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Lawyer Distress: Alcohol-Related Problems And Other Psychological Concerns Among A Sample Of Practicing Lawyers, Connie J.A. Beck, Bruce D. Sales, G. Andrew H. Benjamin Jan 1995

Lawyer Distress: Alcohol-Related Problems And Other Psychological Concerns Among A Sample Of Practicing Lawyers, Connie J.A. Beck, Bruce D. Sales, G. Andrew H. Benjamin

Journal of Law and Health

The findings of the research reported in this study, in conjunction with earlier studies, suggest that the professional and the personal well-being of lawyers is in serious jeopardy. Lawyers are working more, reducing vacation time, spending less time with family members, are prone to alcohol abuse, and face high levels of psychological distress. The combination of elements suggests an impending crisis for lawyers' family lives. Although the data are not sufficient to suggest that psychological distress has detrimentally affected the lawyers' ability to practice competently, the warning signs are present. Further empirical study may well reveal that lawyer distress is …


Some Thoughts About Developing Constructive Approaches To Lawyer And Law Student Distress, Peter G. Glenn Jan 1995

Some Thoughts About Developing Constructive Approaches To Lawyer And Law Student Distress, Peter G. Glenn

Journal of Law and Health

I am convinced, on the basis of experience as a teacher at five law schools, that it is possible to establish a law school culture in which the administration and faculty can work effectively to substantially reduce the level of unnecessary law student distress. I believe, however, that accomplishing this on any large scale among the law schools generally might require not only implementation of many of the suggestions of Professors Glesner and Kutulakis, but also that we abandon the ideas that all law schools should be fundamentally similar, built on the model of a large-enrollment major research center, and …


Lawyer Distress: A Comment, Susan S. Locke Jan 1995

Lawyer Distress: A Comment, Susan S. Locke

Journal of Law and Health

I will not debate whether or not the practice of law creates dysfunction, requires dysfunction or perpetuates dysfunction. I am reminded of a colleague who, when looking at his law firm partners who practice in my field of estate planning asked, "Do you have to be eccentric to go into estate planning, or does it just make you that way after a while?" Probably the answer is a little of both, and it is as true for the practice of law in general as it is for estate planning. When the dust settles at some time in the future, we …


Is There A Solution To The Problem Of Lawyer Stress - The Law School Perspective, James J.A. Alfini, Joseph N. Van Vooren Jan 1995

Is There A Solution To The Problem Of Lawyer Stress - The Law School Perspective, James J.A. Alfini, Joseph N. Van Vooren

Journal of Law and Health

What is the result of all this stress? As previously noted in the Beck, Sales, and Benjamin study, more and more attorneys are turning to alcohol as a "stress reliever." Also, a higher percentage of lawyers are dissatisfied with their personal relationships than the "normal population." A poll conducted for the New York Law Journal by a Manhattan polling firm found that of the lawyers polled who had been divorced, fifty-six percent asserted that their careers in the law had contributed to the breakup of their marriages. Of great concern is the fact that an increasing number of attorneys are …


Learning And Mental Disability Protection Under The Americans With Disabilities Act In The Quest For Certification For The Practice Of Law, Aaron J. Reber Jan 1995

Learning And Mental Disability Protection Under The Americans With Disabilities Act In The Quest For Certification For The Practice Of Law, Aaron J. Reber

Journal of Law and Health

The Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted in 1990 as a comprehensive scheme in which previously discriminated against classes would be guaranteed fair treatment in employment as well as other settings. The Act protects those with both physical and mental disabilities. With respect to certification for the practice of law, the Act has almost unique significance as the accommodations the Act calls for arguably clash with state bar standards of competence both in legal education and mental fitness for certification. These clashes tend to stem from two major situations-accommodation of the learning disabled student who may not be able to …


Commentary: Policy Implications, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr. Jan 1995

Commentary: Policy Implications, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr.

Journal of Law and Health

It is clear to me that members of the legal profession are obliged to take these findings seriously. I shall suggest below a few reservations about the analysis. Nevertheless, the important findings are established by empirical evidence so powerful that they can be ignored only through a wish not to believe. If the findings are accepted as a description of reality, the challenge is to work out sensible courses of action in response. The challenge is formidable.


Lawyers, Learning, And Professionalism: Meditations On A Theme, Judith Welch Wegner Jan 1995

Lawyers, Learning, And Professionalism: Meditations On A Theme, Judith Welch Wegner

Cleveland State Law Review

This essay will offer three meditations on the theme of "lawyers, learning and professionalism." First, it lays a foundation by arguing that a commitment to learning is an appropriate and necessary professional value for lawyers. Next, it contends that lawyers need to take this professional value more seriously. It will suggest that lawyers lag behind other professions in learning about learning, and urge more lawyers deliberately do just that. Finally, the essay shares some important lessons about professionalism recently learned through learning experiments with practicing lawyers and law students.


