Law Commons^™

From Natchitoches To Nuremberg: The Life Of Legal Pioneer Lyria Dickason, Todd C. Peppers

Scholarly Articles

Lyria was one of a small handful of women who graduated from a Louisiana law school in the 1930’s. Despite the employment barriers facing female attorneys, she went on to become one of the first female law clerks in both the federal and state judiciary. To date, Lyria’s story has not been told. I have recently discovered, however, that Lyria’s children and grandchildren preserved her letters to her family. They are a treasure trove of information about a woman whose career took her from rural Louisiana to Louisiana’s highest court as well as the post-war ruins of Nazi Germany. The …

Place-Based Versus Practice-Based Norms For American Lawyers: "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)", James E. Moliterno

Scholarly Articles

This Article acknowledges the growing trend toward practice-based lawyer norms, points out how it allows interaction between the existing place-based norms and the new practice-based norms, and compares this movement with the existing regulatory conditions outside the US. If there is movement from the world as we know it (place-based norms) to a world as it may come to be (practice-based norms), is the change tragic, inevitable, risky, in line with the rest of the global legal profession, or all of the above and more? Specifically, how would such an evolution affect the core duty of lawyer-client confidentiality?

Thoughts On Law Clerk Diversity And Influence, Todd C. Peppers

Scholarly Articles

It is my great good fortune to have been asked to comment on the remarkable Article Law Clerk Selection and Diversity: Insights from Fifty Sitting Judges of the Federal Courts of Appeals by Judge Jeremy D. Fogel, Professor Mary S. Hoopes, and Justice Goodwin Liu. Drawing on a rich vein of data gathered pursuant to a carefully crafted research design and extensive interviews, the authors provide the most detailed account to date regarding the selection criteria used by federal appeals court judges to select their law clerks. The authors pay special attention to the role that diversity plays in picking …

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

Scholarly Articles

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 …

Where's Rudy?, James E. Moliterno

Scholarly Articles

Choice of law in lawyer discipline matters, and the language among the popular choice of law rules in use matters. The core goals of choice of law principles should not limit the choices to the states in which a lawyer has a full, formal license. Doing so undermines the modern choice of law interests analysis by eliminating jurisdictions that may have the greatest interest in the conduct.

Lawyers cross borders physically and electronically on a daily basis. Accordingly, choice of law rules are critical, especially when a lawyer engages in missions that are targeted at particular jurisdictions, as Rudy Giuliani …

Progress Is A Chameleon, Melanie D. Wilson

Scholarly Articles

Progress is a chameleon. Its hue changes with our perspective, which is influenced by our race, gender, socio-economic status, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, age, and ancestry, among other influences. The amount of progress we perceive also varies from person to person and depends on the type of law we practice and whether we work in a small town or big city. Perhaps most importantly, how we view the rapidity of change in the legal profession — as stagnant, developing, or somewhere in between — is impacted by our unique experiences, our psychology, the length of time we have been lawyers, …

Securing Professional Development: Getting To Yes, Caroline L. Osborne, Carol A. Watson, Amy J. Eaton

Scholarly Articles

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Ask A Director: Reporting Accomplishments, Caroline L. Osborne

Scholarly Articles

None available.

Law Student Mediators Wear A Triple Crown: Skilled, Sellable, & Successful, Laurie A. Lewis

Scholarly Articles

This Article considers several trends that converge to make it a highly favorable time for law students to obtain mediation training and work as mediators prior to graduating. Part I summarizes a brief history of the modern ADR movement, and mediation's emergence as the ADR methodology of choice. Part II discusses the proliferation of live clinics in law schools, with a special emphasis upon mediation clinics and their role in teaching unique practice-ready skills. Part III focuses on the practicalities of community mediation training as well as state requirements for mediators. Finally, Part IV considers the tight legal job market …

Marketable And Mobile: Ube Recommended, Veryl Victoria Miles

Scholarly Articles

The first administration of the Uniform Bar Examination (UBE) occurred just five years ago in Missouri and North Dakota. At that time, the concept of a bar examination with a test score that was portable among participating jurisdictions was an exciting development for longtime proponents of a uniform bar exam. And while there were only two participating jurisdictions on board in 2011, NCBE was well on its way in making the case for the UBE as an attractive test alternative throughout the nation. Today there are 25 jurisdictions that have adopted the UBE, and by July 2018 all 25 jurisdictions …

