Law Commons^™

Nonlawyers In The Legal Profession: Lessons From The Sunsetting Of Washington's Lllt Program, Lacy Ashworth

Arkansas Law Review

Today, the number of attorneys in the world fails to serve the number of people in need of legal assistance. Approximately sixty percent of law firm partners are baby boomers, meaning those in their mid fifties to early seventies, and twenty-five percent of all lawyers are sixty-five or older. These individuals will predictably retire. Meanwhile, law school costs more than ever. The average law student graduates $160,000 in debt only to enter into the legal profession with an average starting salary of $56,900 in the public sector and $91,200 in the private sector. It is no surprise law schools have …

How To Fix Legal Scholarmush, Adam Kolber

Indiana Law Journal

Legal scholars often fail to distinguish descriptive claims about what the law is from normative claims about what it ought to be. The distinction couldn’t be more important, yet scholars frequently mix it up, leading them to mistake legal authority for moral authority, treat current law as a justification for itself, and generally use rhetorical strategies more appropriate for legal practice than scholarship. As a result, scholars sometimes talk past each other, generating not scholarship but “scholarmush.”

In recent years, legal scholarship has been criticized as too theoretical. When it comes to normative scholarship, however, the criticism is off the …

A False Sense Of Security: How Congress And The Sec Are Dropping The Ball On Cryptocurrency, Tessa E. Shurr

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Today, companies use blockchain technology and digital assets for a variety of purposes. This Comment analyzes the digital token. If the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) views a digital token as a security, then the issuer of the digital token must comply with the registration and extensive disclosure requirements of federal securities laws.

To determine whether a digital asset is a security, the SEC relies on the test that the Supreme Court established in SEC v. W.J. Howey Co. Rather than enforcing a statute or agency rule, the SEC enforces securities laws by applying the Howey test on a fact-intensive …

Book Review Essay: Jewish And American Law: A Comparative Study. (Vols. 1 And 2) By Samuel J. Levine, Marie A. Failinger

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Can You Hear Me Now: The Impacts Of Prosecutorial Call Monitoring On Defendants' Access To Justice, Hope L. Demer

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Language Of Neutrality In Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings, Carolyn Shapiro

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

At Justice Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation hearing, then-Judge Gorsuch repeatedly insisted that judging involves no more than examining the legal materials—like statutes and precedents— and applying them to the facts of the case. There is, he emphasized, no room for a Justice’s “personal views,” and he refused even to state his agreement (or disagreement) with such iconic cases as Loving v. Virginia and Griswold v. Connecticut. Instead, then Judge Gorsuch reiterated only that they were precedents of the Court and thus entitled to respect. Frustrating as his answers may have been to some senators, however, they differed from answers given …

Infrequently Asked Questions, Edward T. Swaine

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

If appellate advocates could hear from courts about topics that might be raised during oral argument—as opposed to relying solely on their ability to anticipate the issues—might their answers be better? That seems likely, but it is unlikely that research could confirm that, as judicial practice overwhelmingly favors impromptu questioning. Spontaneity may be harmless if the question was predictable, or unavoidable if a judge just thought of the question. But sometimes advocates have to answer challenging questions concerning the law, facts, or implications of a position—questions that help decide the case, either due to the quality of the answer or …

Navigating Some Deep And Troubled Jurisprudential Waters: Lawyer–Expert Witnesses And The Twin Dangers Of Disguised Testimony And Disguised Advocacy, W. William Hodes

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

Expert testimony is indispensable to the uniquely American system of adversary justice. Without the assistance of expert witnesses with specialized knowledge, based on either science or experience and practice, jury verdicts would often be the result of pure whim and prejudice, or random and arbitrary decision-making. At the same time, the use of compensated, partisan expert witnesses poses significant dangers to the fair and just determination of disputes. This Article examines the enhanced dangers that can appear when the expert witness is a lawyer, chiefly the pervasive use of “disguised testimony” and “disguised advocacy.” The Article concludes with some suggestions …

Dismantling Democracy: Common Sense And The Contract Jurisprudence Of Frank Easterbrook, Deborah Post

