Digital Commons Network^™

Do Attorneys Do Their Clients Justice? An Empirical Study Of Lawyers' Effects On Tax Court Litigation Outcomes, Leandra Lederman, Warren B. Hrung

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Do attorneys really add value or can unrepresented parties achieve equivalent results? This fundamental question ordinarily is difficult to answer empirically. An equally important question both for attorneys and the justice system is whether attorneys prolong disputes or instead facilitate expeditious resolution of cases.

Fortunately, there is a federal court that provides an excellent laboratory in which to test and answer these questions. In the United States Tax Court (Tax Court), where most federal tax cases are litigated, the government always is represented by Internal Revenue Service attorneys but a large portion of the taxpayer litigants proceed pro se. In …

Minority Admissions To Law School: More Trouble Ahead, And Two Solutions, Jeffrey E. Stake

Articles by Maurer Faculty

U.S. News and World Report (USNAWR) rankings have created incentives that have changed law school admissions. The rankings pressure schools to admit applicants with high numbers rather than those who would do the most to improve the admitting law school or the bar to which it sends its graduates. Much attention has already been paid to decreased minority admissions stemming from increased weight on the LSAT. The shoe that has not dropped, but will soon fall, is the undergraduate grade point average (UGPA). When law schools give this the attention that USNAWR mandates, the diversity of law school classes will …

An Empirical Study Of Single-Tier Versus Two-Tier Partnerships In The Am Law 200, William D. Henderson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

During the last decade, many of the nation's largest law firms have converted from single-tier to two-tier (or multi-tier) partnerships. A two-tier firm contains separate tracks for equity and nonequity partner. The equity tier typically controls the firm and enjoys a larger per capita share of the firm's profits. At present, two-tier partnerships make up 80 percent of Am Law 200. The conventional explanation for the growth of the two-tier system (or, conversely, the abandonment of the single-tier) is that it produces higher profits per equity partner (PPP), thus solidifying the prestige of the firm and improving its ability to …

Internationalizing U.S. Legal Education: A Report On The Education Of Transnational Lawyers, Carole Silver

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article analyses the role of U.S. law schools in educating foreign lawyers and the increasingly competitive global market for graduate legal education. U.S. law schools have been at the forefront of this competition, but little has been reported about their graduate programs. This article presents original research on the programs and their students, drawn from interviews with directors of graduate programs at 35 U.S. law schools, information available on law school web sites about the programs, and interviews with graduates of U.S. graduate programs. Finally, the article considers the responses of U.S. law schools to new competition from foreign …

Lawyering For A Cause And Experiences From Abroad, Jayanth K. Krishnan

Articles by Maurer Faculty

For more than a decade, there has been a steady growth in what is now commonly referred to as the 'cause lawyering' literature. Partly as a response to those who were critical of the legal profession during the 1970s and 1980s, cause lawyering scholars have sought to rebut these critics' charges, as well as more comprehensively illustrate what, why, and how cause lawyers do what they do. While the critics of cause lawyers on the one hand, and cause lawyering scholars on the other, have made enormous contributions to the debate, only recently has the discourse shifted to examining an …

Still Mortgaging The American Dream: Predatory Lending, Preemption, And Federally Supported Lenders, Julia Patterson Forrester Rogers

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This Article discusses the continuing problem of predatory lending abuses in the subprime home mortgage lending market and federal and state attempts to address the problem. Over the protests of consumer advocates, federal agencies have recently issued regulations preempting state predatory lending statutes as applied to national banks and thrifts. In addition, Congress is considering legislation that would preempt state predatory lending laws for all lenders. The Article considers the preemption debate, particularly in the context of federally supported lenders-banks, thrifts, and the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Banks and thrifts receive support through the federal safety …

Immigration And Evil: The Religious Challenge, Michael A. Scaperlanda

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

The Fall Of Legal Ethics And The Rise Of Risk Management, Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

No abstract provided.

Information Society Challenges To Financial Regulation, Caroline Bradley

Articles

No abstract provided.

Permissive Rules Of Professional Conduct, Bruce A. Green, Fred C. Zacharias

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Global Collaboration In Law Schools: Lessons To Learn, Elizabeth B. Cooper

Fordham International Law Journal

This Introduction to the Symposium, Global Alliance for Justice Education (“GAJE”) North American Regional Conference, discusses four articles in the Fordham International Law Journal that advance a growing goal of the GAJE: developing scholarship to facilitate justice education and increasing awareness of the global justice movement. Each of the following four articles identifies ways in which collaborating law professors in significantly different contexts--China, South Africa, Nicaragua, and the United States--can learn from each other to develop vital programs of legal education and to strive for social justice.

