Law Commons^™

Ethical Tax Problems In Tax Practice, L. Paige Marvel, Paula M. Junghans

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

An Empirical Study Of Associate Satisfaction, Law Firm Culture, And The Effects Of Billable Hour Requirements - Part One, Susan Saab Fortney

Faculty Scholarship

This article considers billing practices, the effects of hourly billing pressure, and firm culture as reflected in a survey of associates in Texas law firms. Part I of this article reports the empirical information from the survey. This information includes insight into the toll an increase in billable hour requirements has taken on legal practitioners and the consequent affect on the legal field. Part II discusses what the data means and how it might be used to improve the outlook for attracting and retaining good associates.

When Hope Unblooms: Chance And Moral Luck In The Fiction Of Thomas Hardy, Jil Larson

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Paper presented at the Center for the Study of Ethics in Society at Western Michigan University, September 20, 2001.

Unreasonable Probability Of Error, Jed Handelsman Shugerman

Faculty Scholarship

In Strickland v. Washington, the Supreme Court sought to create a uniform standard to guarantee effective assistance of counsel to criminal defendants, to "ensure a fair trial," and to assure the reliability of "a just result."' Justice O'Connor's majority opinion created a two-pronged test for overturning a trial verdict: deficient performance and resulting prejudice. The Court explicitly established a difficult burden for proving deficient performance,² but set a moderate standard for prejudice as the "reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient …

Attorney Fact-Finding, Ethical Decision-Making And The Methodology Of Law, Robert Rubinson

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores the significance, challenges, and complexities of attorney fact-finding in ethical decision-making. Almost all discourse about legal ethics, from the pedagogical to the scholarly to the practical, takes facts for granted in order to focus on issues about ethical rules. The factual dimension of ethical decision-making, however, is critical to the decision-making process and can be subjected to rigorous and systematic study. Indeed, it is lawyers in a situation who engage in ethical decision-making, and such a situation entails the assimilation and interpretation of many sources of information. Such a process necessarily includes the motivations and ambivalence of …

Nonlegal Regulation Of The Legal Profession: Social Norms In Professional Communities, W. Bradley Wendel

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

What should be done about lawyers who persist in violating ethical norms that are not embodied in positive disciplinary rules? That question has been a recurrent theme in recent legal ethics scholarship. One response has been to propose, experiment, amend, tinker, draft, comment, and redraft, in an attempt to codify the standard of conduct observed to be flouted widely by the practicing bar. Bar associations and courts are seemingly engaged in a never-ending process of promulgating new codes of professional conduct or rules of procedure under which lawyers may be sanctioned for such conduct as bringing frivolous lawsuits, abusing the …

Now You See It, Now You Don't: Depublication And Nonpublication Of Opinions Raise Motive Questions, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The basis for these comments is a decision last year by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in Anastasoff v. United States. The court held that an Eighth Circuit local rule, which authorized nonpublication of opinions and explicitly stated that unpublished opinions were to have no precedential effect, was unconstitutional. The panel, in an opinion by Judge Richard S. Arnold, reasoned that a court rule purporting to confer upon appellate judges an absolute power to decide which decisions would be binding and which would not be binding went well beyond the “judicial power” within the meaning of Article III of …

Lawyer Crimes: Beyond The Law?, Charles W. Wolfram

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In Hell There Will Be Lawyers Without Clients Or Law, Susan P. Koniak, George M. Cohen

Faculty Scholarship

More than twenty years ago, moral philosopher Richard Wasserstrom framed the debate in legal ethics by asking two questions. Does the lawyer's duty to zealously represent the client, constrained only by the bounds of the law, render the lawyer "at best systematically amoral and at worst more than occasionally immoral in ... her dealings with the rest of mankind[?]" And is the lawyer's relationship with the client likewise morally tainted in that it generally entails domination by the lawyer over the client rather than mutual respect? Wasserstrom answered both questions affirmatively. Though these questions have preoccupied legal ethics scholars ever …

Moral Philosophy Meets Social Work, Frederic G. Reamer

Faculty Publications

In recent years, social workers have become increasingly aware of ethical dilemmas in practice. Beginning especially in the mid-to-late 1970s, social work's literature has included a steady stream of reflections on difficult moral choices involving conflicts among professional duties and obligations (Loewnberg and Dolgoff 1996; Congress 1998; Reamer 1998, 1999). To what extent do clients have the right to engage in self-harming behavior without interference? How should social workers allocate scarce or limited resources such as emergency services, shelter beds, funds, and even their own time? Is it ethically permissible for social workers to violate laws and regulations they believe …

