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Full-Text Articles in Law
Climate Justice In The Anthropocene And Its Relationship With Science And Technology: The Importance Of Ethics Of Responsibility, Paolo Davide Farah, Alessio Lo Giudice
Climate Justice In The Anthropocene And Its Relationship With Science And Technology: The Importance Of Ethics Of Responsibility, Paolo Davide Farah, Alessio Lo Giudice
Connecticut Law Review
Climate change is a global phenomenon. Therefore, globalization is the necessary hermeneutical horizon to develop an analysis of the metamorphosis climate change could cause at a political, social, and economic level. Within this horizon, this Article shows how the relationship between the concept of the Anthropocene epoch and the request for justice allows for framing a climate-justice and intergenerational equity–focused political interpretation of the effects of climate change. In order to avoid reducing such an interpretation to merely an ideological critique of capitalism, the conception of climate justice needs to be grounded in a rational, ethical model. This Article proposes …
Ethical Considerations Of Clinical Research In Emergency Care Settings: A Review, Adith Velavan
Ethical Considerations Of Clinical Research In Emergency Care Settings: A Review, Adith Velavan
Honors Scholar Theses
Emergency and acute care settings are some of the most volatile and high intensity areas of any healthcare operation. Better understanding of systems and treatments in these spaces are critical to improving outcomes for the high risk patients that are treated there. Clinical research serves as a cornerstone of modern medical research, and is critical to the further improvement of clinical care in these settings. This thesis serves to explore the ethicality of such research given the constraints of emergency medicine settings. Not only does this thesis provide a strong foundation regarding the history and current practices of clinical research, …
"This Is Not Normal": The Role Of Lawyer Organizations In Protecting Constitutional Norms And Values, Leslie C. Levin
"This Is Not Normal": The Role Of Lawyer Organizations In Protecting Constitutional Norms And Values, Leslie C. Levin
Faculty Articles and Papers
Lawyer organizations in the United States perform a range of functions. Some are essentially social clubs that provide networking opportunities for lawyers. Others help their members stay up to date on changes in the law and provide other educational and material benefits.1 Through these efforts, lawyer organizations often serve as a site where lawyers learn the norms and values of the legal profession. Some lawyer organizations also perform more outward facing functions, working through lobbying and litigation to maintain lawyers’ status and protect their economic interests. Others pursue even broader goals, working to enhance the functioning of the courts, provide …
Rhode Was Right (About Character And Fitness), Leslie C. Levin
Rhode Was Right (About Character And Fitness), Leslie C. Levin
Faculty Articles and Papers
Almost 40 years ago, Deborah Rhode chronicled numerous problems with the legal profession’s character and fitness inquiry in her seminal article, Moral Character as a Professional Credential. This essay, which is dedicated to her memory, assesses the current state of that inquiry. The essay notes a few areas of improvement in some jurisdictions, but finds the character and fitness inquiry remains problematic. Some jurisdictions continue to operate without published standards and most character and fitness committees—and even the courts— do not publish information about their decisions. It is still the case, as Rhode noted, that there is little evidence that …
Selectively Disciplining Advocates, Bruce A. Green
Selectively Disciplining Advocates, Bruce A. Green
Connecticut Law Review
After lawsuits challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election failed spectacularly, some wondered whether the plaintiffs’ lawyers would be disciplined for filing frivolous complaints. Time will tell. But, if these lawyers are not disciplined, one should not be surprised. This Article presents an empirical study of the New York disciplinary process, which confirms that advocates who violate disciplinary rules by overzealously pursuing their clients’ interests, such as by making frivolous claims, are rarely punished in the disciplinary process. That is because disciplinary prosecutors, operating in secret, have discretion as to whether to bring formal charges against lawyers who violate …
To Err Is Human, To Apologize Is Hard: The Role Of Apologies In Lawyer Discipline, Leslie Levin, Jennifer K. Robbennolt
To Err Is Human, To Apologize Is Hard: The Role Of Apologies In Lawyer Discipline, Leslie Levin, Jennifer K. Robbennolt
Faculty Articles and Papers
The lawyer discipline system is often the only recourse for complainants when lawyers misbehave. Yet it is also deeply unsatisfying. Most grievances are dismissed and even when a sanction is imposed, the complainant receives no monetary compensation. Lawyers rarely even apologize for the harm they caused. Yet apologies can repair relationships and trust, decrease distress, restore the victim’s standing, and affirm important values. In this article, we explore whether and how apologies might be more systematically incorporated into the lawyer discipline system to address lawyer mistakes and misconduct. We detail how apologies are currently sporadically used and evaluated by disciplinary …
The Politics Of Bar Admission: Lessons From The Pandemic, Leslie C. Levin
The Politics Of Bar Admission: Lessons From The Pandemic, Leslie C. Levin
Faculty Articles and Papers
No abstract provided.