Proverbial Practice: Legal Ethics From Old Testament Wisdom, Gordon J. Beggs Jan 1995

Proverbial Practice: Legal Ethics From Old Testament Wisdom, Gordon J. Beggs

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The Old Testament book of Proverbs supplied foundational moral values for our nation's legal ethics. With the adoption and revision of formal codes, moral teaching has virtually disappeared from legal ethics. This essay suggests that the wisdom of Proverbs offers a timely challenge to the character of the legal profession by advocating values which include justice, purity, mercy, humility, honesty, candor, truthful testimony, and civility.


Rhetoric, Evidence, And Bar Agency Restrictions On Speech By Attorneys, Lloyd B. Snyder Jan 1995

Rhetoric, Evidence, And Bar Agency Restrictions On Speech By Attorneys, Lloyd B. Snyder

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

There are two problems with permitting litigation about attorney speech to proceed without requiring bar disciplinary agencies to present empirical data or other evidence to support claims that restrictions on attorney speech are necessary. First, the history of bar association restrictions on attorney speech should make us skeptical that the bar rules are based on lofty ideals about protection of the public. The restrictions began as rules promulgated by elite corporate lawyers whose effect was to limit the activities of their less affluent brethren who were representing criminal defendants and other impoverished clients. The purpose of the rules was to …


Aba Delegates Amend Model Rule , Susan J. Becker Jan 1995

Aba Delegates Amend Model Rule , Susan J. Becker

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The ABA House of Delegates has amended Model Rule 4.2 regarding whom attorneys may ethically contact directly during the course of litigation or other legal matters. This article discusses the ramifications of this change.


Self-Inflicted Wounds: The Duty To Disclose Damaging Legal Authority, Angela Gilmore Jan 1995

Self-Inflicted Wounds: The Duty To Disclose Damaging Legal Authority, Angela Gilmore

Cleveland State Law Review

This article analyzes Rule 3.3(a)(3) and its implications for opposing parties in an adversarial legal system. The article's conclusion is that strict compliance with Rule 3.3(a)(3) by all members of the Bar is necessary to preserve the integrity of the legal system. Circumvention of the Rule is a disservice to the legal system. Part II explains Rule 3.3(a)(3) so that lawyers can grasp the ethical duty owed. Part III examines three roles simultaneously played by a lawyer: a representative of clients, an officer of the legal system, and a private citizen having a special responsibility for the quality of justice.7 …


Child Abuse: Should You Report It?, David F. Forte Aug 1994

Child Abuse: Should You Report It?, David F. Forte

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This article discusses the options under the Code of Professional Responsibility for a domestic relations attorney who acquires confidential or secret information about child abuse by a client.


Conducting Informal Discovery Of A Party's Former Employees: Legal And Ethical Concerns And Constraints, Susan J. Becker Jan 1992

Conducting Informal Discovery Of A Party's Former Employees: Legal And Ethical Concerns And Constraints, Susan J. Becker

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This Article identifies and critiques existing sources of confusion in the law and proposes revised and alternative discovery procedures to provide equal access to information possessed by ex-employees, while simultaneously safeguarding the integrity of that information. Its primary emphasis is on federal jurisprudence, although important points of consensus and departure between state and federal law are noted, as appropriate. Part I explains the issues that arise in informal discovery, and the difficulties with clearly resolving those issues given the conflicting state of the law. Part II discusses application of the attorney-client privilege to communications between corporate counsel and former employees, …


Personal Values And Professional Ethics, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr. Jan 1992

Personal Values And Professional Ethics, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr.

Cleveland State Law Review

My purpose on this occasion is to urge reexamination of personal values as a fundamental resource of professional ethics. The essential point is that rules of ethics, such as those embodied in the profession's ethical codes, are insufficient guides to making the choices of action that a professional must make in practice. I will suggest that the same is true of professional tradition and conventional ways of practice. This is not to say that rules of ethics and traditions are irrelevant. Rules of professional ethics frame the ethical problems that are encountered in a lawyer's life throughout practice. Moreover, professional …


The Pro Bono Debate And Suggestions For A Workable Program, Sophia M. Deseran Jan 1990

The Pro Bono Debate And Suggestions For A Workable Program, Sophia M. Deseran

Cleveland State Law Review

Although the concept of pro bono publico, the rendering of an attorney's services without or with substantially reduced compensation, has been in existence for centuries, there has been an increasing interest in the question of whether this public service can be made a mandatory one. This note will explore the development of a mandatory service requirement by reviewing the American treatment of such an obligation. Some attention will be given to foreign approaches as well. In addition, the need for legal assistance will be analyzed. Finally, in view of the uncertain status of a mandatory pro bono system, suggestions for …


