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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Client Who Did Too Much, Nancy B. Rapoport
The Client Who Did Too Much, Nancy B. Rapoport
Scholarly Works
Using Hitchcock's MacGuffin as a theme, I discuss the dynamics between client and lawyer when the client so obsesses over the issue driving him that he persuades (or attempts to persuade) the lawyer to do things that are inadvisable from the lawyer's point of view.
Behavioral Legal Ethics, Jean R. Sternlight, Jennifer K. Robbennolt
Behavioral Legal Ethics, Jean R. Sternlight, Jennifer K. Robbennolt
Scholarly Works
Complaints about lawyers’ ethics are commonplace. While it is surely the case that some attorneys deliberately choose to engage in misconduct, psychological research suggests a more complex story. It is not only “bad apples” who are unethical. Instead, ethical lapses can occur more easily and less intentionally than we might imagine. In this paper, we examine the ethical “blind spots,” slippery slopes, and “ethical fading” that may lead good people to behave badly. We then explore specific aspects of legal practice that can present particularly difficult challenges for lawyers given the nature of behavioral ethics - complex and ambiguous ethical …
The Curious Incident Of The Law Firm That Did Nothing In The Night-Time, Nancy B. Rapoport
The Curious Incident Of The Law Firm That Did Nothing In The Night-Time, Nancy B. Rapoport
Scholarly Works
This essay argues that organizations (here, the Milbank, Tweed law firm) often ignore obviously bad behavior by their employees because of various psychological and sociological factors that prevent them from recognizing the behavior as bad in the first place.
Using Our Brains: What Cognitive Science And Social Psychology Teach Us About Teaching Law Students To Make Ethical, Professionally Responsible, Choices, Alan Lerner
All Faculty Scholarship
Throughout our lives, below the level of our consciousness, each of us develops values, intuitions, expectations, and needs that powerfully affect both our perceptions and our judgments. Placed in situations in which we feel threatened, or which implicate our values, our brains, relying on those implicitly learned, emotionally weighted, memories, may react automatically, without reflection or the opportunity for reflective interdiction. We can "downshift," to primitive, self-protective problem solving techniques. Because these processes operate below the radar of our consciousness, automatic, "emotional" reaction, rather than thoughtful, reasoned analysis may drive our responses to stressful questions of ethics and professional responsibility.