Law Commons^™

Law School News: Among The Trailblazers 12/02/2019, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

To Kill A Mockingbird And Legal Ethics: On The Role Of Atticus Finch’S Attic Rhetoric In Fulfillment Of Duties To Client, To Court, To Society, And To Self, Michelle M. Kundmueller

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Atticus Finch, protagonist of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and longtime hero of the American bar, is well known, but he is not well understood. This article unlocks the secret to his status as the most admired of fictional attorneys by demonstrating the role that his rhetoric plays in his exemplary fulfillment of the duties of an attorney to zealously represent clients, to serve as an officer of the court, and to act as a public citizen with a special responsibility for the quality of justice. Always using the simplest accurate wording, focusing on reason over emotion, and speaking …

International Arbitration And Attorney-Client Privilege — A Conflict Of Laws Approach, Susan Franck

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Privilege determinations in international arbitration are currently the equivalent of the “wild west,” with minimal predictability and massive pockets of tribunal discretion. Yet protecting privilege in international arbitration — when the same document or communications with lawyers that is protected by United States law may receive no protection under another law — is fundamental to safeguarding attorney-client relationships within a global environment, incentivizing procedural integrity of dispute resolution, and ensuring that justice is done. As it is not clear what law applies to privilege and client confidentiality (let alone how the law is determine), this Essay begins to bridge the …

Personality Disruption As Mental Torture: The Cia, Interrogational Abuse, And The U.S. Torture Act, David Luban, Katherine S. Newell

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This Article is a contribution to the torture debate. It argues that the abusive interrogation tactics used by the United States in what was then called the “global war on terrorism” are, unequivocally, torture under U.S. law. To some readers, this might sound like déjà vu all over again. Hasn’t this issue been picked over for nearly fifteen years? It has, but we think the legal analysis we offer has been mostly overlooked. We argue that the basic character of the CIA’s interrogation of so-called “high-value detainees” has been misunderstood: both lawyers and commentators have placed far too much emphasis …

Law School News: Aals Honors Barron With Major Pro Bono Award 11/14/2019, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

The Lawyer As Accomplice: Cannabis, Uber, Airbnb, And The Ethics Of Advising “Disruptive” Businesses, Charles M. Yablon

Articles

This Article examines the legal and ethical problems of corporate lawyers who advise businesses that operate just beyond the edge of legality. These include manufacturers and sellers of cannabis products (a felony under federal law, even if ostensibly permitted by state statutes) as well as a substantial number of startup companies, like Uber and Airbnb, whose “disruptive” business models involve deliberately violating local laws and ordinances, many of which carry criminal penalties. Under the current Model Rules of Professional Conduct, a lawyer “shall not counsel a client to engage, or assist a client, in conduct that the lawyer knows is …

The Institute For The Future Of Law Practice: A New Narrative For Legal Education And The Legal Profession, William D. Henderson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

"The mission of IFLP is to produce more legal professionals who have strong legal knowledge plus foundational training in allied disciplines — in other words, “T-shaped” legal professionals."

--

You look down at your smartphone and see that you just got a text from a close family relative. They are asking to schedule a phone call.

The next line reads, “I’m thinking about going to law school.”

Well, if you read PD Quarterly, you’re likely a logical person to seek out for advice. You’ve got some time to think about it. What are you going to say?

Whatever your counsel, …

The Other Janus And The Future Of Labor’S Capital, David H. Webber

Faculty Scholarship

Two forms of labor’s capital—union funds and public pension funds—have profoundly reshaped the corporate world. They have successfully advocated for shareholder empowerment initiatives like proxy access, declassified boards, majority voting, say on pay, private fund registration, and the CEO-to-worker pay ratio. They have also served as lead plaintiffs in forty percent of federal securities fraud and Delaware deal class actions. Today, much-discussed reforms like revised shareholder proposal rules and mandatory arbitration threaten two of the main channels by which these shareholders have exercised power. But labor’s capital faces its greatest, even existential, threats from outside corporate law. This Essay addresses …

