Law Commons^™

Playing By The Rule: How Aba Model Rule 8.4(G) Can Regulate Jury Exclusion, Anna Offit

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Discrimination during voir dire remains a critical impediment to empaneling juries that reflect the diversity of the United States. While various solutions have been proposed, scholars have largely overlooked ethics rules as an instrument for preventing discriminatory behavior during jury selection. Focusing on the ABA Model Rule 8.4(g), which regulates professional misconduct, this article argues that ethics rules can, under certain conditions, offer an effective deterrent to exclusionary practices among legal actors. Part I examines the specific history, evolution, and application of revised ABA Model Rule 8.4(g). Part II delves into the ways that ethics rules in general, despite their …

Protecting Children? Assessing The Treatment Of Unaccompanied Minors In The U.S., Chiara Galli

Latino Public Policy

In the summer of 2014, unprecedented numbers of unaccompanied minors fleeing violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras arrived in the U.S. seeking refuge. Current U.S. immigration law affords certain legal protections to children who migrate alone from non-contiguous countries, allowing them to be initially admitted to the U.S. To avoid deportation and remain in the country long-term, however, they must successfully apply for humanitarian relief from deportation. This interview-based study traces these children’s experiences navigating this legal process and interacting with different branches of the US immigration bureaucracy.

Peer Review: Navigating Uncertainty In The United States Jury System, Anna Offit

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This Article examines American prosecutors’ approaches to uncertainty during voir dire. At different points during trial preparation— and during jury selection itself—lawyers draw on multiple interpretive systems to make sense of ordinary citizens. Taking Assistant United States Attorneys in a federal jurisdiction in the Northeast United States as a case study, and drawing on ethnographic research, I focus on three systems prosecutors alternately (and sometimes simultaneously) use to evaluate jurors: (1) probabilistic and evaluative analogies, (2) juror-types generated from the details of criminal cases, and (3) local knowledge stemming from prosecutors’ relationships and experiences outside of the courtroom. I show …

Defending Data, Pamela R. Metzger

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Defending Data proposes a data-driven, systems-based approach to improving public defense in America.

Public defenders represent millions of defendants every year. Yet, public defense remains a largely data-less enterprise, a black box of discretionary decisions disconnected from any systemic analysis about the relationship between defender practices and case outcomes. Defending Data adopts a novel approach to the crisis of public defense. Building off of the successful implementation of system-based approaches in other complex, high-risk industries such as aviation and medicine, Defending Data explains how defenders can develop a data-driven systems approach to public defense.

Defending Data begins by describing the …

Overstepping Ethical Boundaries? Limitations On State Efforts To Provide Access To Justice In Family Courts, Jessica Dixon Weaver

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Family law courts in America are overwhelmed with self-represented parties who try their best to navigate an unfamiliar territory laden with procedural and evidentiary rules. Efforts to level the playing field in these courts have resulted in state entities and judges taking on roles that previously belonged to attorneys. State supreme court judges and state agencies draft and promulgate family law forms, such as divorce pleadings and paternity acknowledgments, to provide poor citizens access to justice. While these efforts have resulted in positive outcomes for some families, reliance on the state’s imprimatur has caused significant harm to others. Upon closer …

Saving Civil Justice: Judging Civil Justice, Elizabeth G. Thornburg

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Curious Appellate Judge: Ethical Limits On Independent Research, Elizabeth G. Thornburg

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Appellate judges in the twenty-first century find themselves in a world in which litigation - both civil and criminal - involves a vast array of complex and technical factual disputes. These lawsuits, in turn, may cause judges to seek a greater level of expertise in order to deal competently with the evidence that will be relevant to the disputes. At the same time, advances in communication technology have brought the world's library to the courthouse, requiring no onerous trips across town or index searches but only the click of a mouse. This combination of felt need and ready access has …

The Corporate/Securities Attorney As A 'Moving Target' - Client Fraud Dilemmas, Marc I. Steinberg

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This Paper analyzes the enhanced responsibilities and liability concerns that corporate/securities attorneys have in the post-Enron era. State ethical rules, SEC pronouncements, and court decisions are addressed. The ramifications of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act with respect to its impact on legal counsel also are explored. The Paper also provides insight focusing on the business attorney's role as counselor and gatekeeper when faced with the prospect of client fraud.

Attorney Liability Under The State Securities Laws: Landscapes And Minefields, Marc I. Steinberg, Chris Classen

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Attorneys face significant liability exposure under the state securities laws, and they can be held primarily liable when they are "sellers" of securities, or under some state statutes, like California, when they are experts. Depending on the applicable jurisdiction and counsel's status relative to the subject client, secondary liability may be incurred. In a number of states, counsel has liability exposure based on materially aiding the primary violator with the requisite intent.

This article surveys and analyzes attorney liability under state securities law. After presenting a succinct overview of applicable state law in Part II, the article then provides a …

Sanctifying Secrecy: The Mythology Of The Corporate Attorney-Client Privilege, Elizabeth G. Thornburg

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This article surveys the traditional justifications for giving corporations the benefit of attorney-client privilege. It rejects both moral and utilitarian explanations and argues that, far from being beneficial or benign, the privilege actually does great harm to the truth-seeking function of litigation and imposes tremendous transaction costs on the litigants and on the judicial system as a whole.

An Approach To The Teaching Of Professional Responsibility To First Year Law Students, C. Paul Rogers Iii.

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.