Professional Ethics Opinion 89-3, Attorney Responsibility To Disabled Or Dysfunctional Client, David F. Forte Nov 1989

Professional Ethics Opinion 89-3, Attorney Responsibility To Disabled Or Dysfunctional Client, David F. Forte

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

When an attorney files suit on behalf of a client and later has reason to believe the client is incompetent, what should the attorney do? Can the case be settled? Can the attorney move for the appointment of a guardian ad litem? The article is an excerpt from an ethics opinion which answers these questions.


Professional Ethics Opinion 89-1, Propriety Of Non-Lawyer Employees' Names On Letterheads And Business Cards, David F. Forte Jan 1989

Professional Ethics Opinion 89-1, Propriety Of Non-Lawyer Employees' Names On Letterheads And Business Cards, David F. Forte

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

A lawyer or law firm may include on its letterhead and business cards the names and titles of its nonlawyer employees, so long as the letterhead or business card describes such employees as nonlawyers.


The Changing Role Of The Attorney With Respect To The Corporation, Wilton S. Sogg, Michael L. Solomon Jan 1987

The Changing Role Of The Attorney With Respect To The Corporation, Wilton S. Sogg, Michael L. Solomon

Cleveland State Law Review

Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once stated that "the propriety of a lawyer serving as a member of the Board of Directors of his corporate client remains, even today, a vexing problem of professional responsibility.” Historically, accountants have been assumed, as well as required, to be independent of any enterprise in which they express an opinion regarding the enterprise's financial statements. Independence had been interpreted to mean that accountants may not serve on the board of directors or invest in any enterprise which they, or their firm, audit, or for whom either expresses an opinion on the enterprise's financial statements. …


Ethics And The Settlement Of Civil Rights Cases: Can Attorneys Keep Their Virtue And Their Fees?, Lloyd B. Snyder Jan 1986

Ethics And The Settlement Of Civil Rights Cases: Can Attorneys Keep Their Virtue And Their Fees?, Lloyd B. Snyder

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The Civil Rights Attorneys' Fees Award Act of 1976 authorizes an award of fees to the prevailing party in a civil rights action. The United State Supreme Court, in Evans v. Jeff D., has interpreted the Fees Act to authorize the parties in a civil rights action to negotiate settlement of fees and merits jointly. The Court did not determine whether joint fees-merits negotiation is ethical. The author of this article contends that joint negotiation is ethical. He further contends that it is ethical for plaintiff's attorney to reject an offer of settlement if the offer is coupled with a …


Legal Ethics: Legal Rules And Professional Aspirations, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr. Jan 1981

Legal Ethics: Legal Rules And Professional Aspirations, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr.

Cleveland State Law Review

The bar is now generally aware that a revised set of Rules of Professional Conduct has been proposed to, and is being considered by, the American Bar Association. These proposed Model Rules, if endorsed by the ABA, will be presented for adoption in the several states. If adopted in a state, the Model Rules would replace the present Code of Professional Responsibility.


The Role Of The Law School In The Teaching Of Legal Ethics And Professional Responsibility, Warren E. Burger Jan 1980

The Role Of The Law School In The Teaching Of Legal Ethics And Professional Responsibility, Warren E. Burger

Cleveland State Law Review

My thesis is simple and straightforward. Every law school has a profound duty-and a unique opportunity-to inculcate principles of professional ethics and standards in its students. This duty should permeate the entire educational experience beginning with the first hour of the first day in law school.


Love, Professional Responsibility, The Rule Of Law, And Clinical Legal Education, Steven H. Leleiko Jan 1980

Love, Professional Responsibility, The Rule Of Law, And Clinical Legal Education, Steven H. Leleiko

Cleveland State Law Review

The primary purpose of this article is to explore the tensions which arise in persons who come to law school because they view the practice of law as an expression of their love and concern for people. In examining the underlying causes of these tensions, six related factors will be looked at: (1) the relationship between the values of traditional legal education and the support or lack of support which these values afford to the affective characteristics of students; (2) the role of one's job as a means of expressing love; (3) the role of job satisfaction in one's life; …