Setting Up Shop: Technology Options & Recommendations, Jennifer R. Mart-Rice, Bradford Thomas

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Back To The Basics In 2015: Practical Information For Setting Up Shop, Jennifer R. Mart-Rice, Carol S. Furnish

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Pope Francis And The Vocation Of The Lawyer: Reflections On Service And Responsibility, Lucia A. Silecchia

Scholarly Articles

Through the years, Catholic lawyers have had many opportunities and invitations to reflect on their profession as a vocation due to the guidance that can be found in Sacred Scripture, the examples of saints who were themselves members of the legal profession, the teachings of church leaders, and the insights of religious writers on the vocation of the lawyer, to name but a few.

More recently, Pope Francis has also offered guidance as to what a life in the law might mean and what might characterize the vocation to practice law today. This guidance is not to be found in …

“A Witness First Lives The Life He Proposes:” Evangelization And The Catholic Lawyer, Lucia A. Silecchia

Scholarly Articles

This essay was presented at the lecture for legal professionals in Baltimore, Maryland, on May 21, 2015. The roots of the word evangelization are, literally, in the words that mean “to bring good news.” We live in a world that craves good news and, by virtue of our Baptism, all of us – lawyers included – are called to bring good news to a world that, despite all appearances to the contrary, aches for good news and deeply yearns to know the God from whom all good news comes, and to whom all good news leads. I am convinced that …

Gideon’S Army And The Central Theme Of Poverty, Cara H. Drinan

Scholarly Articles

Gideon’s Army, a powerful documentary film that follows the work of three public defenders in the South, provides a window into the well documented dysfunction of most public defender offices across the country. While following the life and work of these public defenders—Travis Williams, Brandy Alexander, and June Hardwick—the viewer sees what the academic literature has documented for decades: public defenders carry caseloads that are multiples of professional guidelines; compensation for public defenders is so paltry that many are barely making ends meet; the offices in which they work are resource-starved; guilty pleas are the default; and the public …

Sentencing Inequality Versus Sentencing Injustice, Melanie D. Wilson

Scholarly Articles

Women lag behind men in pay for equal work and in positions of prestigious employment, such as chief executive officers at Fortune 500 companies and presidents of colleges and universities. Women also suffer conscious and subconscious negative bias from both men and women in positions to evaluate an applicant's capabilities and potential, making it less likely that an employer or mentor will choose a woman instead of a man. In contrast to these and many other contexts, our federal criminal justice system regularly favors women over men. Empirical studies show that this lenient treatment begins with prosecutors and law enforcement …

Ethics 20/20 Successfully Achieved Its Mission: It "Protected, Preserved, And Maintained", James E. Moliterno

Scholarly Articles

The legal profession tends to look inward and backward when faced with crisis and uncertainty. The legal profession could make greater advances by looking outward and forward to find in society and culture the causes of and connections with the legal profession’s crises. Doing so would allow the profession to grow with society, solve problems with rather than against the flow of society, and be more attuned to the society the profession claims to serve.

And Now A Crisis In Legal Education, James E. Moliterno

Scholarly Articles

The current crisis in legal education coincides with a crisis in the practice of law. Law practice has changed as a result of technology, globalization, and economic pressures. The market for legal education's product, law graduates, have diminished. Law schools cannot remain the same in this environment. Except for a very small number of elite schools, those that do not adjust are at serious risk of failing.

An economic change has taken place against a system in which mostly corporate clients willingly paid for the training of beginners at major law firms. Law firms could absorb those costs if partners …

The Future Of Legal Education Reform, James E. Moliterno

Scholarly Articles

The article discusses the criticism raised against legal education including high cost, disconnection between law schools and profession, and lack of employment opportunities. It examines the role of the bar examinations and reflects that the model in place is dysfunctional. It suggests that modern law school should teach students not only legal analysis but also business aspect of law practice such as project management and creative resolutions of disputes.