The Politics Of Lawyer Regulation: The Case Of Malpractice Insurance, Leslie C. Levin
The Politics Of Lawyer Regulation: The Case Of Malpractice Insurance, Leslie C. Levin
Faculty Articles and Papers
This Article examines the politics of lawyer regulation and considers why some states will adopt lawyer regulation that protects the public, when others will not. It uses the debates over how to regulate uninsured lawyers as a lens through which to examine the question. Clients often cannot recover damages from uninsured lawyers who commit malpractice, even when those lawyers cause serious harm. Yet only two states require that lawyers carry malpractice insurance. This Article uses case studies to examine the ways in which six states recently have addressed the issue of uninsured lawyers to understand this regulatory failure. It uses …
Report To The Wisconsin Office Of Lawyer Regulation: Analysis Of Grievances Filed In Criminal And Family Matters From 2013-2016, Leslie C. Levin, Susan Saab Fortney
Report To The Wisconsin Office Of Lawyer Regulation: Analysis Of Grievances Filed In Criminal And Family Matters From 2013-2016, Leslie C. Levin, Susan Saab Fortney
Faculty Articles and Papers
In many states, the highest number of docketed grievances arise out of criminal and family law matters. This report analyzes the 4,898 grievances filed with the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation (“OLR”) in family or criminal law matters during the period from 2013-2016. The OLR provided the data, enabling analysis of the grievances by gender, age, length of time since law school graduation, type of matter, prior experience with diversion or discipline, and geographical location. The data also revealed the frequency of allegations by practice matter, the types of allegations that led to discipline, and the frequency with which lawyers …
The Monopoly Myth And Other Tales About The Superiority Of Lawyers, Leslie Levin
The Monopoly Myth And Other Tales About The Superiority Of Lawyers, Leslie Levin
Faculty Articles and Papers
The legal profession’s control of much of the market for legal services is justified by the claim that only licensed lawyers can effectively and ethically represent clients. This article challenges that claim. A review of a number of studies suggests that experienced nonlawyers can provide competent legal services in certain contexts and in some cases, can seemingly do so as effectively as lawyers. There is also little evidence that lawyers’ legal training, the bar admission requirements, or lawyers’ psychological characteristics make them more trustworthy than nonlawyer legal services providers. The article considers some recent initiatives, such as Washington’s approval of …
An Assessment Of Affirmative Action In Business, Jordan A. Kennedy
An Assessment Of Affirmative Action In Business, Jordan A. Kennedy
Honors Scholar Theses
Affirmative action has become an inevitable aspect of the employment hiring process. It has been put into place to assist in eradicating the institutionalized discrimination that inherently exists in such practices. On the surface, affirmative action may appear to be something that is beneficial to both the hiring institution and the individual; it seems to be a win-win situation because the business is creating a more diverse workplace and the individual is getting a job that they desired. However, the way that affirmative action is practiced may prevent its overall effectiveness. For example, there are several fundamental flaws with this …
Rethinking The Character And Fitness Inquiry, Leslie Levin
Rethinking The Character And Fitness Inquiry, Leslie Levin
Faculty Articles and Papers
The bar’s character and fitness inquiry seeks to protect the public. As part of this inquiry, bar applicants are required to produce detailed information about their past histories. The rationale for this inquiry is that this information can be used to identify who will subsequently become a problematic lawyer. Bar applicants bear the burden of providing their “good” character even though there is little evidence that past conduct predicts who will become a problematic lawyer. This article looks at psychological and other research that attempt to identify factors that might predict future misconduct in the work place. It also reports …
Confidentiality And Common Sense: Insights From Philosophy, Thomas Morawetz
Confidentiality And Common Sense: Insights From Philosophy, Thomas Morawetz
Faculty Articles and Papers
No abstract provided.