Gatekeepers, Cultural Captives, Or Knaves? Corporate Lawyers Through Different Lenses, Donald C. Langevoort

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Studying the behavior of high-status corporate lawyers is challenging. Much writing (including some of my own) addresses the risk of lawyer enabling of client misconduct by drawing from work in behavioral ethics suggesting that at least some apparent complicity is without full awareness of the impropriety. Is this naïve? The first part of this essay pushes harder on consciousness by looking more closely at the lengthy continuum—not a binary yes/no—in the awareness of wrongdoing risk as heavily influenced by the “slippery slope.” Looking at corporate lawyers’ professional responsibility through this lens has some interesting, and as far as I can …

The Virtue Of Vulnerability: Mindfulness And Well-Being In Law Schools And The Legal Profession, Nathalie Martin

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the role of vulnerability in transforming individual relationships, particularly the attorney-client relationship. In this essay, Martin argues that broadening our expressions can improve our client relations and decrease the likelihood that when that inevitable mistake occurs, we will be sued for it. Also, based upon virtue ethics, that practicing vulnerability is also virtuous and thus worthwhile in and of itself.

This essay starts by describing the traits people look for in lawyers as well as evidence that clients often feel that their lawyers are less than human. Then examines how legal education contributes to this problem by …

More Uplifting Singapore Story Needed To Boost Baby Confidence, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan discussed the reasons why Singaporean couples have consistently preferred to have few children since the 1970s. He opined that there is a need to have a discussion of how the prevailing traits and narrative of Singapore might have created a climate where young couples choose to have fewer children, and to have a more uplifting Singapore story as well as promote gender equality to boost baby confidence.

Online Legal Document Providers And The Public Interest: Using A Certification Approach To Balance Access To Justice And Public Protection, Susan Saab Fortney

Faculty Scholarship

The Internet and electronic communications have revolutionized how consumers obtain legal information and assistance. The availability of legal forms and services has developed at lightning speed and countless consumers are using these forms, rather than consulting attorneys. At the same time, many regulators of the legal profession appear to be frozen in time. Some take the position that the provision of interactive forms amounts to the unauthorized practice of law and others question arrangements that appear to involve the sharing of legal fees with non-lawyers. Even for those interested in regulating the provision of on-line services, one complication to doing …

In Re: Discipline Of James Colin, 135 Nev. Adv. Op. 43 (Sep. 19, 2019), Jose Tafoya

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The court found James Colin made statements he knew were false or with reckless disregard as to their truth or falsity concerning the qualifications or integrity of a judge. Colin also engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice. The court suspended him for six months and one day.

Assigned Counsel Mentoring Programs: Results And Lessons From Two Pilot Projects, Susan Saab Fortney

Faculty Scholarship

Working with a team of three subject matter experts, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association implemented and evaluated two pilot mentoring projects aimed at helping lawyers who serve as assigned counsel. This report discusses the program design, evaluation outcomes, and offers guidance through lessons learned for other jurisdictions interested in introducing assigned counsel mentoring programs. The author of the report was the principal investigator who evaluated the programs.

This project was supported by grant number 2015-AJ-BX-K043 awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs to the National Legal Aid and Defender Association. The opinions, findings, and …

Future Work, Jeffrey M. Hirsch

AI-DR Collection

The Industrial Revolution. The Digital Age. These revolutions radically altered the workplace and society. We may be on the cusp of a new era—one that will rival or even surpass these historic disruptions. Technology such as artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual reality, and cutting-edge monitoring devices are developing at a rapid pace. These technologies have already begun to infiltrate the workplace and will continue to do so at ever increasing speed and breadth.

