Law Commons^™

Introducing Students To Ethics And Professionalism Challenges In Virtual Communication, Carol Morgan, Katherine M. Koops, James E. Moliterno, Carol Newman

Scholarly Works

As the practice of law, and the conduct of business generally, focuses increasingly on virtual communication, the ethics and professionalism challenges inherent in email, videoconference, text, and telephone communication continue to evolve. These challenges are particularly prevalent in transactional practice, which involves frequent communication with a variety of parties through a variety of communication channels. Exposing law students to these challenges through exercises and simulations contributes to the continued development of their professional identity as lawyers.

This article presents a variety of exercises that introduce students to client confidentiality, inadvertent disclosure, and other ethical issues that often arise in the …

Athens Access To Justice Initiative: Judicial Leadership + Bar Support + Local Resources = Powerful Synergy, Eleanor Lanier

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Jury Simulation Goals, Jonathan J. Koehler, John B. Meixner Jr.

Scholarly Works

What are the goals that researchers who conduct jury simulations have or should have? Drawing on Pennington and Hastie (1981), we identify three primary goals: (1) develop theory, (2) describe how juries perform, and (3) improve the jury process. Where basic theory matters most, studies should be designed in ways that stress internal validity. Where describing the behaviors of real juries or persuading policy makers about changes that should be made, studies should focus on external and ecological validity as well. We urge researchers who are interested in describing jury behavior and improving the jury process to conduct ecologically valid …

In Defense Of The Devil’S Advocate, Lonnie T. Brown

Scholarly Works

mong the many controversial positions for which Monroe Freedman advocated during his illustrious career, the one that I find most surprising and uncharacteristic is his contention that lawyers who undertake morally questionable representations have a duty to explain or justify their choice of client. Specifically, in 1993 Professor Freedman penned a well-known column in the Legal Times — titled “Must You Be the Devil’s Advocate?” — in which he took Professor Michael Tigar to task for his representation of reputed Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk. Professor Freedman tacitly criticized Professor Tigar for his client choice and expressly called upon him …

Mindfulness - Finding Focus In A Distracted World, Heather Simmons, Kyle K. Courtney

Scholarly Works

Law school and law practice can be an intense and chaotic experience. Library outreach can include programs that support the growing movement within the legal profession toward personal wellness; that is, valuing self-care and paying attention to our emotional, psychological, and physical health while practicing law. Mindfulness and meditation fall squarely within this movement’s mission

Financiers As Monitors In Aggregate Litigation, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

Scholarly Works

This Article identifies a market-based solution for monitoring large-scale litigation proceeding outside of Rule 23’s safeguards. Although class actions dominate the scholarly discussion of mass litigation, the ever increasing restrictions on certifying a class mean that plaintiffs’ lawyers routinely rely on aggregate, multidistrict litigation to seek redress for group-wide harms. Despite sharing key features with its class action counterpart—such as attenuated attorney-client relationships, attorneyclient conflicts of interest, and high agency costs—no monitor exists in aggregate litigation. Informal group litigation not only lacks Rule 23’s judicial protections against attorney overreaching and self-dealing, but plaintiff’s themselves cannot adequately supervise their attorneys’ behavior. …

A Tale Of Prosecutorial Indiscretion: Ramsey Clark And The Selective Non-Prosecution Of Stokely Carmichael, Lonnie T. Brown

Scholarly Works

During the height of the Vietnam War and one of the most volatile periods of the civil rights movement, then-Attorney General Ramsey Clark controversially resisted intense political pressure to prosecute Black Power originator and antiwar activist Stokely Carmichael. Taken in isolation, this decision may seem courageous and praiseworthy, but when considered against the backdrop of Clark’s contemporaneous prosecution of an all-white group of similarly situated anti-draft leaders (the so-called Boston Five), his exercise of prosecutorial discretion becomes suspect. Specifically, the Boston Five were prosecuted in 1968 for conspiracy to aid and abet draft evasion, a charge for which the evidence …

