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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Fall Of An American Lawyer, Michael Ariens
The Fall Of An American Lawyer, Michael Ariens
Faculty Articles
John Randall is the only former president of the American Bar Association to be disbarred. He wrote a will for a client, Lovell Myers, with whom Randall had been in business for over a quarter-century. The will left all of Myers’s property to Randall, and implicitly disinherited his only child, Marie Jensen. When Jensen learned of the existence of a will, she sued to set it aside. She later filed a complaint with the Iowa Committee on Professional Ethics and Conduct. That complaint was the catalyst leading to Randall’s disbarment.
Randall had acted grievously in serving as Lovell Myers’s attorney. …
The Appearance Of Appearances, Michael Ariens
The Appearance Of Appearances, Michael Ariens
Faculty Articles
The Framers argued judicial independence was necessary to the success of the American democratic experiment. Independence required judges possess and act with integrity. One aspect of judicial integrity was impartiality. Impartial judging was believed crucial to public confidence that the decisions issued by American courts followed the rule of law. Public confidence in judicial decision making promoted faith and belief in an independent judiciary. The greater the belief in the independent judiciary, the greater the chance of continued success of the republic.
During the nineteenth century, state constitutions, courts, and legislatures slowly expanded the instances in which a judge was …