Law Commons^™

Speaking Science To Law, Deborah Hussey Freeland

Deborah M. Hussey Freeland

involving a strong scientific consensus, the powerful qualities of scientific knowledge are easily lost in translation. Moreover, even prominent scientists who are committed to providing accurate information to legal fact-finders may suffer reputational harm simply for participating in an adversarial process.

This article analyzes the connection between law and science through the expert witness from the perspectives of epistemology and cross-cultural communication, focusing on the distinct ways in which scientists and lawyers know, value and express their knowledge. When a lawyer meets with a scientific expert witness, more confusion attends their interaction than either likely realizes. Linguistic translation is necessary--but …

Fidelity Diluted: Client Confidentiality Gives Way To The First Amendment & Social Media In Virginia State Bar, Ex Rel. Third District Committee V. Horace Frazier Hunter, Jan Jacobowitz, Kelly Jesson

Jan L Jacobowitz

Fidelity and confidentiality are hallmarks of the attorney-client relationship. However, as social media use permeates the legal profession, new challenges have arisen to the traditional interpretation of client confidentiality. The Virginia Supreme Court’s recent holding, which concludes that to deny attorney Horace Hunter the ability to blog about his clients’ cases without client consent, after the case concludes and based upon what is found in the public record, is to deny Hunter his First Amendment right of free speech has spurned controversy. The Hunter opinion arguably undermines the long standing legal ethics rule of confidentiality and strikes at the heart …

Technology: A Motivation Behind Recent Model Rule Revisions, Louise L. Hill

Louise L Hill

No abstract provided.

The Legal Perils Of Social Media: Avoiding Landmines In Cyberspace, Jan L. Jacobowitz Ms.

Jan L Jacobowitz

No abstract provided.

Winning Through Integrity And Professionalism, Gerald Lebovits

Hon. Gerald Lebovits

No abstract provided.

What Is A Lawyer? A Reconstruction Of The Lawyer As An Officer Of The Court, Deborah Hussey Freeland

Deborah M. Hussey Freeland

This paper engages with the central question in legal ethics concerning the lawyer's role, analyzing this fundamental question in terms of professional identity. Literature in this debate frames the lawyer either as a professional who exists entirely to serve her client (the "standard conception"), or as a professional whose primary duties are to the legal system. I reposit and examine the lawyer's professional identity as an officer of the court--an identity marginalized by those who favor the standard conception--noting that the phrase was coined to draw attention to a supplanting threat to legal professionalism. Providing a uniquely detailed examination of …

Some Reflections On Ethics And Plea Bargaining: An Essay In Honor Of Fred Zacharias, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

In this article the author explores what it means for a prosecutor to “do justice” in a plea bargaining context. Although the vast majority of criminal cases in the United States are resolved by guilty plea rather than by trial, ABA Model Rule 3.8, the special disciplinary rule applicable to prosecutors, has very little to say about plea bargaining. Scrutinizing the multiplicity of interests at stake in plea bargaining, the author suggests that a prosecutor’s primary objectives during negotiations should be efficiency, equality, autonomy, and transparency. After defining each of these terms, the author identifies several troublesome and recurring practices …

How To Staff An Ethics Hotline: The New York County Lawyers' Association Experience, Barry R. Temkin, Gordon Eng

Barry R. Temkin

This article discusses how to run an ethics hotline, and chronicles the experience and guidelines of the New York County Lawyers' Association Professional Ethics Committee. We explain the practical mechanics of how an ethics hotline is staffed, what kinds of callers are eligible, what kinds of questions the staffers will and will not accept, and research resources for hotline staffers.

Those Who Can't, Teach: What The Legal Career Of John Yoo Tells Us About Who Should Be Teaching Law, Lawrence Rosenthal

Lawrence Rosenthal

Perhaps no member of the legal academy in America is more controversial than John Yoo. For his role in producing legal opinions authorizing what is thought by many to be abusive treatment of detainees as part of the Bush Administration’s “Global War on Terror,” some have called for him to be subjected to professional discipline, others have called for his criminal prosecution. This paper raises a different question: whether John Yoo – and his like – ought to be teaching law.