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Franz Kafka’S “Before The Law”: A Parable, Geoffrey L. Brackett

Pace Law Review

Despite Francis Bacon’s cautionary note, I have always been a fan of parables, and perhaps the most poignant one to speak for perils of the legal profession is Franz Kafka’s “Vor dem Gesetz” (“Before the Law”), one of the relatively few works to be published in his lifetime. It was seen first in the almanac Vom Jüngsten Tag: Ein Almanach Neuer Dichtung in December 1915 before it was included in his novel Der Prozess (The Trial), which was unpublished in his lifetime. He wrote it at one sitting on December 13, 1914, and in fewer than 650 words, Kafka illustrates …

From The Great Depression To The Great Recession: (Non-)Lawyers Practicing Deregulated Law, Michael A. Bush

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Case For "Higher Law", John Warwick Montgomery

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Person In Law, The Number In Math: Improved Analysis Of The Subject As Foundation For A Noveau Régime , Orlando I. Martínez-García

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Law's Ambition And The Reconstruction Of Role Morality In Canada, David M. Tanovich

Dalhousie Law Journal

There is a growing disconnect and alienation between lawyers and the legal profession in Canada. One cause, which is the focus ofthe article, is philosophical in nature. There appears to be a disconnect between the role lawyers want to pursue (i.e., a facilitator of justice) and the role that they perceive the profession demands they play (i.e., a hired gun). The article argues that this perception is a mistaken one. Over the last fifteen years, we have been engaged in a process of role morality reconstruction. Under this reconstructed institutional role, an ethic of client-centred zealous advocacy has slowly begun …

A Lot Of Knowledge Is A Dangerous Thing: Will The Legal Profession Survive The Knowledge Explosion?, H W. Arthurs

Dalhousie Law Journal

Professor Arthurs argues that with the growth and diversification of knowledge, the common body of knowledge that underpins a unified profession is becoming more difficult to sustain. The desire to know, the need to know and the resources to know have divided lawyers into subprofessions, increasingly defined by the non-lawyers with whom they work and the clienteles they serve, bound togetherif at all-only by nostalgia and some residuum of self-interest.

Theories Of Poetry, Theories Of Law, Lawrence Joseph

Vanderbilt Law Review

I write poetry." Also, since 1976, when I was admitted to practice before a state bar, I have served as a law clerk for a justice of a state supreme court, practiced, and mostly taught law. About the time that I began law school, while I was writing poems that would appear in my first book, an extraordinary change in jurisprudence began to occur, one which focused on legal language as something more than a medium for conveying singular meaning. This legal theory has become as important as any since legal realism. Because I also have written essays and re- …

The Material Basis Of Jurisprudence, Richard A. Posner

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Independent Professional Power And The Search For A Legal Ideology With A Progressive Bite, Bryant G. Garth

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

All My Friends Are Becoming Strangers: The Psychological Perspective In Legal Education, James R. Elkins

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Law In The Coming Years*, George D. Gibson

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Llewellyn: Jurisprudence: Realism In Theory And Practice, Charles D. Kelso

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Jurisprudence: Realism in Theory and Practice By Karl N. Llewellyn.

Necessity As A Justification: A Critique Of Perka, Donald Galloway

Dalhousie Law Journal

In his characteristically trenchant and influential investigation, "A Plea for Excuses",' J. L. Austin reminded us that we can and do use different strategies of defending a person when it is claimed that he has done wrong. He drew attention to two distinct tactics: One way of going about this (defending a person) is to admit that he, X, did that very thing, A, but to argue that it was a good thing, or the right or sensible thing, or a permissible thing to do . . . To take this line is to justify the action, to give reasons …

Address To Graduating Class January, 1949, D. Gordon Baker

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Jurisprudence Of Thomas Jefferson, L. K. Caldwell

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Legal Gospel For An Industrial Age, Anan Raymond

Indiana Law Journal

An address delivered before the Indiana State Bar Association at Lafayette, Indiana, July 9, 1931.