not prioritize disciplinary action against such lawyers, the policy reasons to forego such …

What Lawyers Could Learn From The Corporate Practice Of Medicine, Melissa D. Mortazavi

Faculty Articles

Proponents of the United States’ domestic experiments in non-lawyer ownership (NLO) of legal practice justify them in terms of increasing “access to justice.” But what if opening ownership of legal practice to investment capital only exacerbates market failures (leading to further consolidation and increased costs to clients), while also compromising professional autonomy and fiduciary duty? The legal profession must be clear-eyed about who are the real winners and losers of such a shift and avoid being blinded by wishful thinking. Prominent legal scholars have repeatedly touted NLO as a solution to the access to justice crisis. However, there is scant …

The Ethics & Malpractice Risks Of Ai, Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum (Iclef)

Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum 2024

Meeting proceedings of a seminar by the same name, held March 28, 2024.

Advanced Trucking Litigation, Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum (Iclef)

Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum 2024

Meeting proceedings of a seminar by the same name, held October 17, 2024.

Applied Professionalism, Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum (Iclef)

Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum 2024

Meeting proceedings of a seminar by the same name, held November 1, 2024.

Maine's Iolta Proposal: A Source Of Supplemental Funding For Legal Services, J. Gordon Scannell Jr.

Maine Law Review

Lawyers often hold certain client funds for short periods of time. Generally, those funds must be kept separate from funds belonging to the lawyer or law firm. Occasionally the clients' funds are deposited in individual, interest bearing accounts and the interest generated is credited to the particular client, but more often the amount or length of the deposit does not warrant the opening of an individual account and the funds are aggregated in a general, noninterest bearing trust account. A number of states have implemented programs, commonly referred to as Interest on Lawyers' Trust. Accounts (IOLTA), which allow attorneys to …

Client Confidentiality As Data Security, Jonah Perlin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The duty of confidentiality has been a cornerstone of the attorney-client relationship for more than four centuries. Historically, this duty was not difficult to discharge. All a lawyer had to do to comply was not affirmatively share client information in public without consent. But that has all changed. The same technologies that provide unprecedented benefits of authorized access by lawyers and their clients create unprecedented risks of unauthorized access by others. As a result, although the duty of confidentiality was once synonymous with a duty to keep client confidences secret, today the duty necessitates that lawyers keep client confidences secure …

Renewing Our Vows: The Lawyer's Oath And Our Pledge To Democracy, Colin M. Black

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

For centuries, lawyers have sworn to an oath as a prerequisite to admission. The oath, barely evolved from their historical roots, represents the guiding commitment lawyers make to democratic principles of honesty, integrity, fairness, and the rule of law. This commitment is in exchange for the power and privilege of belonging to the legal profession. However, the ethical landscape for legal practitioners has evolved, particularly in response to the alarming events of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. These events revealed significant lapses in the judgment and conduct among some lawyers, exposing the need for a recommitment to the democratic principles …

(Un)Necessary Evils?: Ethical And Emotional Conflicts For Social Change Lawyers In Canada, Marina Francesca Mckenzie

LLM Theses

This thesis concerns an exploratory study about “social change” lawyers in Canada. Based on qualitative interviews, I aim to provide a modest but in-depth examination of the experiences and practical challenges these lawyers face in their work and how they navigate them. I find their approaches are divided between external and internal, both of which are affected by lawyers’ positionalities and experiences. “External approaches” concern how they reconcile conflicts in their values and responsibilities to different groups—namely individuals, communities and social movements—with each other, and with their obligations to the legal profession. Meanwhile, “internal approaches” concern how they navigate conflicting …

A New Approach To Attorney Regulation, Jon J. Lee

Faculty Articles

For more than half a century, jurisdictions have relied on threats of disciplinary sanctions—sticks—to try to coerce attorneys to act in an ethical manner. In doing so, they have focused their efforts on establishing minimum standards of practice and sanctioning only those attorneys who fall well short of them. By crafting general rules that apply to all attorneys, however, jurisdictions have ignored the considerable differences that attorneys face as a result of their practice settings, years of experience, or individual identities. Furthermore, jurisdictions have struggled to establish clear standards to guide attorneys regarding their obligations—precisely because the settings in which …

Abolish The Mpre, Michael Ariens

Faculty Articles

In nearly every jurisdiction, applicants to the bar must pass the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE). Its purpose, according to its owner, the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), is "to measure candidates' knowledge and understanding of established standards related to the professional conduct of lawyers." It does test whether an examinee has kept in short-term memory the rules and exceptions that make up part of the understanding of what it means to serve as a lawyer. However, success (or initial failure) on the MPRE has not been correlated with ethical conduct or misconduct. For example, the Texas Board of …

The Juris Master: A Proposal For Reducing Excessive Public Defender Caseloads, Blake Comeaux

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

The US public defense system is underfunded, understaffed, and underdelivering on the Constitutional promises of the 6^th Amendment, the right to a fair and speedy trial. This state of our public defense system results in monstrous impacts for indigent defendants nationwide. Through indefinite delays in litigation, being abandoned in jail while sitting on waiting lists for public defenders, and being outright denied representation, indigent defendants are deprived of their rights. Beyond just defendant neglect, our current system puts immense strain on public defenders, prosecutors, and state budgets. In an attempt to combat this current state of affairs, this paper …

Chilling Climate Change Disclosure: The Enabling Role Of Corporate Counsel In Management Misstatements Of Esg Matters, J. Robert Brown Jr., Eli Wald

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Regulation of Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) disclosure is necessary to ensure investors receive the information they want to have. Fortunately, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is considering adopting ESG rules. Unfortunately, such rules, if adopted, are likely to be ineffective. New ESG disclosure rules are going to fail for the same reason periodic disclosure rules have been ineffective: managers of publicly-traded companies systematically escape liability for failure to disclose material information to investors. Management escapes liability by pressuring securities lawyers to erroneously advise the companies that material information need not be disclosed, only to then turn around and …

Clinics, The Cloud, And Protecting Client Data In The Age Of Remote Lawyering, Andrew C. Budzinski

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Technology has become central to law practice. Attorneys have an ethical obligation to understand how that technology works, how it can facilitate client representation—and the risks it poses to the confidentiality of clients’ electronically-stored data. Law school clinics seem to fall behind the curve on this obligation. Some maintain outdated protocols, and some have no protocols at all, to manage and safeguard client data. This leaves client data less secure than it ought to be, risking harm to clients, ethical violations for attorneys, and missed opportunities to communicate the importance of ethical technology use to clinic students.

This Article offers …