A Tribute To Judge Bo Vesterdorf, Roger J. Goebel

Fordham International Law Journal

Judge Bo Vesterdorf retires this fall after serving as Judge on the Court of First Instance (“CFI”) since its inauguration on September 25, 1989, acting as its President for three successive terms since 1998. It is accordingly highly appropriate that the editors of the Fordham International Law Journal (“ILJ”) should dedicate this annual issue devoted to European Union (“EU”) law to Judge Vesterdorf as an eminent jurist who has significantly contributed to the development of the CFI's jurisprudence, and also provided able pragmatic leadership as its presiding judge. The ILJ can be considered to act on behalf of the entire …

Risky Business, Milton C. Regan

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article is part of an exchange including Anthony Alfieri and William Simon in the Georgetown Law Journal on the implications of law firms' increasing reliance on the concept of risk management as the focus of efforts to ensure ethical conduct by lawyers. A risk management program involves the adoption of various policies and procedures designed to minimize conduct that may lead to individual and firm liability. Conflicts checking procedures, standard terms in engagement letters, and the requirement of a second signature by a disinterested partner on legal opinions are but a few of such measures. On one hand, the …

Defending The Unpopular Down-Under, Abbe Smith

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The ethics of criminal defence lawyers and others who represent 'unpopular clients' is a largely unexplored area of legal scholarship in Australia. This article seeks to examine, from a comparative perspective, the motivations and ethical practices of these lawyers. Using interviews with Australian lawyers who represent the criminally accused, prisoners and asylum-seekers, as well as relevant ethical rules and commentary, the article identifies why lawyers undertake unpopular cases and, ultimately, what sustains them. Contrasting Australian legal practice with that in the US, the article discusses the sometimes competing professional obligations to court and client, truth and advocacy, public and profession. …

Selling The Name On The Schoolhouse Gate : The First Amendment And The Sale Of Public School Naming Rights, Joseph Blocher

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Dunlap’S Very Subjective Reading List For Air Force Judge Advocates, Charles J. Dunlap Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Sun Also Rises: The Political Economy Of Sunset Provisions In The Tax Code, Rebecca M. Kysar

Georgia Law Review

This Article provides an overview and critical analysis of sunset provisions in the tax code and, through examination of the political pressures that led to their striking transformation, also reveals disturbing points of vulnerability in the legislative process. It concludes that, contrary to one of the primary justifications for the enactment of sunset provisions-that these provisions reduce the influence exerted on lawmakers by interest groups-sunsets may instead further politicize the legislative process and, due to their mechanics, increase the likelihood of inefficient social outcomes. The history of sunset provisions in tax legislation also illuminates the complex, multidirectional,and often dramatic interaction …

A Tragedy Of The Common: The Common Interest Rule, Its Common Misuses, And An Uncommon Solution, Nicole Garsombke

Georgia Law Review

Almost every state allows some form of the common interest rule, which protects communications and documents exchanged between attorney, client, and certain third parties from waiver of the attorney-client privilege. This Note is a critique of two important exceptions to privilege waiver, the common interest and coclient rules, and discusses the rationales and justifications for the exceptions, scenarios to which the exceptions apply, and other confusing elements of courts' applications and interpretations.An examination of the common interest and coclient rules in Georgia is provided to give a particular case study of the development and use of these two exceptions. Finally, …

Teaching Reflective Lawyering In A Small Case Litigation Clinic: A Love Letter To My Clinic Papers Presented At The Ucla/Ials Conference On Enriching Clinical Education, Ian Weinstein

Faculty Scholarship

This article describes a live client, small case, teaching and learning centered, criminal defense clinic set in a high volume urban court. It offers concrete suggestions about how clinical educators can help students develop analytic and technical skills. The clinic model is conceived in three phases: giving students the opportunity to develop a contextualized understanding of the client; guiding students through strategic analysis and planning; and focusing students' litigation strategies on executing their tactical vision for their client. The article argues that this clinical setting structures the students' experiences so that they develop a complex and deeply moral lawyerly problem …

Tahoe’S Requiem: The Death Of The Scalian View Of Property And Justice, Laura S. Underkuffler