The Burden Of Knowledge, Christian Turner

Scholarly Works

Sometimes we are better off not knowing things. While we often hear that "ignorance is bliss," there has not been a comprehensive consideration in the legal academy of the virtues of ignorance and its regulation. Though the distribution of knowledge, like the distribution of other goods, is affected both directly and indirectly by law, several characteristics of knowledge distinguish it from other kinds of property. Much has been written about the impact of the nonrival and nonexclusive nature of knowledge on its production and distribution. This Article centers around two other attributes of knowledge that combine to create a special …

Drawing The Ethical Line: Controversial Cases, Zealous Advocacy, And The Public Good: Foreword, Lonnie T. Brown

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Are lawyers handling controversial matters justified in being myopically fixated upon achieving their client's or the state's objectives, whatever the costs? Or is there a point at which the interests of the system or perhaps even the public must take precedence, requiring that unbridled zeal and loyalty take a backseat? Such fascinating questions were skillfully examined during the 10th Annual Legal Ethics and Professionalism Symposium, "Drawing the Ethical Line: Controversial Cases, Zealous Advocacy, and the Public Good." The published remarks and the articles that follow provide a glimpse into the difficult ethical line-drawing that was engaged in by a distinguished …

Foreword: Why Open Access To Scholarship Matters, Joe Miller

Scholarly Works

On March 10, 2006, the Lewis & Clark Law Review sponsored a day-long symposium entitled Open Access Publishing and the Future of Legal Scholarship. That gathering led to eight papers that are forthcoming in Volume 10, Issue No. 4, of the Lewis & Clark Law Review. In this short Foreword, I offer some thoughts about why all law professors should take an interest in the movement promoting open access to scholarship. The principal reason, based in current circumstances, is the way that using an open access platform extends one's reach. The aspirational reason is that open access platforms enable us …

I Do Know How She Does It (But Sometimes I Wish I Didn't), Rebecca White

Scholarly Works

I care deeply about the issue of women's attrition from the legal profession. Admittedly, I have not written any scholarly work on this exact topic. When I learned who the other symposium guests were and how much extensive work they have done on this subject, I was left to wonder what I could contribute to our discussion. I have not conducted any empirical studies; I do not have any new and brilliant insight. What I do have, is experience. I have performed ‘the juggling act’ that simultaneous full-time lawyering and mothering requires. I have worked part-time in a large law …

Ethical Considerations In Medicaid Estate Planning: An Analysis Of The Aba Model Rules Of Professional Conduct, Eleanor Crosby Lanier, Ira M. Leff

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The purpose of this article is to provide a starting point for discussion of ethical issues related to the practice of Medicaid estate planning. The authors explore the history of attorney involvement in planning and financing long-term care. They also analyze how the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct address the ethical dilemmas that arise in practice, using a case study to illustrate some of these issues. The individual authors' perspectives on this practice differ with respect to certain issues. One is a former Legal Services lawyer, and the other has a private practice which focuses on Medicaid estate planning.

Competency And Professionalism In Modern Litigation: The Role Of Law Schools, Ronald L. Carlson

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This Article opens with an historical analysis of the forces that stimulated the growth of trial practice training. It then shifts the focus to the current concern of the bar with raising the level of professionalism among lawyers. Part III discusses the role of law schools in helping their students meet both competency and professionalism challenges. To this end, Part III addresses (1) the need of any trial practice course to incorporate litigation ethics in a meaningful way, perhaps within the context of creative and challenging problems materials; and (2) the need for instructors in the field to add quality …

Legal Advocacy, Performance, And Affection, D. Robert Lohn, Milner S. Ball

Scholarly Works

Professor Geoffrey Hazard's lecture addresses appellate advocacy. That advocate's brief is best, he says, that, short of surrender, concedes most to the opposing party. We assume that Professor Hazard would scarcely have ventured out of New Haven to participate in the distinguished Sibley Lectureship merely to commend to the consideration of the audience an interesting but minor rhetorical ploy. Therefore we read his comments as surely implying more. We interpret his lecture as an invitation to rethink the nature of the courtroom event. The textual openings to our examination of fundamentals are found in various of Professor Hazard's comments--for instance, …