Law Commons^™

Federal Standards Of Tax Practice: "Preparer" Penalties And Circular 230, Gwen T. Handelman

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Intrusion And The Investigative Reporter, Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky

UF Law Faculty Publications

In an award-winning series of Houston Chronicle articles, reporter Nancy Stancill uncovered shocking conditions in Texas nursing homes. However, reforms were not implemented until 20/20, following Stancill's lead, conducted a three-month, undercover investigation of the treatment of elderly residents at Texas state and private nursing home facilities.

By employing subterfuge to gather news, the 20/20 reporters enhanced the immediacy and credibility of the resulting story. As one journalist argued, "[J]ust describing the conditions wouldn't have cut it. They had to be seen."

Using the 20/20 case as a paradigm, this Note argues that, in order to distinguish protected newsgathering activity …

Arguing For Economic Equality, John Baker

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Presented to the WMU Center for the Study of Ethics in Society - Febuary 10, 1992.

Overcompensating: The Corporate Lawyer And Executive Pay, Charles M. Yablon

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

The Moral Labyrinth Of Zealous Advocacy, James R. Elkins

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

National Health Insurance Proposals: An Ethical Perspective, Alan O. Kogan

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Presented to the WMU Center for the Study of Ethics in Society, January 31, 1992.

The Law Between The Bar And The State, Susan P. Koniak

Faculty Scholarship

The traditional understanding of the relation between law and professional legal ethics is that legal ethics covers matters not covered by law; that ethics sits passively above law, starting where law leaves off. In this Article, Professor Susan Koniak argues that this understanding is wrong. She asserts that professional ethics are in competition and conflict with law as it is embodied in the pronouncements of courts and legislatures. Although "law" is usually considered to be the near exclusive preserve of the state, the Article contends that private groups also have "law," but it is usually called "ethics." The legal profession's …

Lying: A Failure Of Autonomy And Self-Respect, Jane Zembaty

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Presented to the WMU Center for the Study of Ethics in Society - March 19, 1992.

Attorneys' Malpractice Policies: Regulatory Exclusions And Public Policy, Susan Saab Fortney

Faculty Scholarship

The courts have yet to decide the issue of the enforceability of provisions in legal malpractice insurance policies that specifically exclude from coverage claims made by government regulators such as the FDIC. The question has reached the courts with respect to such exclusionary provisions in directors' and officers' liability insurance policies, and here the courts are split. The author discusses the current case law and the statutory developments.

Tricks Prosecutors Play, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Criminal defense lawyers must recognize and challenge prosecutorial misconduct whenever it occurs. In my opinion, prosecutor's today wield greater power, engage in more egregious misconduct, and are less subject to judicial or bar association oversight than ever before. Few defense lawyers or commentators would disagree with these conclusions. Indeed, some types of prosecutorial misconduct have become almost “normative to the system.”

The Imperative To Restore Nature: Some Philosophical Questions, Lisa Newton

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

The purpose of WMU's Center for the Study of Ethics is to encourage and support research, teaching, and service to the university and community in areas of applied and professional ethics. These areas include, but are not restricted to: business, education, engineering, government, health and human services, law, media, medicine, science, and technology.

Reconstructing A Pedagogy Of Responsibility, Barbara L. Bezdek

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Questions Of Authority, Frederick Schauer

Philip A. Hart Memorial Lecture

In 1992, Professor, Frederick Schauer of Harvard University, delivered the Georgetown Law Center’s twelfth Annual Philip A. Hart Memorial Lecture: "Two Cheers for Authority: Should Officials Obey the Law?."

Frederick Schauer is a David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia. Previously he served for 18 years as Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, where he has served as academic dean and acting dean, and before that was a Professor of Law at the University of Michigan. He is the author of The Law …

State Ethics Rules And Federal Prosecutors: The Controversies Over The Anti-Contact And Subpoena Rules, Roger C. Cramton, Lisa K. Udell

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Rediscovering The Republican Origins Of The Legal Ethics Codes, Russell G. Pearce

Faculty Scholarship

Many commentators wrongly assume that the hired gun ideal is the foundation of our legal ethics codes. This article explains that this assumption is based on an historical mistake that has consequences for interpreting the modern codes. Judge George Sharswood, the nineteenth century scholar whose work provided the basis for the 1908 A.B.A. Canons of Ethics, had a republican conception that rejected the adversarial ethic in favor of a more nuanced conception that combined loyalty to clients with a thick obligation to the public good that both bounded client representation and required lawyers to provide political leadership. Although the emphasis …

The "Gag Rule" Revisited: Physicians As Abortion Gatekeepers, Maxwell Gregg Bloche

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

To the surprise of many and the dismay of some, the U.S. Supreme Court took it upon itself last term to proclaim a national compromise on the question of abortion. The Court's announced truce, an elaboration on Justice O'Connor's "undue burden" idea, is pragmatic in design but unlikely to prove stable in practice. The three justices who spoke for the Court disparaged Roe with reluctant praise, then upheld its outer shell on the ground that social expectations and the need to sustain the appearance of the rule of law made it impolitic to do otherwise. This awkward doctrinal invention seems …

