Law Commons^™

Reforming Recusal Rules: Reassessing The Presumption Of Judicial Impartiality In Light Of The Realities Of Judging And Changing The Substance Of Disqualification Standards To Eliminate Cognitive Errors, Melinda A. Marbes

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

In recent years, high profile disqualification disputes have caught the attention of the public. In each instance there has been an outcry when a presiding jurist was asked to recuse but declined. Unfortunately, even if the jurist explains his refusal to recuse, the reasons given often are unsatisfying and do little to quell suspicions of bias. Instead, litigants, the press, and the public question whether the jurist actually is unbiased and doubt the impartiality of the judiciary as a whole. This negative reaction to refusals to recuse is caused, at least in part, by politically charged circumstances that cause further …

Class Of 2020 Incoming Il Law Students, St. Mary's University School Of Law, St. Mary's University School Of Law

Incoming 1L Photos (Facebooks)

Photographs of incoming law students for the St. Mary’s University School of Law, class of 2020

Professional Responsibility Of The Criminal Defense Lawyer Redux: The New Three Hardest Questions, Todd A. Berger

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

In 1966, Professor Monroe Freedman authored Professional Responsibility of the Criminal Defense Lawyer: The Three Hardest Questions, a work that occupies an important place in the cannon of legal ethics. Freedman believed that the three hardest questions facing a criminal defense attorney relate to whether it is ethical to discredit a truthful witness; whether it is proper to knowingly allow a client to testify falsely; and whether a lawyer may provide a client with legal advice when the lawyer suspects the client may use that advice to commit a crime. Beyond Freedman’s queries there are other important, yet largely unaddressed, …

Alternative Business Structures: Good For The Public, Good For The Lawyers, Jayne R. Reardon

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

There has been a shift in consumer behavior over the last several decades. To keep up with the transforming consumer, many professions have changed the way they do business. Yet lawyers continue to deliver services the way they have since the founding of our country. Bar associations and legal ethicists have long debated the idea of allowing lawyers to practice in “alternative business structures,” where lawyers and nonlawyers can co-own and co-manage a business to deliver legal services. This Article argues these types of businesses inhibit lawyers’ ability to provide better legal services to the public and that the legal …

Ethics And The “Root Of All Evil” In Nineteenth Century American Law Practice, Michael Hoeflich

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

This Article discusses the bifurcated notions on the purpose of working as an attorney—whether the purpose is to attain wealth or whether the work in and of itself is the purpose. This Article explores the sentiments held by distinguished and influential nineteenth-century lawyers—particularly David Hoffman and George Sharswood—regarding the legal ethics surrounding attorney’s fees and how money in general is the root of many ethical dilemmas within the arena of legal practice. Through the texts of Hoffman and Sharswood, we find the origins of the ethical rules all American attorneys are subject to in their various jurisdictions.

Conflicts Of Interest For Former Law Firm Clerks Turned Lawyers, Daniel Haley

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

There is no consensus for how the legal profession should treat a lawyer who has a conflict that arises from their time working as a law clerk while in law school. The majority of states allow a lawyer to be screened from participation if there is a conflict that arises from work they performed while still in law school. Nonetheless, not all states have adopted the Model Rules, and not all states that have adopted them accept and apply their rules uniformly. Clerkships are beneficial to both the student and the potential employer, and to limit these educational experiences due …

Electronic Social Media: Friend Or Foe For Judges, M. Sue Kurita

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

The use of electronic social communication has grown at a phenomenal rate. Facebook, the most popular social networking website, has over 1,968,000,000 users—a number that has exponentially grown since its inception in 2004. The number of judges accessing and using electronic social media (ESM) has also increased. However, unlike the general population, judges must consider constitutional, ethical, technical, and evidentiary implications when they use and access ESM. The First Amendment forbids “abridging the freedom of speech” and protects the expression of personal ideas, positions, and views. However, the American Bar Association’s Model Code of Judicial Conduct and the Texas Code …

Reforming Military Justice: An Analysis Of The Military Justice Act Of 2016, David A. Schlueter

Faculty Articles

The 2016 amendments to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (“UCMJ”) amounted to a sea change in American military justice. The Military Justice Act of 2016—a major reform of the Uniform Code of Military Justice—is set out in Division E of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, and was signed into law by the President on December 23, 2016. Most of the amendments to the UCMJ addressed in this article will not become effective for some time—perhaps not until January 1, 2019 and in the interim, the current provisions of the UCMJ will continue to apply. Overall, …

Resolving Civil Forfeiture Disputes, Rishi Batra

Faculty Articles

Under a legal process known as civil asset forfeiture, state and federal laws allow law enforcement officials and the government to seize assets from individuals who are not charged with a crime if the property is suspected of being involved in criminal activity. This is true even if the owner of the property is not charged with the underlying crime. Indeed, in 2014, The Washington Post analyzed 400 cases in seventeen states that were examples of civil forfeiture during traffic stops. Police stopped motorists under the pretext of a minor traffic infraction, analyzed the intentions of motorists by assessing nervousness, …

Improving The Uniform Partition Of Heirs Property Act, Rishi Batra

Faculty Articles

Johnny Rivers was born and had lived his whole sixty-nine-year life on the same seventeen-acre tract on Clouter Creek near the Cainhoy Peninsula of Charleston, South Carolina. His father owned the land since 1888, and his family had worked the land and paid taxes, never missing a tax payment. He thought he and his family would live on the land for the rest of his life.

