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Full-Text Articles in Law

When Prosecutors Politick: Progressive Law Enforcers Then And Now, Bruce Green, Rebecca Roiphe Oct 2020

When Prosecutors Politick: Progressive Law Enforcers Then And Now, Bruce Green, Rebecca Roiphe

Articles & Chapters

A new and recognizable group of reform-minded prosecutors has assumed the mantle of progressive prosecution. The term is hard to define in part because its adherents embrace a diverse set of policies and priorities. In comparing the contemporary movement with Progressive Era prosecutors, this Article has two related goals. First, it seeks to better define progressive prosecution. Second, it uses the historical example to draw some lessons for the current movement. Both groups of prosecutors were elected on a wave of popular support. Unlike today’s mainstream prosecutors who tend to campaign and labor in relative obscurity, these two sets of …


Tilting At Stratification: Against A Divide In Legal Education, Rebecca Roiphe Jan 2015

Tilting At Stratification: Against A Divide In Legal Education, Rebecca Roiphe

Articles & Chapters

Critics suggest we divide law schools into an elite tier whose graduates serve global business clients and a lower tier, which would prepare lawyers for simple disputes. This idea is not new. A similar proposal emerged in the early twentieth century. This article draws on the historical debate to argue that this simplistic approach cannot solve the myriad problems facing the legal profession and legal education. Supporters of separate tiers of law school rely on a caricature of the early history to argue that the Bar is acting in a protectionist way to ensure its own monopoly and keep newcomers …


Redefining Professionalism, Rebecca Roiphe Jan 2015

Redefining Professionalism, Rebecca Roiphe

Articles & Chapters

Most scholars condemn professionalism as self-serving, anti-competitive rhetoric. This Article argues that professionalism can be a positive and productive way of thinking about lawyers’ work. While it is undoubtedly true that the Bar has used the ideology of the professional role to support self-interested and bigoted causes, professionalism has also served as an important way of developing and marshalling group identity to promote useful ends. The critics of professionalism tend to view it as an ideology, according to which professionals, unlike businessmen, are concerned not with their own financial gain but with the good of their clients and the community …


The Forgotten Promise Of Professionalism, Rebecca Roiphe Jan 2014

The Forgotten Promise Of Professionalism, Rebecca Roiphe

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.


A History Of Professionalism: Julius Henry Cohen And The Professions As A Route To Citizenship, Rebecca Roiphe Jan 2012

A History Of Professionalism: Julius Henry Cohen And The Professions As A Route To Citizenship, Rebecca Roiphe

Articles & Chapters

This paper revives the notion that professionalism and the legal profession can serve as a mechanism for immigrants and those who are not born into wealth or privilege to achieve status. I draw on the example of Cohen, a Jewish lawyer who achieved a great deal of success within the profession in the early 20th Century, to argue that the rhetoric surrounding the professions allows immigrants and others to use professional success to find their way to full inclusion and citizenship. While acknowledging the merits of the critiques of the professions as rent-seeking cartels, I argue that professionalism is an …


The Most Dangerous Profession, Rebecca Roiphe Jan 2006

The Most Dangerous Profession, Rebecca Roiphe

Articles & Chapters

This article chronicles the history of the accounting profession and explains how it has consistently failed to preserve transparency in the markets and protect the public good. I argue that the culture of the profession is due in part to the failure of earlier administrative agencies to retain private auditors for public functions such as ratemaking. Drawing on this insight, I suggest that the culture of professions in general is shaped by the work that professionals do and functions that the profession has historically served.