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Full-Text Articles in Law
Family Matters: Nonwaivable Conflicts Of Interest In Family Law, Steven H. Hobbs
Family Matters: Nonwaivable Conflicts Of Interest In Family Law, Steven H. Hobbs
Seattle University Law Review
The hypotheticals prepared for this special symposium issue ask if a lawyer can provide legal services to a family when one family member yields major decision-making authority to another family member. At stake is the disposition of significant individual and family assets. The traditional model of legal representation would require each family member to have an advocate protecting and promoting his or her individual interests while negotiating a reasonable accommodation of the other family members' interests. The challenge presented by the hypotheticals is whether an attorney can simultaneously represent apparent multiple interests without violating ethical provisions.
Love Among The Ruins: The Ethics Of Counseling Happily Married Couples, Teresa Stanton Collett
Love Among The Ruins: The Ethics Of Counseling Happily Married Couples, Teresa Stanton Collett
Seattle University Law Review
This Article explores the professional tension experienced by lawyers when clients embrace an ideal of marriage as "the two shall become as one," in a legal system that has repudiated this understanding in favor of the "reality" of marriage as an association dedicated to the individual fulfillment of the man and woman involved. Part II describes the three purposes of estate planning that define the parameters of any proposed representation. Estate planning lawyers assist clients in minimizing taxes, directing gifts to particular beneficiaries, and insuring the continuing care of loved ones. The decision to accept or reject proposed representation often …
The Morality Of Choice: Estate Planning And The Client Who Chooses Not To Choose, Janet L. Dolgin
The Morality Of Choice: Estate Planning And The Client Who Chooses Not To Choose, Janet L. Dolgin
Seattle University Law Review
The Symposium focuses around two hypotheticals. The question posed about each-whether it is ethical for an estate lawyer to represent spouses, one of whom chooses subservience to the interests of the other-provokes discussion of a broad set of concerns about the scope and meaning of the contemporary family, and about the appropriate parameters of legal representation of family members.
Dependency And Delegation: The Ethics Of Marital Representation, Naomi Cahn, Robert Tuttle
Dependency And Delegation: The Ethics Of Marital Representation, Naomi Cahn, Robert Tuttle
Seattle University Law Review
The two hypotheticals for this symposium concern a lawyer who is asked to represent a married couple in which one spouse would like to cede decision-making authority to the other. As we have examined the lawyer's ethical responsibilities, we have identified two distinct, but conceptually related, issues of legal ethics. The first, a threshold question, deals with the nature of marital representation: May a lawyer simultaneously represent both husband and wife? And if so, how should the representation be structured? The second adds an additional layer of complexity: If a lawyer represents both husband and wife, may the lawyer accept …
The Power Of Narrative: Listening To The Initial Client Interview, Raven Lidman
The Power Of Narrative: Listening To The Initial Client Interview, Raven Lidman
Seattle University Law Review
As I thought about the hypothetical situations posed for consideration by this symposium, I envisioned distinct individuals in context, speaking particular words. I decided to write the initial consultation out as a dialogue to see what happened to the ideas and the interactions as these three, the lawyer, husband, and wife, explored them. I, thus, chose to turn a hypothetical into a real situation. By selecting this format, I was only able to focus on the first hypothetical. This one was perhaps the most challenging for me personally. As a feminist and a family law lawyer, I have struggled and …
Foreword To Symposium On "Should The Family Be Represented As An Entity?": Reexamining The Family Values Of Legal Ethics, Russell G. Pearce
Foreword To Symposium On "Should The Family Be Represented As An Entity?": Reexamining The Family Values Of Legal Ethics, Russell G. Pearce
Seattle University Law Review
This symposium on whether the family should be represented as an entity marks another milestone in the development of legal ethics as a field central to understanding the operation of law in our society, and not merely as a set of dry, largely irrelevant rules. It does so by acknowledging that ethical rules of lawyers who represent families have very real consequences for those families. Building on earlier efforts to address this topic, this symposium's authors confront what some commentators have described as the individualist impulse of the ethics codes and whether this impulse is beneficial or harmful to families.