John Yoo provides something of a case study in the problems in legal education today. As a scholar, Professor …

Resolving Client Conflicts By Hiring "Conflicts Counsel", Ronald D. Rotunda

Ronald D. Rotunda

A general principle of legal ethics is that a law firm may not represent a client suing someone who is also a client of the law firm (1) even though the two matters are unrelated, (2) a different law firm represents the client in that law suit, and (3) there is no risk that the lawyer would violate the confidences of any client. Other ethics rules magnify the significance of this rule by imputing the disqualification of every lawyer in the law firm to every other lawyer in the same firm. Courts enforce these rules by disqualifying the offending law …

Is The Attorney-Client Privilege A Privilege Of The Rich? Federal Hmis Database Reporting And Homeless Client Confidentiality, Jennifer Hammitt

Jennifer Hammitt

The Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) is a new database reporting system mandated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to track the usage of HUD services by homeless people. The HMIS requires collecting identifiable personal information about the individuals who use the services and entering that information into a database that enables information sharing and referral services. This comment arose out of an investigation into the HMIS database and confidentiality issues that I did while working at Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc., as part of the Homeless Legal Assistance Project in the summer of 2009. As this …

Lawyers And Fundamental Moral Responsibility, R. Michael Cassidy, Daniel Coquillette, Judith Mcmorrow

R. Michael Cassidy

The materials in this book are organized around specific problems designed to encourage and focus class discussion. There are two other inherent organizing principles of the materials in this book. First, the philosophical materials are in the rough order in which the ideas themselves evolved in the history of philosophy. The materials have been revised since the book first was published in 1995 to address some of the burning ethical problems of our day, including terrorism, national security, and abuse of government power. The Second Edition also is reorganized to assist students to better appreciate philosophical theories underpinning discourse about …

Judicial Disqualification In The Aftermath Of Caperton V. A.T. Massey Coal Co., Ronald D. Rotunda

Ronald D. Rotunda

Does Due Process require a judge to disqualify himself if an individual spent independent funds to buy ads that criticized the judge's opponent in a judicial election? The Supreme Court said yes (5 to 4) in the Caperton decision, and thus has created more uncertainty in the law. Does it matter if the person who paid for the independent ads was not a lawyer or a party but was only an employee of the party? And, does it matter if that employee's financial interest in the law suit (if one were to pierce the corporate veil) is minor – substantially …

Emerging Technology And Client Confidentiality: How Changing Technology Brings Ethical Dilemmas, Louise L. Hill

Louise L Hill

No abstract provided.

N.Y. Rules Of Prof. Conduct: Law & Prac. (2 Vols.), Gerald Lebovits

Hon. Gerald Lebovits

No abstract provided.

Nycla's Fee-Dispute Program: Part 137, Gerald Lebovits

Hon. Gerald Lebovits

No abstract provided.

Pretrial Advocacy: An Ethical Checklist—Part Ii, Gerald Lebovits

Hon. Gerald Lebovits

No abstract provided.

Delaware Legal Ethics, American Legal Ethics Library, Lawrence Hamermesh, Louise Hill

Louise L Hill

No abstract provided.

Pretrial Advocacy: An Ethical Checklist—Part I, Gerald Lebovits

Hon. Gerald Lebovits

No abstract provided.

Ethics In Arbitration: Connections, Conflicts, And Collegiality, Phyllis E. Bernard

Phyllis E. Bernard

No abstract provided.

The Lawyer's Mind: Why A Twenty-First Century Legal Practice Will Not Thrive Using Nineteenth Century Thinking 2010 (With Thanks To George Lakoff), Phyllis E. Bernard

Phyllis E. Bernard

No abstract provided.

Winning Through Integrity And Professionalism, Gerald Lebovits

Hon. Gerald Lebovits

No abstract provided.

Part 137: The Attorney-Client Fee-Dispute Program, Gerald Lebovits

Hon. Gerald Lebovits

No abstract provided.

Lawyers Should Have A Professional I.D., Lawrence K. Hellman

Lawrence K. Hellman

No abstract provided.

Drafting Attorneys As Fiduciaries: Fashioning An Optimal Ethical Rule For Conflicts Of Interest, Paula A. Monopoli

Paula A Monopoli

The American Bar Association recently revised the ethical rules that govern lawyers. Its Ethics 2000 Commission proposed a number of changes to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, including revisions to the rules that affect how the profession handles conflicts of interest in the area of attorneys who draft instruments that name themselves as fiduciaries. The intersection of these changes, with their subsequent clarification by an ABA opinion issued in May 2002, has broad implications for attorneys practicing in this area. Given the increasing elderly population, the trillions of dollars that they are transferring to their baby-boomer children, and the …

Seeking A Professional I.D., Lawrence Hellman

Lawrence K. Hellman

No abstract provided.

Delaware Legal Ethics, American Legal Ethics Library, Lawrence Hamermesh, Louise Hill

Lawrence A. Hamermesh

No abstract provided.

Professionalism In The Legal Profession, Gerald Lebovits

Hon. Gerald Lebovits

No abstract provided.

Yom Kippur Lessons, Lawrence Hellman

Lawrence K. Hellman

No abstract provided.

Legal-Writing Ethics—Part I, Gerald Lebovits

Hon. Gerald Lebovits

No abstract provided.