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Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Law

Criticizing Judges: A Lawyer's Professional Responsibility, Lonnie T. Brown Dec 2021

Criticizing Judges: A Lawyer's Professional Responsibility, Lonnie T. Brown

Georgia Law Review

Lawyers, as officers of the court, are expected to act with deference and respect toward judges. Speaking sharply to or publicly criticizing members of the bench is frowned upon and not infrequently met with punitive responses. The judiciary, however, is not above reproach. Judges are fallible and may possess personal biases, tainting self-interest, or even prejudice. As such, at times, they must disqualify themselves if their ability to dispense justice fairly and impartially can reasonably be questioned. Indeed, the very nature of a judge’s role requires avoidance of even the “appearance of impropriety.” When judges fail to adhere to this …


The Rise Of Law And The Fall Of Circular 230: Tax Lawyer Professional Standards, 1985-2015, Michael Hatfield Jan 2021

The Rise Of Law And The Fall Of Circular 230: Tax Lawyer Professional Standards, 1985-2015, Michael Hatfield

Articles

This third article focuses on the two issues that dominated discussions of professional responsibility standards for tax lawyers in the 1985-2015 period: return position standards and tax shelter opinions. It opens with consideration of the ABA’s 1965 opinion providing “reasonable basis” as the standard for undisclosed return positions, and then traces the response to that opinion as the response prods the development of the 1985 replacement with its “realistic possibility of success” standard. The Article documents the extensive interaction between Congress, the Treasury Department, and the tax bar over the next 30 years during which penalties are studied and revised …


Ethical Duty To Investigate Your Client?, Peter A. Joy Jan 2021

Ethical Duty To Investigate Your Client?, Peter A. Joy

Scholarship@WashULaw

Lawyers have been implicated in corporate scandals and other client crimes or frauds all too often, and the complicity of some lawyers is troubling both to the public and to members of the legal profession. This is especially true when the crime involved is money laundering. As a response to attorney involvement in crimes or frauds, some legal commentators have called for changes to the ethics rules to require lawyers to investigate their clients and client transactions under some circumstances rather than remaining “consciously” or “willfully” blind to what may be illegal or fraudulent conduct. The commentators argue that such …


Playing By The Rule: How Aba Model Rule 8.4(G) Can Regulate Jury Exclusion, Anna Offit Jan 2021

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 …