Law Commons^™

The Laws Of Genetics, Michael S. Baram

Faculty Scholarship

It used to be that high technology meant nuclear physics and missile systems, and presented the threat of physical destruction. Today, "high tech" means biotechnology and electronic communication systems, and the focus has shifted to concerns about more subtle problems like loss of privacy, inability to control personal information, and the discriminations and other adversities that often follow.

Fiduciary Duty, Contract, And Waiver In Partnerships And Limited Liability Companies, Richard A. Booth Marbury Research Professor Of Law

Faculty Scholarship

Among the controversies swirling around the promulgations of new uniform statutes governing partnerships and LLCs is the question whether and to what extend fiduciary duties should be made mandatory or waivable. Although courts and commentators have not traditionally focused on the costs of fiduciary duties, the costs are significant in that such duties may preclude agents from engaging in other legitimate ventures. Indeed, fiduciary duty may be used by those to whom it is owed to prevent competition or extort side benefits form participants. Mandatory duties effectively require participants who may identify multiple business opportunities to overinvest their human capital …

Legal Ethics & Practical Politics: Musings On The Public Perception Of Lawyer Discipline, Paula A. Monopoli

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Letter From Appalachia, Deborah A. Schmedemann

Faculty Scholarship

The author describes a sabbatical spent working with the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund of Kentucky and volunteering as an adult literacy tutor. She describes the difficulties that face many people in that area who are in need of legal action and representation, and notes the importance of funding for legal aid for the poor.

Non-Silences Of Professor Hazard On "The Silences Of The Restatement": A Response To Professor Menkel-Meadow, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Lawyers, Clients, And Mediation , Jacqueline Nolan-Haley

Faculty Scholarship

That the growth of mediation practice is changing the practice of law is obvious. The inability of many lawyers to understand the conceptual differences between adversarial lawyering and mediation practice strongly suggests the need to develop a theory of "good" representational mediation practice that takes into account competing client interests. On the one hand, lawyers must encourage client voice and participation. At the same time, however, the demands of professionalism require that lawyers guide their clients toward responsible decisionmaking. Representational lawyering in mediation may involve a number of distinct and traditional lawyering functions-- client counseling, negotiation, evaluation and advocacy. In …

Role Of Personal Values In Professional Decisionmaking, The , Bruce A. Green

Faculty Scholarship

The 1908 Canons of Professional Ethics directed a lawyer to "obey his own conscience."' Lawyers receive similar advice today. Writings on legal practice encourage lawyers to make professional decisions based on their moral values and religious beliefs, as expressed in the familiar injunction: to be charted by one's own "moral compass." Underlying this advice is an assumption about the professional norms - namely, that they accommodate, if not contemplate, lawyers' reliance on personal values. This assumption finds some support in the contemporary codes of lawyer conduct, which acknowledge a role for the lawyer's "conscience" or "moral judgment." Yet, it is …

Attorney-Client Privilege, Ethical Rules, And The Impaired Criminal Defendant, The , James A. Cohen

Faculty Scholarship

Attorneys who represent possibly incompetent defendants charged with criminal conduct face difficult ethical issues, implicating professional duties of loyalty, zealous representation, and confidentiality-as an ethical question and as a matter of the law of evidence. The principles of agency underlying the attorney-client relationship are also implicated when the defendant's capacity is in doubt. In the ordinary criminal case, the client has at least implicitly authorized his lawyer's conduct. But if the defendant is impaired, the client may not have the mental capacity to authorize the attorney's actions. Defense counsel representing the possibly incompetent criminal defendant will often be the only …

Ethics, Professionalism, And Meaningful Work, William H. Simon

Faculty Scholarship

Much of the anxiety and dissatisfaction associated with legal ethics arises from the categorical quality of the bar's dominant norms. These norms take the form of relatively inflexible rules insensitive to all but a few of the circumstances of the cases they govern. Hence they often require the lawyer to take actions that contribute to injustice or to refrain from actions that would avert injustice.

For example, many lawyers believe that a criminal defender is obliged to impeach a truthful complaining witness even though the only immediate purpose of this tactic is to encourage the trier to draw a mistaken …

Conflicts Of Interest In Legal Representation: Should The Appearance Of Impropriety Rule Be Eliminated In New Jersey - Or Revived Everywhere Else , Bruce A. Green

Faculty Scholarship

Sixty-five years ago, an American Bar Association (ABA) committee interpreting the Canons of Professional Ethics (Canons) concluded that it would be professionally improper for a part-time prosecutor to agree to defend an individual in a civil action while simultaneously prosecuting him on felony charges. The committee acknowledged that the representation of conflicting interests is ordinarily proper with the respective clients' consent. But it said that client consent does not suffice in a case involving a public officer, who has a duty "to be and remain above all suspicion, even at personal financial sacrifice." It concluded that such "[a]n attorney should …

Less Is More: Teaching Legal Ethics In Context Symposium: 1997 W. M. Mikeck Foundation Forum On The Teaching Of Legal Ethics, Bruce A. Green

Faculty Scholarship

We who teach legal ethics employ many of the teacher's arts to win our students' appreciation for the course. We do not always succeed. As Deborah Rhode has observed, "[t]here are inherent problems and infinite ways to fail in teaching this subject." Yet, we continue to seek a method for teaching the course effectively. If nothing else, our efforts have led to the development of a substantial body of literature on teaching legal ethics to which this Article will contribute. Its focus is on what, rather than how, to teach. This Article asks: What should be the content of the …