This Article addresses the impact of these emerging technologies on the workplace of the present and the future. Drawing upon interviews with leading technologists, the Article explains the …

Judging Judges Fifty Years After – Was Judge Julius Hoffman’S Conduct So Different?, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In Chicago, Illinois--and in courtrooms across the United States--judicial misconduct has affected trial outcomes as long as there have been trials. While Judge Julius Hoffman's conduct in the “Chicago Eight” trial is an egregious example of judicial behavior toward criminal defendants, this piece's examination of at least ten different categories of misconduct in dozens of cases makes the argument that misbehavior by judges is less of an exception to the rule of impartiality than the thinking public might know. In considering these brazen examples, practitioners and academics alike can evaluate how to best confront the extent to which conduct like …

Judging During Crises: Can Judges Protect The Facts?, Lissa Griffin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

With the advent of instantaneous information and the trend toward shrinking adherence to the truth, the conversation surrounding the ability of judges to conduct outside research into the matters before them is gaining urgency. In a “post-truth” world, the role that the judiciary plays in our democracy must shift from trier of fact to guardian of factual integrity. And to do this, the professional ethics rules assigned to the judiciary may need re-evaluation.

This Essay argues that the judiciary's ambivalence to its role as fact finder must be overcome, and where appropriate, judges may be empowered to seek out supplemental …

Fictional Pleas, Thea B. Johnson

Faculty Publications

A fictional plea is one in which the defendant pleads guilty to a crime he has not committed with the knowledge of the defense attorney, prosecutor and judge. With fictional pleas, the plea of conviction is totally detached from the original factual allegations against the defendant. As criminal justice actors become increasingly troubled by the impact of collateral consequences on defendants, the fictional plea serves as an appealing response to this concern. It allows the parties to achieve parallel aims: the prosecutor holds the defendant accountable in the criminal system, while the defendant avoids devastating non-criminal consequences. In this context, …

Fiduciary Constitutionalism: Implications For Self-Pardons And Non-Delegation, Ethan J. Lieb, Jed Handelsman Shugerman

Faculty Scholarship

The idea that public servants hold their offices in trust for subject-beneficiaries and that a sovereign's exercise of its political power must be constrained by fiduciary standards-like the duties of loyalty and care-is not new. But scholars are collecting more and more evidence that the framers of the U.S. Constitution may have sought to constrain public power in ways that we would today call fiduciary. In this article, we explore some important legal conclusions that follow from fiduciary constitutionalism.

After developing some historical links between private fiduciary instruments and state and federal constitutions, we opine on what a fiduciary constitution …

Lessons From The Mueller Report, Part Ii: Bipartisan Perspectives: Hearing Before The H. Comm. On The Judiciary, 116th Cong., June 20, 2019 (Statement Of Carrie Cordero), Carrie F. Cordero

Testimony Before Congress

No abstract provided.

From Decoder Rings To Deep Fakes: Translating Complex Technologies For Legal Education, Jason Tubinis, Rachel S. Evans

Presentations

Technological developments are disrupting the practice of law” is a common refrain, but the last few years has seen some particularly complex pieces of technology become the hot new thing in legal tech. This session will look at blockchain, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and ‘Deep Fakes’ as examples of how instructors can stay abreast of technological developments and inform themselves about their impacts in the legal profession. Then we will look at how to translate the complexities and jargon of these examples into lessons for for-credit courses, one-off informational sessions, or meetings with stakeholders.

Learning outcomes:

• Participants will be able …

Promoting Discipline Specific Literacy For Law & Paralegal Studies Students: Libguides As Transitional & Professional Tools, Marissa Moran, Kimberly Abrams

Publications and Research

Developing LibGuides for Law and Paralegal Studies students at New York City College of Technology arose from the following question: how do we change the way legal studies students think of the Library as a resource to better assist them in their transition to college level-research and a future career as a paralegal. At the heart of this question is the importance of discipline-specific information literacy at the college and professional levels. Many students have difficulty with locating relevant information to complete course assignments partly because library resources are both fragmented and cohesive. Thus, while part of the transition to …