Specialty Bars As A Site Of Professionalism: The Immigration Bar Example, Leslie Levin
Specialty Bars As A Site Of Professionalism: The Immigration Bar Example, Leslie Levin
Faculty Articles and Papers
As the practice of law has become increasingly specialized, specialty bar associations have become more important to the work lives of many lawyers and their understanding of professional norms. This article looks at the role of a single specialty bar association - the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) - in the construction of its members’ norms and values. The article draws on semi-structured interviews with 71 immigration lawyers in the New York City metropolitan area to identify the ways in which specialty bars foster lawyers’ understanding of professional norms - both formally and informally - through education, information sharing, mentoring, …
Portraits Of Resistance: Lawyer Responses To Unjust Proceedings, Alexandra Lahav
Portraits Of Resistance: Lawyer Responses To Unjust Proceedings, Alexandra Lahav
Faculty Articles and Papers
This Article considers a question rarely addressed: what is the role of the lawyer in a manifestly unjust procedural regime? Many excellent studies have considered the role of the judge in unjust regimes, but the lawyer’s role has been largely ignored. This Article draws on two case studies: that of lawyers representing civil rights leaders during protests in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 and that of lawyers representing detainees facing military commission proceedings in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. These portraits illuminate the role of the lawyer in a procedurally unjust tribunal operating within a larger liberal legal regime such as our own. …
Guardians At The Gate: The Backgrounds, Career Paths, And Professional Development Of Private Us Immigration Lawyers, Leslie Levin
Guardians At The Gate: The Backgrounds, Career Paths, And Professional Development Of Private Us Immigration Lawyers, Leslie Levin
Faculty Articles and Papers
No abstract provided.
Buying Witness Silence: Evidence-Suppressing Settlements And Lawyers' Ethics, Jon Bauer
Buying Witness Silence: Evidence-Suppressing Settlements And Lawyers' Ethics, Jon Bauer
Faculty Articles and Papers
Lawyers frequently draft settlements that impede other parties' access to relevant evidence through clauses that prohibit the plaintiff from disclosing information to anyone with a claim against the defendant or forbid all discussion of the facts underlying the dispute. This Article argues that lawyers who negotiate these noncooperation agreements violate Rule 3.4(f) of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which prohibits requesting someone other than the lawyer's own client to withhold relevant information from another party, and Model Rule 8.4(d), which prohibits conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice. The conventional wisdom among practitioners and legal ethics scholars has been …
Case For Less Secrecy In Lawyer Discipline, The, Leslie Levin
Case For Less Secrecy In Lawyer Discipline, The, Leslie Levin
Faculty Articles and Papers
This article looks at the problems created by a lawyer discipline process that continues to be conducted mostly in secret. The vast majority of the 125,000 discipline complaints received annually are disposed of without an opportunity for the public to observe the process or the outcome of complaints. Heavy reliance on confidential dispositions - either through private sanctions or diversion programs - keeps most information about lawyer misconduct a secret from the public. As a result, clients are often injured by lawyers who have previously engaged in misconduct, little is known about the extent of recidivism among disciplined lawyers, and …
Building A Better Lawyer Discipline System: The Queensland Experience, Leslie Levin
Building A Better Lawyer Discipline System: The Queensland Experience, Leslie Levin
Faculty Articles and Papers
In many jurisdictions, lawyer-run discipline systems are inefficient, overly lenient and insufficiently responsive to consumer's concerns. Queensland's Legal Profession Act 2004 (Qld) breaks away from that model by moving lawyer discipline out of lawyers' professional associations and into an independent agency. It articulates a decidedly consumer-oriented approach to lawyer discipline and gives Queensland's new Legal Services Commissioner the power to investigate and prosecute all discipline complaints. This article looks at Queensland's recent reforms, and considers how well the new system is meeting its twin goals of consumer protection and traditional lawyer discipline. Using interviews and other data, the article identifies …
On The Value Of Prison Visits With Incarcerated Clients Represented On Appeal By A Law School Criminal Defense Clinic, Timothy Everett
On The Value Of Prison Visits With Incarcerated Clients Represented On Appeal By A Law School Criminal Defense Clinic, Timothy Everett
Faculty Articles and Papers
No abstract provided.