Misprision Of Antitrust Felony, Robert J. Hoerner Jan 1979

Misprision Of Antitrust Felony, Robert J. Hoerner

Cleveland State Law Review

When an attorney discovers clear evidence that his corporate client has committed an antitrust felony, he and his client are immediately confronted with an interrelated tangle of extraordinarily difficult questions. There has been much concern over these questions, particularly since violation of sections 1, 2 and 3 of the Sherman Act became indictable as felonies on December 21, 1974. Little has been written, however, on the misprision issue. Antitrust practitioners are not ordinarily trained in the contours of 18 U.S.C. § 4, the federal misprision statute. Our criminal practice is typically in rarified and antiseptic economic fields, and does not …


Misprision Of Antitrust Felony, Robert J. Hoerner Jan 1979

Misprision Of Antitrust Felony, Robert J. Hoerner

Cleveland State Law Review

When an attorney discovers clear evidence that his corporate client has committed an antitrust felony, he and his client are immediately confronted with an interrelated tangle of extraordinarily difficult questions. There has been much concern over these questions, particularly since violation of sections 1, 2 and 3 of the Sherman Act became indictable as felonies on December 21, 1974. Little has been written, however, on the misprision issue. Antitrust practitioners are not ordinarily trained in the contours of 18 U.S.C. § 4, the federal misprision statute. Our criminal practice is typically in rarified and antiseptic economic fields, and does not …


A Higher Duty: A New Look At The Ethics Of The Corporate Lawyer, Harvey Frank Jan 1977

A Higher Duty: A New Look At The Ethics Of The Corporate Lawyer, Harvey Frank

Cleveland State Law Review

Although it has not always been clear to the legal profession that the conduct of its most powerful clients affects ethical responsibilities, the resulting problems have become more evident in recent years to the courts, the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), and members of the bar. Recent developments have been diffuse, and include a changing legal conceptualization of corporations as well as numerous considerations involved in corporate legal representation. Viewed together and placed into focus, these developments shed considerable light on the sometimes conflicting duties of the corporate lawyer to clients and to the public. While some of these ethical questions …


Reflections On Estate Of Rothko: The Role Of The Legal Advisor In Relation To The Artist, Gustave Harrow Jan 1977

Reflections On Estate Of Rothko: The Role Of The Legal Advisor In Relation To The Artist, Gustave Harrow

Cleveland State Law Review

Estate of Rothko reveals the type of responsibility a legal advisor to an artist ought to assume if he is to render a service designed to advance not only his client's monetary interests, but the integrity of his art and his artistic aspirations as well.


The Unpopularity Of Lawyers In America, Jon R. Waltz Jan 1976

The Unpopularity Of Lawyers In America, Jon R. Waltz

Cleveland State Law Review

What's wrong with us lawyers? Mainly, it is that the worst among us pose for our portrait, so that we are viewed as avaricious and egomaniacal, all flair and no substance, seeking and wielding power without having the strength of character to wield it well. Lost to the public is the portrait of most lawyers, the sorts of lawyers that I hope this University produces. They are quiet people who come to the law, and stay with it, because they know that the law's power lets them help people make the best of a trying world.


Minimum Fee Schedules: Guides Or Strait Jackets, Robert L. Simmons, Gary N. Holthus Jan 1972

Minimum Fee Schedules: Guides Or Strait Jackets, Robert L. Simmons, Gary N. Holthus

Cleveland State Law Review

Several states have minimum fee schedules that set the least amount of compensation a lawyer should charge for a specific legal service. There has been much confusion in bar associations across the country as to the application of minimum fee schedules and the consequences of non-compliance. The American Bar Association has published both formal and informal opinions in an attempt to clearly define the functions of the schedules. In view of the opinions, interviews and statistical studies on the subject of minimum fee schedules, it is apparent that they are too rigid to cope with the practical needs of the …


Education In Professional Responsibility, David B. Goshien Jan 1972

Education In Professional Responsibility, David B. Goshien

Cleveland State Law Review

The problems, indeed the inadequacy of present legal education in ethics and professional responsibility are well known. The traditional methods of preparing law students for the avoidance of ethical and even criminal complaints against them in their future practice of law have been, in the main, divisible into two general categories: the "pervasive" method, through which understanding is supposed to be gained by students as if by osmosis through all courses and general law school contract, and the "specific" method which offers a course in the subject. Both methods are commonly used but neither seems to have achieved an acceptable …


Commencement Of Statute Of Limitations For Malpractice Of An Attorney, James Gordon Joseph Jan 1972

Commencement Of Statute Of Limitations For Malpractice Of An Attorney, James Gordon Joseph

Cleveland State Law Review

In almost all jurisdictions the statute of limitations for the malpractice of an attorney is between one and three years. Although some argue that this is too short a period, the main problem is not in the statute but in its application. Difficulty arises when a court must decide at what point the statute of limitations begins to run. To appreciate a court's problem, the nature and reasons behind statutes of limitations must be understood