However, in 2000, he received a letter telling him he was the subject of a legal action called a "partition.” A family member who was a part owner of the land and whom Rivers …

Using The Terms Integrative And Distributive Bargaining In The Classroom: Time For Change, Rishi Batra

Faculty Articles

The terms "integrative bargaining" and "distributive bargaining" have been with us in the dispute resolution literature since at least the 1960s, when A Behavioral Theory of Labor Negotiations was first published in 1965 by Richard Walton and Robert McKersie. While the terms were popularized by these two authors, the authors themselves acknowledged the long line of predecessors, including Mary Parker Follett, who led them to promote these categories. Since that time, "integrative" and "distributive" have been with us and have captured the imagination of scholars, trainers, and practitioners while remaining popular in the dispute resolution literature today. Despite the proliferation …

Impact Of Data On Litigation: Enhancing Cybersecurity In The Private Sector By Means Of Civil Liability Lawsuits - The Connie Francis Effect, Jeffrey F. Addicott

Faculty Articles

In order to explore the threats posed by cybersecurity breaches, first outline the steps taken by the government to address those threats in private sector economy, and then call attention to the ultimate solution, which will most certainly spur private businesses to create a more secure cyber environment for the American people - a Connie Francis-styled cyber civil action lawsuit. Technological advances opened up the unfathomable marvels of cyberspace and, by so doing, spawned a modern world that is now completely dependent on cyber, particularly in the context of sustaining and operating our critical infrastructure. Unfortunately, if supervisory control and …

Well Enough Alone: Liability For Wrongful Foreclosure, Chad J. Pomeroy

Faculty Articles

Part I of this Article both sets the stage for the current environment, in which banks and their officers and directors are under the spotlight and face an increasing amount of pressure due to their perceived role in the instigation of the Great Recession, and then examines in detail improvident lending and wrongful foreclosure, two of the wrongful acts banks have committed in connection with our current financial crisis that have generated a substantial amount of public interest and comment.

Part II examines the potential of officer and director liability for these disparate elements of the Great Recession, looking first …

The Homosexual Law And Policy In The Military: "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue, Don't Harass" . . . Don't Be Absurd!, Debra A. Luker

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

The violent murder of Army Private First Class Barry Winchell, a suspected homosexual, is a gruesome example of how the military does not tolerate homosexuals. The military’s current homosexual policy – referred to as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Pursue, Don’t Harass – is ineffective. The policy creates an atmosphere of intolerance that leads to discrimination among homosexual service members, and this discrimination often has violent ends. This comment analyzes the ways other countries implement policies for their homosexual service members, and also offers proposals to improve the current homosexual policy in the United States. The author discusses how the …

Education And Its Discontents: The Decriminalization Of Truancy And The School-To-Prison Pipeline In Texas., Steven E. Gilmore

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

The Texas Legislature ended the longstanding criminalization of truancy violations in Texas schools. With the passage of House Bill (H.B.) 2398, the manner in which the courts, school districts, and the Texas Education Agency (TEA) are expected to handle truant students has been greatly altered. Nonetheless, it remains to be seen what material effect these new measures will have on Texas schools, students, and their families. In order to understand the extent to which the new laws and regulations may affect the lives of students and their parents, it is important to examine the material consequences of the school-to-prison pipeline …

The Police-Community Partnership: Civilian Oversight As An Evaluation Tool For Community Policing., Nathan Witkin

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Citizen review boards (CRBs) tend to act as unofficial criminal courts for police misconduct. Without the binding, legal powers of the court, these civilian oversight bodies are often ineffective and draw resistance from law enforcement. “Community policing,” or community-oriented policing (COP) is a law enforcement strategy that emphasizes the use of problem-solving skills through community engagement and partnerships, but performance through arrests/citation statistics only. Without a process to evaluate public relations skills, the COP strategy encourages officers to reduce distance between them and the community while retaining a crime-fighting focus—a dynamic that increases tension and violence between police and crime-prone …

No Un Jurado De Mis Pares: Juror Exclusion Of Limited English Proficient Speakers., Michael Mccann

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

In the context of fulfilling civic duties as a citizen, accessibility to language assistance programs ensures every individual, including those with limited English proficiency (LEP), is afforded the opportunity to exercise their fundamental rights. Preservation of the integrity of the justice system must be provided in a comprehensive manner, not merely in one part of the legal proceedings or isolated to one part of the courthouse. LEP citizens should be integrated in public society, not disqualified from it. Statutes that create overly burdensome language proficiency standards create problems with the jury selection process. These standards limit and often deny LEP …

Network Investigation Techniques: Government Hacking And The Need For Adjustment In The Third-Party Doctrine, Eduardo R. Mendoza

St. Mary's Law Journal

Modern society is largely dependent on technology, and legal discovery is no longer limited to hard-copy, tangible documents. The clash of technology and the law is an exciting, yet dangerous phenomena; dangerous because our justice system desperately needs technological progress. The clash between scientific advancement and the search for truth has recently taken an interesting form—government hacking. The United States Government has increasingly used Network Investigation Techniques (NITs) to target suspects in criminal investigations. NITs operate by identifying suspects who have taken affirmative steps to conceal their identity while browsing the Internet. The hacking technique has become especially useful to …