The Trouble With Lawyer Regulation, James E. Moliterno

Scholarly Articles

The American legal profession has been a backward-looking, change-resistant institution. It has failed to adjust to changes in society, technology, and economics, despite individual lawyers' efforts to change their own practices and entrepreneurs' efforts to enter the legal marketplace to serve the needs of middle- and lower-income clients. When change does come, the legal profession is a late- arriver, usually doing no better than catching up to changes around it that have already become well ensconced. This failure robs society of what could be a positive role of the legal profession in times of change, and it deprives the profession …

Just Because You Can Doesn’T Mean You Should: Reconciling Attorney Conduct In The Context Of Defamation With The New Professionalism, Heather M. Kolinsky

Scholarly Articles

The Florida Bar has recently proposed enforceable professionalism standards. While many states have professionalism codes they remain aspirational and unenforceable. Florida’s move toward enforceable professionalism standards is laudable, but raises concerns about how moving a “step above” the floor of the rules of professional conduct will affect advocacy and practice.

This paper examines how a shift to enforceable professionalism standards may impact absolute immunity. The paper suggests that as other states consider similar standards or simply how to better policy professionalism, perhaps it is time to also consider how discipline is imposed with respect to defamatory statements that are otherwise …

Crisis Regulation, James E. Moliterno

Scholarly Articles

The article presents information on the regulation of crisis in legal profession. It reflects on the legal profession of the U.S. that has engaged in regulatory reform in response to crisis. It explains that a few changes in the status quo may lead legal profession to react to crisis and discusses it with the help of immigration in the twentieth century, Watergate and globalization. It states that with the wake of the Watergate revelations there is an increase in the crisis in legal profession.

First-Year Law Faculty Are Uniquely Poised To Mentor Stellar Students For Elbow Employment With Judges, Laurie A. Lewis

Scholarly Articles

Judicial clerkships are in high demand for new law graduates. In this tight job market, applicants must possess outstanding applications. Applicants must be not only practice-ready, but also clerkship-ready. They must be people-oriented, with superb oral communication skills. They must be outstanding researchers and writers. And they must have a passion for discovering truth and promoting justice.

Students should embark on a clerkship-ready path during their first year of law school. First-year faculty members are uniquely poised to identify students with skills and traits inherent to successful clerks. Such students demonstrate intellectual excellence, superior work habits, and an ability to …

Externship Demographics Across Two Decades With Lessons For Future Surveys, J.P. "Sandy" Ogilvy, Sudeb Basu

Scholarly Articles

Sudeb Basu (J.D., Catholic University, 2011) and Professor J.P. “Sandy” Ogilvy (Catholic University) report on the results of a 2007-2009 national survey of externship programs at American law schools and compare many of the data points to previous surveys of externship programs, the 2007-2008 CSALE survey, and some ABA/LSAC data, to chart the growth and increasing sophistication and complexity of the pedagogy associated with legal externships. Some of the data discussed include limits on the number of externship credits or externship courses, student involvement in externships, the distribution of credits awarded for externship courses, the average number of hours of …

Modeling The American Lawyer Ethics System, James E. Moliterno

Scholarly Articles

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The Uniform Bar Examination: A Benefit To Law School Graduates, Veryl Victoria Miles

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

The Lawyer As Catalyst Of Social Change, James E. Moliterno

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

A Golden-Age Of Civil Involvement: The Client-Centered Disadvantage For Lawyers As Law Makers, James E. Moliterno

Scholarly Articles

None available.

Celebrating Clepr’S 40th Anniversary: The Early Development Of The Clinical Legal Education And Legal Ethics Instruction In U.S. Law Schools, J.P. "Sandy" Ogilvy

Scholarly Articles

This article introduces the essays, articles, and remarks celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the establishment of the Council on Legal Education for Professional Responsibility (CLEPR). The Section on Professional Responsibility and Section on Clinical Legal Education of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) jointly sponsored a half-day program at the 2009 AALS Annual Meeting in San Diego, California, in recognition of the fortieth anniversary of CLEPR and the one hundredth anniversary of the promulgation of the American Bar Association Canons of Professional Ethics, the ABA's first effort at establishing a private law of lawyering to govern its members. After …

Practice-Ready: A Law School Perspective On Bar Certification, Veryl Victoria Miles

Scholarly Articles

Law schools play a critical role in the bar certification process. They certify that graduates have the character and fitness necessary to become members of the bar,and they verify that graduates have completed the schools’ academic requirements for graduation. Each of these certifications is much more than a mere check mark but rather an analysis of a complex set of factors.The certification of character and fitness is not a simple notice of the lack of negative information about the graduate. Law school determination of character and fitness is quite detailed. While all of the levels of that process are beyond …