Law Commons^™

A Proposal To Require Lawyers To Disclose Information About Procedural Matters, William H. Fortune

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Minnesota V. Philip Morris, Inc.: An Important Legal Ethics Message Which Neglects The Public Interest In Product Safety Research, Edward J. Imwinkelried, James R. Mccall

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Attorney-Client Privilege: Does It Really Have Life Everlasting?, Richard C. Wydick

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Crime-Fraud Exception To The Attorney-Client Privilege In The Context Of Corporate Counseling, H. Lowell Brown

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Fixing Rule 1.6: The Montreal Formulation Makes It Work, Melissa Bartlett

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Ethics 2000 And Insurance Defense Conflicts Of Interest In Kentucky, Craig Paulus

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Ethics And Unauthorized Practice Opinions In Regulating The Practice Of Law In Kentucky, William H. Fortune

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The purpose of this article is to discuss the role of ethics and unauthorized practice opinions in regulating the practice of law, with suggestions for clarification and improvement.

The Kentucky Bench and Bar, the quarterly journal of the Kentucky Bar Association ("KBA"), prints "Advisory Ethics Opinions" and "Unauthorized Practice Opinions" over the signatures of the respective chairs of the Ethics and Unauthorized Practice of Law ("UPL") Committees. This article describes: 1) how ethics and unauthorized practice opinions are generated; 2) the legal effect of the opinions; 3) the relationship of ethics opinions to attorney discipline; 4) the Board of Bar …

Kentucky Law Survey: Professional Responsibility, William H. Fortune

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article is a survey of recent Kentucky ethics cases and Kentucky Bar Association ethics opinions. The cases and opinions selected are those of general application but special interest.

Kentucky Law Survey: Professional Responsibility, William H. Fortune

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Government Lawyers And Their Private “Clients” Under The Fair Housing Act, Eugene R. Gaetke, Robert G. Schwemm

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In strengthening enforcement of the federal Fair Housing Act, Congress in the 1988 Fair Housing Amendments Act ("FHAA") authorized government lawyers from the Justice Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and state and local civil rights agencies to prosecute cases "on behalf of” persons aggrieved by housing discrimination. This new enforcement scheme has led to a heightened level of administrative complaints and litigated cases in which government lawyers are put in the potentially difficult position of having to represent both their agency and private complainants.

The "triangular" relationships created by the FHAA between government lawyers and their public …

Genetics, Genetic Testing, And The Specter Of Discrimination: A Discussion Using Hypothetical Cases, Richard H. Underwood, Ronald C. Cadle

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

A "genetic revolution" is upon us. Techniques for genetic testing have increased in sophistication, and an international effort to map and sequence human DNA—The Human Genome Project ("HGP")—is now well under way. We are beginning to exploit our new found genetic knowledge. Recognition of the relationship between developments in genetic science, law, and public policy, is creeping into the "literature" and into the law school curriculum. Even the popular 60 Minutes television "news magazine" recently did a program on the perils of genetic testing. Still, for lawyers and policymakers at least, the material is not all that accessible.

The following …

The Mpre Reconsidered, Leslie C. Levin

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

"Show And Tell": An Analysis Of The Scope Of The Attorney-Client Waiver Standards, Roberta M. Harding

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

As today's society becomes increasingly litigious, document productions, a major discovery tool, are growing larger. One inevitable consequence of this phenomenon is the increased risk that communications protected by the attorney-client privilege may be inadvertently disclosed. Privileged communications may also be disclosed to an adversary under more questionable circumstances: specifically, the intentional, strategic disclosure of privileged information favorable to the disclosing party's position.

In any case involving the disclosure of privileged information, the court must initially decide whether the privilege is waived. To resolve this threshold issue courts apply one of the three waiver tests. If a court decides that …

Cross-Examining Legal Ethics: The Roles Of Intentions, Outcomes, And Character, R. George Wright

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Risk Management For Lawyers, William H. Fortune, Dulaney O’Roark

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Lawyers are under siege. We have become objects of scorn, ridicule, and occasional hatred. If you take your child to the Stephen Spielberg movie Jurassic Park, be prepared for the cheers when the cloned Tyrannosaurus Rex gobbles the lawyer—not a bad guy at all—cowering in the outhouse. In San Francisco a client burst into a California law firm and killed eight and wounded six persons before taking his own life. In response, the president of the California bar linked lawyer-bashing to hate crimes and prevailed on the Miller Brewing Company to withdraw a television commercial depicting a "lawyer-roping rodeo" …

Part-Time Prosecutors And Conflicts Of Interest: A Survey And Some Proposals, Richard H. Underwood