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, I argue that from 1992 (when the Lucas case was decided) and for almost ten years thereafter, what I call the "Scalian view" of property and justice dominated Supreme Court jurisprudence. Under this vision, property provides a concrete, objectively knowable, and immutable legal barrier which marks the line between protected individual interests and the exercise of collective power. If government transgresses this line, the individual is almost always deemed to have been wronged. And compensation is required, as a matter of "justice," under the Takings Clause. I argue that with the Court's decisions in Palazzolo and Tahoe …

Tribal Self-Determination At The Crossroads, Kevin Washburn

Faculty Scholarship

The tribal self-determination initiative that began transforming federal Indian policy thirty years ago has reached a crossroads. Despite its transformative effects on tribal governments and the widespread belief that self-determination has been a successful federal approach to Indian affairs, no significant new self-determination program has been initiated at the congressional level in several years. This Article looks to the tribal self-determination initiative's past to gain insights about its future. It also briefly surveys existing tribal self-determination programs and concludes that far more work needs to be done to achieve tribal self-determination. Drawing on the author's broader work, it finds one …

Lawyers As Witnesses, Douglas R. Richmond

New Mexico Law Review

No abstract provided.

Salt In The Wounds: Why Attorneys Should Not Be Mandated Reporters Of Child Abuse, Adrienne Jennings Lockie

New Mexico Law Review

No abstract provided.

School Of Law Annual Report 2005-2006, School Of Law Dean

Annual Reports -- Law School (1951-2013)

The annual report for the University of New Mexico School of Law for the period July 2005 through June 2006.

A Double Standard For Lawyer Dishonesty: Billing Fraud Versus Misappropriation, Lisa G. Lerman

Scholarly Articles

In this Article, I examine the dishonest billing practices alleged to have occurred and the analysis of the dishonesty by the Hearing Committee and the court. I offer a critique of the investigation of the case, the findings of fact and the legal standards applied. I compare this billing fraud case to the leading case on misappropriation of client funds in the District of Columbia. I argue that the decision-makers (Hearing Committee, Board on Professional Responsibility, and court of appeals) have gone to great lengths to avoid addressing the very grave dishonesty that led to this disciplinary matter. I speculate …

A Legal Career For All Seasons: Remembering St. Thomas More’S Vocation, Veryl Victoria Miles

Scholarly Articles

The vast majority of the work taking place in most law schools is the preparation of law students for the practice of law; namely, to teach legal theory and doctrine, legal analysis, writing, and advocacy. In sum, the goal of most law schools is to teach the many different skills required in law practice and the professional rules of legal ethics. What appears to be lacking in the preparation of future lawyers are lessons on how to incorporate this vast amount of specialized learning and skill in ways that will be harmonious with the personal, moral, and ethical values that …

Ethical Incentives For Employers In Adopting Legal Service Plans To Handle Employment Disputes, Michael Z. Green

Faculty Scholarship

Given the difficulties for employees in finding a lawyer to handle an employment dispute and with the growth of ADR, this article asserts that employers should adopt legal service plans as an employee benefit. It might seem counterintuitive for employers to provide their employees with a legal service benefit that may be used against them in employment disputes. However, comprehensive dispute resolution systems employ fair mechanisms that allow employees to resolve their disputes as soon as possible. Having sound legal counsel can become a major component of an employer's dispute resolution system because it offers a distinct human resource advantage …

Pay For Performance: Will It Work In Theory, William M. Sage

Faculty Scholarship

The title of my lecture about pay for performance in health care (often abbreviated as "P4P") echoes a French management saying: "It's all very well in practice, but it will never work in theory." There is no doubt that medical pay for performance is popular. P4P initiatives are everywhere; a search of online news reveals nearly 2,500 stories about pay for performance in the last two years alone. Folk legend Arlo Guthrie would have called P4P a movement-a "Pay for Performance Medical Quality Movement." But before you join in, you might want to know what you are joining. So let's …

Crawford At Two: Testimonial Hearsay And The Confrontation Clause, H. Patrick Furman

Publications

This article addresses the response of Colorado courts, and that of certain other jurisdictions, to the 2004 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Crawford v. Washington.

Colorado Revisits The Rule Against Perpetuities, Wayne M. Gazur

Publications

The 2006 Colorado General Assembly passed legislation adopting a 1000-year limitation applicable to interests in trust, practically eliminating the Rule Against Perpetuities ("RAP"). This article discusses the legislation's impact on the RAP in trust and non-trust situations.