Law Commons^™

The Essential Monroe Freedman, In Four Works, Michael Tigar

Hofstra Law Review

The article celebrates the life and career of the late American law teacher Monroe H. Freedman, and it mentions four of the law review articles that Freedman composed and published which address topics such as the practice of law, prosecutorial ethics, and capital punishment attorneys and judges

Monroe Freedman: The Ethicist Of The Non-Ideal, W. Bradley Wendel

Hofstra Law Review

The article celebrates the life and career of the late American law teacher Monroe H. Freedman, and it mentions Freedman's role as a legal ethicist, attorney-client relations, and Freedman's work in the development of theoretical legal ethics in the U.S.

Lawyers On Trial: Juror Hostility To Defendants In Legal Malpractice Trials, Herbert M. Kritzer, Neil Vidmar

Hofstra Law Review

In contrast to medical malpractice, legal malpractice is a phenomenon that has attracted little attention from empirically-oriented scholars. This paper is part of a larger study of legal malpractice claiming and litigation. Given the evidence on the frequency of legal malpractice claims, there are surprisingly few legal malpractice cases that result in jury verdicts. There are many possible explanations for this, one of which reflects the perception that lawyers are held in such low esteem by potential jurors that they risk harsh treatment by jurors when they are defendants in legal malpractice trials. Because we could find no empirical evidence …

Believe It Or Not: Mitigating The Negative Effects Personal Belief And Bias Have On The Criminal Justice System, Sarah Anne Mourer

Hofstra Law Review

The article discusses the efforts to mitigate what the author refers to as the negative effects that personal belief and bias have on America's criminal justice system as of 2015, and it mentions justice, fairness, and the pre-trial beliefs that prosecutors and defense attorneys have regarding an accused person's guilt or innocence. Probable cause and wrongful convictions are examined, along with the goal of revealing the truth in a judicial proceeding. U.S. legal ethics are also assessed.

Positivist Legal Ethics Theory And The Law Governing Lawyers: A Few Puzzles Worth Solving, Amy Salyzyn

Hofstra Law Review

Debates about the proper boundaries of a lawyer’s role are far from new. A fresh spin on this old debate, however, has emerged with the "positivist turn" in legal ethics theory. While in legal theory scholarship the label "positivism" carries various nuances and controversies, its use in the legal ethics context is, as a general matter, more straightforward and uniform. Broadly speaking, positivist accounts of legal ethics share a general view that the law owes its normative content to its ability to solve coordination problems and settle moral controversies. This view of the law, in turn, informs a particular view …

Motivation Matters: Guidelines 10.13 And Other Mechanisms For Preventing Lawyers From Surrendering To Self-Interest In Responding To Allegations Of Ineffective Assistance In Death Penalty Cases, Tigran W. Eldred

Hofstra Law Review

Defense lawyers whose clients are sentenced to death are virtually guaranteed to be accused of ineffective assistance of counsel. The question is how they will respond. On one hand, lawyers alleged to be ineffective are obligated under Guideline 10.13 of the American Bar Association’s Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases to continue to safeguard the interests of their former clients, a duty that includes full cooperation in appropriate legal strategies chosen to pursue the ineffectiveness claim. On the other hand, lawyers who are accused of ineffectiveness often react defensively to the allegation, reflexively …

Applying The Revised Aba Model Rules In The Age Of The Internet: The Problem Of Metadata, Ronald D. Rotunda

Hofstra Law Review

When lawyers receive a document — whether hard copy or an electronic document — that they know the adversary sent them inadvertently (for example, a fax or email mistakenly sent to an adversary lawyer instead of to co-counsel), the black letter rule in Rule 4.4 requires the lawyer to notify the other side. However, this Rule does not require the receiving lawyer to return the document unread. Whether the receiving lawyer can use that document depends, in essence, on the law of evidence. If the court decides that the document lost its privileged status (perhaps because the sending lawyer acted …

Nested Ethics: A Tale Of Two Cultures, Milton C. Regan, Jr.

Hofstra Law Review

This article suggests that a law firm that desiring to promote ethical behavior by its lawyers needs to complement efforts to establish an “ethical infrastructure” and an “ethical culture” with attention to its broader organizational culture. Specifically, research indicates that the perception that an organization treats its members fairly–their sense of organizational justice--is an important factor in prompting members’ ethical behavior.

Many law firms in the last two or three decades have devoted attention to establishing what has been called an “ethical infrastructure” that reflects appreciation of the importance of organizational policies and procedures in encouraging ethical behavior. Such measures …

Prosecutorial Conflicts Of Interest In Post-Conviction Practice, Keith Swisher

Hofstra Law Review

Prosecutors, our ministers of justice, do not play by the same conflict of interest rules. All other attorneys should not, and cannot, attack their prior work in transactional or litigation matters; nor should other attorneys unquestionably represent clients in matters in which the attorneys themselves face disciplinary, civil, or criminal liability. When prosecutors have likely convicted an innocent person, however, prosecutors are asked to review their own prior work objectively and then to undo it. But they understandably suffer from a conflict between their duty to justice and their duty to themselves — their duty to seek the release of …

Client-Centered Lawyering-What It Isn't, Monroe H. Freedman

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.