Procedure In Context, Catherine T. Struve

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Lawyer As Superhero: How Marvel Comics' Daredevil Depicts The American Court System And Legal Practice, Louis Michael Rosen

Faculty Scholarship

This article will explore on the portrayal of lawyers and the legal system in Daredevil comic books, particularly issues published in the Twenty-First Century. Because the Daredevil movie and the first two seasons of the Netflix television series have already been examined from various legal perspectives in past articles, this piece will highlight legal storylines from the comics themselves. This exploration is important because writers of future Netflix seasons will surely draw story elements from the comics discussed here and will very likely adapt these exact stories, encouraging the larger television audience to seek out and read the original comics. …

Mindfulness, Mental Health, And Wellness, Scott L. Rogers

Articles

No abstract provided.

Search Engines And Internet Defamation: Of Publication And Legal Responsibility, Gary Kok Yew Chan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

When the Internet user keys a search term and clicks “enter”, a series of snippets, images and html links will appear typically running into several web pages. In the case of Autocomplete suggestions, the result appearing on the bar changes with each keystroke even before the user clicks “enter”. As a result, in the course of finding search results from the original search term, the user is constantly provided with suggestions of other search terms. The search results and Autocomplete suggestions may be defamatory of individuals and businesses by associating them with dishonest and improper activities or conduct. Should search …

The Moral Character Evaluation: Proving That Your Past Does Not Define Your Future, Allyson Mccain

GGU Law Review Blog

To the extent that the character and fitness evaluation continues to exclude those candidates who have not shown remorse or rehabilitation, it remains essential to ensuring the integrity of the legal profession. However, it is unfair to presume that a blemish on an applicant’s record suggests a lack of good moral character, until proven otherwise. Past mistakes and errors in judgment do not automatically indicate that an individual is unfit to practice law. Nor does the lack of “sanctionable conduct” in one’s past conclusively prove that the individual will uphold the integrity of the profession.

Copyright Assessment In The Trenches: Workflow, Tools, Metadata, And More, Megan De Armond, Victoria Pilato, Greg Cram, Rina Elster Pantalony

Library Faculty Publications

Assessing copyright varies from institution to institution along with the specific workflow and end-user notices. This article looks at tools used in art libraries in a range of contexts along with pragmatic perspectives on copyright evaluation from a museum art library, a public research library, a university copyright advisory office, and a public university. Pain points for determining copyright presented by various formats, ownership issues, and digitization are addressed through cases encountered by the authors. Helpful tools and workflow strategies for moving forward, including widely available charts and resources, as well as software for copyright determination, are shared. Finally, the …

A Lesson In Civility, David A. Grenardo

Faculty Articles

The inherent importance of civility in the legal profession necessitates teaching civility by law schools. This Article demonstrates how civility applies to advocacy and the practice of law, the efficiency of our justice system, lawyer well-being, obtaining a job and professional identity formation, and public confidence in the legal system. The Article can assist courts, attorneys, and professors in understanding civility and its significance. Most critically, this Article provides a turnkey lesson plan for law schools on civility that professors can employ in a variety of classes including, among others, Professional Responsibility, Civil Procedure, and Constitutional Law. Teaching law students …

The Challenge Of Convincing Ethical Prosecutors That Their Profession Has A Brady Problem, Adam M. Gershowitz

Faculty Publications

In recent decades, both the media and legal scholars have documented the widespread problem of prosecutors failing to disclose favorable evidence to the defense – so called Brady violations. Despite all of this documentation however, many ethical prosecutors reject the notion that the criminal justice system has a Brady problem. These prosecutors – ethical lawyers who themselves have not been accused of misconduct – believe that the scope of the Brady problem is exaggerated. Why do ethical prosecutors downplay the evidence that some of their colleagues have committed serious errors?

This essay, in honor of Professor Bennett Gershman, points to …