Law Commons^™

Zacharias’S Prophecy: The Federalization Of Legal Ethics Through Legislative, Court, And Agency Regulation, Daniel R. Coquillette, Judith A. Mcmorrow

Judith A. McMorrow

In his 1994 seminal article on Federalizing Legal Ethics, Prof. Fred Zacharias examined the need for a national and uniform code of ethics for attorneys. Prof. Zacharias was correct that there has been increasing pressure to federalize legal ethics, but that process is occurring not through articulation of national norms but rather through decentralized contextualization of attorney conduct norms. Federal agencies that direct securities practice, immigration, tax, patent, labor and many other areas of federal practice are increasingly supplementing state regulations to specifically regulate the attorneys who appear before their agencies. Targeted substantive federal law and treaty obligations also increasingly …

Zacharias’S Prophecy: The Federalization Of Legal Ethics Through Legislative, Court, And Agency Regulation, Daniel R. Coquillette, Judith A. Mcmorrow

Daniel R. Coquillette

In his 1994 seminal article on Federalizing Legal Ethics, Prof. Fred Zacharias examined the need for a national and uniform code of ethics for attorneys. Prof. Zacharias was correct that there has been increasing pressure to federalize legal ethics, but that process is occurring not through articulation of national norms but rather through decentralized contextualization of attorney conduct norms. Federal agencies that direct securities practice, immigration, tax, patent, labor and many other areas of federal practice are increasingly supplementing state regulations to specifically regulate the attorneys who appear before their agencies. Targeted substantive federal law and treaty obligations also increasingly …

Three Concepts Of Roles, W. Bradley Wendel

San Diego Law Review

There is something distinctive about the law, legal reasoning, and the role of lawyers. That distinctiveness is captured by the idea that normative reasoning by citizens in communities is necessarily aimed at discovering what rights and obligations everyone ought to have, consistent with the interests of other citizens. It is implausible to believe that ordinary moral reasoning is well-suited to working out a scheme of public entitlements that is suited to regulating the interactions among citizens who disagree about what their entitlements ought to be. The law has authority to the extent it enables people to do better than they …

No Paradise To Regain: Comments On Russell G. Pearce And Eli Wald, The Obligation Of Lawyers To Heal Civic Culture: Confronting The Ordeal Of Incivility In The Practice Of Law, Kenneth S. Gallant

Faculty Scholarship

This piece responds to Russell G. Pearce and Eli Wald, The Obligation of Lawyers to Heal Civic Culture: Confronting the Ordeal of Incivility in the Practice of Law (presented at the 2011 Altheimer Symposium, UALR Bowen School of Law). It agrees with their view that arguments from "relational self-interest" (viewing self interest as necessarily connected to the interests of others) can address issues of incivility in the American politics and the practice of law in ways that other arguments cannot.

It disagrees with them on a few specific points:

1. The so-called Ordeal of Incivility in American politics, culture and …

Crisis In The Legal Profession: Don’T Mourn, Organize!, Michael E. Tigar

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Confidentiality And Claims Of Ineffective Assistance, Peter A. Joy, Kevin C. Mcmunigal

Faculty Publications

This column discusses what a defense lawyer should do when called upon to reveal client information in response to an ineffective assistance of counsel claim.

Enforcement Of Law Schools' Non-Academic Honor Codes: A Necessary Step Towards Professionalism?, Nicola A. Boothe-Perry

Journal Publications

As law schools strive to enforce their codes of student conduct, enforcement has called into question the legal standing of the schools, since enforcement affects the fundamental rights of students. Consequently, this Article will address the following question: to what extent can law schools fulfill their responsibility and opportunity to enforce behavioral codes-specifically codes governing non-academic conduct-with a goal of improving professionalism? Through analysis of law schools' enforcement capabilities, this Article will suggest a practical framework by which law schools can promulgate and enforce codes and rules affecting students' non-academic conduct.

The Challenges Of Developing Cross-Cultural Legal Ethics Education, Professional Development, And Guidance For The Legal Professions, Philip Genty

Faculty Scholarship

The broad goal of this paper is to describe the need, and provide a framework, for engaging in cross-cultural conversations among lawyers, law teachers, and others, who are using legal ethics as a vehicle for improving the legal professions and the delivery of legal services. All legal cultures struggle with the question of how to educate students and lawyers to be ethical professionals and how to regulate the legal profession effectively. The purpose of the cross-cultural conversations discussed in this paper would be to develop principles of legal ethics education, professional development, and regulation of the legal professions that can …

Plea Bargaining, Discovery, And The Intractable Problem Of Impeachment Disclosures, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

In a criminal justice system where guilty pleas are the norm and trials the rare exception, the issue of how much discovery a defendant is entitled to before allocution has immense significance. This article examines the scope of a prosecutor’s obligation to disclose impeachment information before a guilty plea. This question has polarized the criminal bar and bedeviled the academic community since the Supreme Court’s controversial decision in United States v. Ruiz (2002). A critical feature of the debate has been the enduring schism between a prosecutor’s legal and ethical obligations – a gulf that the American Bar Association recently …