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

For many jurisdictions, the need for part-time prosecutors is a reality that will continue into the foreseeable future. The daunting task of balancing a private practice with prosecutorial duties is made all the more difficult by the lack of a coherent set of guidelines for minimizing the impact of conflicts of interest. What is needed is a set of guidelines flexible enough to permit attorneys to balance the part-time prosecutor's dual practice yet concrete enough to protect the system and its participants from conflicts of interest. Of prime importance in establishing any such system is the need for a clear …

Perspectives On Group Representation, Deborah L. Rhode

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Money Laundering And Lawyers, Eugene R. Gaetke, Sarah N. Welling

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The federal government has recently enacted money laundering laws to track and discourage the use of money generated by crime. Because some of that money is used to pay legal fees, the laws have a direct impact on lawyers. The laws increase the risk of prosecution for lawyers, inhibit some methods of fee payment, and make some cases less attractive financially. Generally, the laws make law practice more complicated and risky.

The laws have been criticized for their impact on criminal defense lawyers. Critics have raised three broad objections. The first objection is constitutional. Critics have also objected to the …

Part-Time Prosecutors And Conflicts Of Interest: A Survey And Some Proposals, Richard H. Underwood

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Confessions Of An Ethics Chairman, Richard H. Underwood

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article responds to the critics of state bar ethics committees. Indirectly, it raises some questions about the need, or at least the extent of the need, for yet another law-related cottage industry (the for hire legal ethics consultant). It also provides some friendly advice for those well-meaning types in every jurisdiction who are perennially "reforming" or "energizing" their bar associations and demanding for the "membership" a dazzling new array of services. It discusses practical problems that have gone unmentioned in the limited literature, just as it takes issue with many of the assertions that have been made in that …

Kentucky's New Rules Of Professional Conduct For Lawyers, Eugene R. Gaetke

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

On July 12, 1989, the Kentucky Supreme Court adopted its own version of the American Bar Association's 1983 Model Rules of Professional Conduct as the body of disciplinary law applicable to lawyers practicing in the state. These new rules constitute a major improvement in the state's law of legal ethics. Their adoption should be considered a victory for Kentucky lawyers and, more importantly, a victory for the people of the state, the ultimate beneficiaries of the regulation of the legal profession.

As with most victories, the adoption of the new rules was not unequivocally positive. Kentucky's version of the Model …

Kentucky's New Rules Of Professional Conduct For Lawyers, Eugene R. Gaetke

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Lawyers As Officers Of The Court, Eugene R. Gaetke

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Lawyers like to refer to themselves as officers of the court. Careful analysis of the role of the lawyer within the adversarial legal system reveals the characterization to be vacuous and unduly self-laudatory. It confuses lawyers and misleads the public. The profession, therefore, should either stop using the officer of the court characterization or give meaning to it. This Article proposes certain modifications of the existing rules of professional responsibility that would bring lawyers' actual obligations more in line with those suggested by the label of officer of the court.

Comments On Professor Rotunda's Essay, Richard H. Underwood

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In this comment, Professor Richard H. Underwood provides a response to An Essay on the Constitutional Parameters of Federal Impeachment, by Professor Ronald D. Rotunda. Rotunda’s essay was published in the Kentucky Law Journal, Vol. 76, No. 3, pp. 707-732.

Contractual Limitations On Attorney Malpractice Liability: An Economic Approach, Leonard E. Gross

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Why Kentucky Should Adopt The Aba's Model Rules Of Professional Conduct, Eugene R. Gaetke

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Why Kentucky Should Adopt The Aba's Model Rules Of Professional Conduct, Eugene R. Gaetke

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In 1983, after six years of drafting and lively debate, the American Bar Association adopted the Model Rules of Professional Conduct as its most recent statement of the ethical norms of the legal profession. Shortly thereafter the ABA forwarded the rules to the states for consideration and possible adoption as binding ethical principles. As of this writing, a number of states have adopted the Model Rules, in full or in substantial form, and several more have proposals for such adoption pending before their supreme courts

The Kentucky Supreme Court presently awaits the state bar association's recommendation regarding the Model Rules' …

Taking And Pursuing A Case: Some Observations Regarding "Legal Ethics" And Attorney Accountability, Richard H. Underwood

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Taking And Pursuing A Case: Some Observations Regarding "Legal Ethics" And Attorney Accountability, Richard H. Underwood

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article addresses some of the potential liabilities that may arise from an attorney's decision to decline, refer, undertake, continue or discontinue the prosecution of a civil action. This Article suggests that counsel's obligations to his or her client, adversary, and fellow members of the bar, as well as to the judiciary and the justice system, can be balanced without subjecting attorneys to liability. This balance can be attained, however, only if potential problems are spotted and minimal precautions are taken.

Ethics: Professionalism, Craft, And Failure, James R. Elkins

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.