Lawyers In Cyberspace: The Impact Of Legal Listservs On The Professional Development And Ethical Decisionmaking Of Lawyers, Leslie Levin
Lawyers In Cyberspace: The Impact Of Legal Listservs On The Professional Development And Ethical Decisionmaking Of Lawyers, Leslie Levin
Faculty Articles and Papers
This article explores the impact of trial lawyers= associations on the professional identities of its members, their professional development, their understanding of practice norms, and their ethical decision making. It does so by looking at the New York State Trial Lawyers= Association (ANYSTLA@), and more specifically, the conversations that occur on its listserv. When these conversations are viewed in the context of the history and current operations of NYSTLA, it is possible to see how such listservs powerfully promote shared professional values and views within NYSTLA=s membership. The listserv extends the advice networks of trial lawyers far beyond the small …
Ethical World Of Solo And Small Law Firm Practitioners, The, Leslie Levin
Ethical World Of Solo And Small Law Firm Practitioners, The, Leslie Levin
Faculty Articles and Papers
No abstract provided.
Character Of The Questions And The Fitness Of The Process: Mental Health, Bar Admissions And The Americans With Disbilities Act, Jon Bauer
Faculty Articles and Papers
During the decade since the Americans With Disabilities Act went into effect, mental health inquiries by bar examining committees have engendered intense controversy. Courts have reached no clear consensus as to what, if any, questions about mental illness or substance abuse may be posed by licensing agencies. The trend has been towards a form of relaxed scrutiny that authorizes inquiries as long as they are focused on serious conditions that may interfere with practice, and are reasonably tailored in scope and time. This article examines the implications of allowing disability inquiries in the lawyer licensing process. The Article begins with …
Preliminary Reflections On The Professional Development Of Solo And Small Law Firm Practitioners, Leslie Levin
Preliminary Reflections On The Professional Development Of Solo And Small Law Firm Practitioners, Leslie Levin
Faculty Articles and Papers
Solo and small law firm practitioners have long been regarded as marginal, unmentored, unethical and inadequately trained members of the legal profession. Yet technological advances and demographic changes in this segment of the bar suggest reasons for re-examining this view. In an effort to gain a clearer understanding of the current state of the professional development of these lawyers, 41 solo and small firm practitioners in the New York City metropolitan area were interviewed about their work lives and professional development. The questions posed were designed to explore how, if at all, office settings, mentors and other colleagues contribute to …
Mpre Reconsidered, The, Leslie Levin
Mpre Reconsidered, The, Leslie Levin
Faculty Articles and Papers
No abstract provided.
Testing The Radical Experiment: A Study Of Lawyer Response To Clients Who Intend To Harm Others, Leslie Levin
Testing The Radical Experiment: A Study Of Lawyer Response To Clients Who Intend To Harm Others, Leslie Levin
Faculty Articles and Papers
No abstract provided.
Emperor's Clothes And Other Tales About The Standards For Imposing Lawyer Discipline Sanctions, The, Leslie Levin
Emperor's Clothes And Other Tales About The Standards For Imposing Lawyer Discipline Sanctions, The, Leslie Levin
Faculty Articles and Papers
No abstract provided.
Directiveness In Clinical Supervision, Jon Bauer
Directiveness In Clinical Supervision, Jon Bauer
Faculty Articles and Papers
This article, first published in 1993 but not previously available on SSRN, explores the attitudes and practices of clinical law teachers relating to issues of “directiveness” in their clinical supervision. The inquiry focuses on the tension between the educational value of student autonomy and clinicians’ professional interest in ensuring high quality client representation. The authors conducted a survey of clinicians teaching at law schools throughout the United States.
Ethics And Style: The Lessons Of Literature For Law, Thomas Morawetz
Ethics And Style: The Lessons Of Literature For Law, Thomas Morawetz
Faculty Articles and Papers
No abstract provided.
Lawyers And Conscience, Thomas Morawetz
Lawyers And Conscience, Thomas Morawetz
Faculty Articles and Papers
No abstract provided.