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Series

Legal Profession

Legal ethics

New York Law School

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 5 of 5

Full-Text Articles in Law

The Exclusion Of Public Legal Education From Mandatory And Aspirational State Pro Bono Service Requirements, Amy Wallace Apr 2022

The Exclusion Of Public Legal Education From Mandatory And Aspirational State Pro Bono Service Requirements, Amy Wallace

Articles & Chapters

Pro bono service is embedded in legal education and practice. Every year, lawyers and law students across the United States engage in countless hours of pro bono service. There are over 1.3 million lawyers in the country and more than one hundred thousand law students enrolled in law school. Lawyers perform an average of thirty-seven hours of pro bono work each year. They reference several factors that motivate them to perform this work but the desire to help people in need ranks highest. Professional duty is also listed as an important factor for lawyers choosing to perform pro bono work. …


Impeaching Legal Ethics, Bruce Green, Rebecca Roiphe Jan 2022

Impeaching Legal Ethics, Bruce Green, Rebecca Roiphe

Articles & Chapters

In the investigations, hearings, and aftermath of President Trump’s first impeachment, lawyer-commentators invoked the rules of professional conduct to criticize the government lawyers involved. To a large extent, these commentators mischaracterized or misapplied the rules. Although these commentators often presented themselves to the public as neutral experts, they were engaged in political advocacy, using the rules, as private litigators often do, as a strategic weapon against an adversary in the court of public opinion. For example, commentators on the left wrongly conveyed that, under the rules, government lawyers had a responsibility to the public to voluntarily assist in the impeachment, …


A Fiduciary Theory Of Prosecution, Bruce A. Green, Rebecca Roiphe Feb 2020

A Fiduciary Theory Of Prosecution, Bruce A. Green, Rebecca Roiphe

Articles & Chapters

Scholars have failed to arrive at a unifying theory of prosecution, one that explains the complex role that prosecutors play in our democratic system. This Article draws on a developing body of legal scholarship on fiduciary theory to offer a new paradigm that grounds prosecutors’ obligations in their historical role as fiduciaries. Casting prosecutors as fiduciaries clarifies the prosecutor’s obligation to seek justice, focuses attention on the duties of care and loyalty, and prioritizes criminal justice considerations over other public policy interests in prosecutorial charging and plea-bargaining decisions. As fiduciaries, prosecutors are required to engage in an explicit deliberative process …


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 …


Law In The Plays Of Elmer Rice, Randolph N. Jonakait Jan 2007

Law In The Plays Of Elmer Rice, Randolph N. Jonakait

Articles & Chapters

While novels, short stories, television shows, movies, and classic dramas are often analyzed for insights into the law, modern plays are seldom similarly examined. The plays of Elmer Rice, however, should be discussed by those interested in our legal system. Rice, although now largely forgotten, was a leading playwright of the last century. He was a law school graduate, and his work often incorporated legal themes. His plays provide provocative commentaries about the law and raise dilemmas about justice and ethics that resonate today. This essay explores the interplay between plays and the law by examining the life and work …