Beyond The New Role Morality For Lawyers, Rob Atkinson

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Jewish Lawyering In A Multicultural Society: A Midrash On Levinson Colloquy, Russell G. Pearce

Faculty Scholarship

When we acknowledge the contradiction between the project's goal and the reality of group influence, we are led to consider the alternative strategy of creating community. Such a strategy would invite lawyers to begin a community dialogue regarding how each of our group identities, and the responses of others to our identities, interfere with our efforts to realize the goal of equal justice. While significant to the understanding of group dynamics, consideration of Jewish lawyering probably has limited value as a predictor of an individual lawyer's professional conduct. The actual and potential influence of Jewishness on lawyering is quite diverse, …

Introduction: Multidimensional Lawyering And Professional Responsibility, Margaret Chon

Faculty Articles

Professor Margaret Chon introduces three following articles in which the authors posit the identity of the lawyer not just as client representative, but in the multiple roles of respondent to other people, entities and underlying societal values. Each article contributes to the formation of the self qua lawyer by showing how attorneys can and do respond to foils other than clients.

Discretion And Rules: A Lawyer's View, Carl E. Scheider

Book Chapters

In modern society the law regulates the complex behavior of millions of people. To do this efficiently-to do this at all-broadly applicable rules must be used. Yet such rules are bound to be incomplete, to be ambiguous, to fail in some cases, to be unfair in others. Some of the drawbacks of rules can be minimized by giving discretion to the administrators and judges who apply them. Yet doing so dilutes the advantages of rules and creates the risk that discretion may be abused. Working out the proper balance of these considerations is both necessary and perplexing in every area …

Rethinking Attorney Conflict Of Interest Doctrine, Kevin C. Mcmunigal

Faculty Publications

This article focuses on conflict of interest doctrine dealing with concur- rent conflict of interest issues. Its thesis is that a primary source of confusion in conflict of interest doctrine is its failure to clearly articulate and answer the central questions which lie at the heart of the subject. In essence it argues that to remedy this confusion we need to rethink attorney conflict of interest doctrine so that it focuses more clearly on articulating and answering these central questions.

State Ethical Codes And Federal Practice: Emerging Conflicts And Suggestions For Reform, Stephen B. Burbank

All Faculty Scholarship

The standards for resolving putative conflicts between federal laws are not always clear, and neither for that matter is the standard for determining what constitutes a federal law capable of superseding effect. The technique of setting federal norms of professional conduct on a decentralized basis by borrowing or incorporating state norms is increasingly troublesome to the extent that the borrowed state norms are disuniform and that they are being put to multiple remedial purposes. Federal legislation preempting state law of professional conduct is conceivable but hardly likely, particularly as the norms are pressed into duty for purposes other than professional …

Avalon Ethics, Thomas D. Eisele

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Book review of Thomas Shaffer & Nancy Shaffer, American Lawyers and Their Communities (1991)

A Meditation On The Theoretics Of Practice, Robert Dinerstein

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

The Ethics Of Criminal Defense, William H. Simon

Faculty Scholarship

A large literature has emerged in recent years challenging the standard conception of adversary advocacy that justifies the lawyer in doing anything arguably legal to advance the client's ends. This literature has proposed variations on an ethic that would increase the lawyer's responsibilities to third parties, the public, and substantive ideals of legal merit and justice.

With striking consistency, this literature exempts criminal defense from its critique and concedes that the standard adversary ethic may be viable there. This paper criticizes that concession. I argue that the reasons most commonly given to distinguish the criminal from the civil do not …

The Thomas Hearings: Watching Ourselves, Robert F. Nagel

Publications

No abstract provided.

Stances, Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

No abstract provided.

Honoring The Law In Communities Of Force: Wildman And Terrell's Teleology Of Practice, Linda H. Edwards, Jack L. Simmons

Scholarly Works

When King & Spalding publicly reflects upon itself, through its Managing Partner and its Director of Professional Development, it has improved our profession. All of us profit when a powerful law firm searches for itself. But reflection alone, as Terrell and Wildman know, does not improve the professionalism or the morality of our practice. In order for reflection to work this way it must be based upon a good teleology. Terrell and Wildman offer a teleology of practice in which lawyers are to become people who honor the law. This is justified, they tell us, because the law alone holds …

Where Were The Lawyers?, Mary E. Berkheiser, Ed Hendricks

Scholarly Works

In March 1992, the Office of Thrift Supervision sent shock waves through the legal community when it initiated a $275 million enforcement actions against New York’s Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays & Handler and froze the firm’s assets, all based on the firm’s alleged misdeeds in representing the now-defunct Lincoln Savings & Loan. The OTS action, together with the recent spate of prefessional liability suits by the Resolution Trust Corporation and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, raises questions with far-reaching consequences for the legal profession. Perhaps most disturbing, particularly in light of the OTS’s unprecedented assault on Kaye, Scholer, is the …

The U.S. Law Of Client Confidentiality: Framework For An International Perspective, Charles W. Wolfram

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.