Law Commons^™

Principled Opinions, Susan P. Koniak

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Brickman is not pleased. Indeed, he is outraged, if the sound and fury of his article is to be taken at face value. He and twenty-five others, lawyers and legal educators, sent the American bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility (the "Committee" or "Ethics Committee") a letter (the "Letter") asking for an opinion. They got one which Professor Brickman describes as "wrong as a matter of ethics law, malevolent as a matter of public policy, disingenuous in its presentation, unfounded it [its] critical assumptions ... and blatantly self-interested in elevating lawyers' financial interests above their traditional …

Rules, Story And Commitment In The Teaching Of Legal Ethics, Susan P. Koniak, Roger C. Cramton

Faculty Scholarship

The ABA requires each "approved" law school to provide each student "instruction in the duties and responsibilities of the legal profession." First adopted in August, 1973, in the midst of the Watergate disclosures, this requirement has never been interpreted and is infrequently referred to or enforced in the accreditation process. The professional responsibility requirement is the only substantive teaching requirement imposed by the ABA.

Should the ethics teaching requirement be scrapped? We consider that question in Part I. Although we ultimately conclude the rule should be maintained, we believe this fundamental question must be asked. Given the disdain many legal …

Under Cloak Of Settlement, Susan P. Koniak

Faculty Scholarship

In this Article, we discuss examples of class action settlements in which the conduct allegedly engaged in by class counsel-and in some instances by the defendants and their lawyers--could constitute a civil wrong or a criminal act under state or federal law, but a court nevertheless blessed the conduct by approving the settlement. We argue that the findings made by federal and state courts in blessing these settlements, namely, findings on the adequacy of class counsel, the lack of collusion between class counsel and the defendants, and the fairness of the settlement terms, should not immunize the conduct of the …

Law And Ethics In A World Of Rights And Unsuitable Wrongs, Susan P. Koniak

Faculty Scholarship

Law, ethics and morality. What distinguishes these concepts? What connects them? Those are my questions. My argument is this. There is a traditional understanding of the relationship between law and ethics, and that understanding is inadequate as description. While passing as description, the traditional understanding of the relationship between law and ethics is instead normative. The normative message in the traditional understanding is worthy of examination and ripe for critique. This Article offers an alternative method of understanding the relationship between law and ethics and a normative examination of the old and new.