The Duty Of Confidentiality, Roger C. Cramton

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Hate And The Bar: Is The Hale Case Mccarthyism Redux Or A Victory For Racial Equality?, W. Bradley Wendel

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The application of the constitutional free expression guarantee to the activities of the organized bar is one of the most important unexplored areas of legal ethics. In this essay I will consider in particular the question of whether an applicant may be denied admission to the bar for involvement with hateful or discriminatory activities. This question reveals the tension between the first amendment principle, established after the agonizing struggles of the McCarthy era, that no one may be denied membership in the bar because of his or her beliefs alone, and the plenary authority of bar associations to make predictive …

Morality, Motivation, And The Professionalism Movement, W. Bradley Wendel

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Ethics Of Making The Body Beautiful: Lessons From Cosmetic Surgery For A Future Of Cosmetic Genetics, Sara Goering

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

This piece was originally published in the Philosophy and Public Policy Quarterly, Spring 2001 issue (from the Maryland Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy).

The Judiciary In The United States: A Search For Fairness, Independence And Competence, Stephen J. Shapiro

All Faculty Scholarship

Alexander Hamilton referred to the judiciary as “the least dangerous branch” because it could neither make nor enforce the law without help from the other two branches of government. In the years since then, however, courts and judges in the United States have assumed a much more prominent role in society. American judges preside over criminal trials and sentence those convicted, decide all kinds of civil disputes, both large and small, and make important decisions involving families, such as child custody. They have also become the primary guarantors of the civil and constitutional rights of American citizens.

The case of …

Experience And Legal Ethics Teaching, James E. Moliterno

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Aggregation, Auctions, And Other Developments In The Selection Of Lead Counsel Under The Pslra, Jill E. Fisch

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

When People Are The Means: Negotiating With Respect, Jonathan R. Cohen

UF Law Faculty Publications

Most scholarship on negotiation ethics has focused on the topics of deception and disclosure. In this Article, I argue for considering a related, but distinct, ethical domain within negotiation ethics. That domain is the ethics of orientation. In contrast to most forms of human interaction, a clear purpose of negotiation is to get the other party to take an action on one's behalf, or at least to explore that possibility. This gives rise to a core ethical tension in negotiation that I call the object-subject tension: how does one reconcile the fact that the other party is a potential means …

Session One: Limits On Misleading Conduct, Thomas Zlaket, William Reece Smith Jr., Nathan Crystal, Amy R. Mashburn

UF Law Faculty Publications

A Transcript Featuring the Honorable Thomas Zlaket, Wm. Reece Smith, Jr., Esq., Professor Nathan Crystal, and Professor Amy Mashburn, Moderator from the symposium - Ethical Issues in Settlement Negotiations, Session One: Limits on Misleading Conduct.

Is It Educational Malpractice Not To Teach Comparative Legal Ethics?, Susan Saab Fortney

Faculty Scholarship

This article addresses the importance of teaching legal ethics in law schools. After a brief introduction, this article outlines several reasons why it is necessary to have formal ethical training in law schools. The article then explains the different methods of teaching legal ethics that are utilized in the United States. The article also details why it is important and how to teaching comparative legal ethics in law schools due to increased globalization. The article concludes by identifying sources, such as the internet, for teaching comparative legal ethics.

3rd Annual Computer & Technology Law Institute, Office Of Continuing Legal Education At The University Of Kentucky College Of Law

Continuing Legal Education Materials

Materials from the 3rd Annual Computer & Technology Law Institute held by UK/CLE in March 2001.

Learning To Be A Lawyer: Transition Into Practice Pilot Project, Sally Evans Winkler, C. Ronald Ellington, John T. Marshall

Popular Media

"A law student, upon graduation, is not a finished product," a respected law school dean observed. A practicing lawyer might add: "A lawyer, upon passage of the Bar examination, is not a finished product." To determine ways new lawyers can be helped in moving up the steep learning curve that separates law students from competent professionals, the State Bar of Georgia, through its Committee on the Standards of the Profession, is conducting a Transition into Practice Pilot Project.

Morality And God, John Hare

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Paper presented at the Center for the Study of Ethics in Society at Western Michigan University, January 18,2001 with the title, "Does Morality Need God?"

The Next Century Of Legal Thought, Steven L. Winter

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

A Preacher's Teacher: Lessons On Ministry From One Who Proclaims The Word, Craig Mousin

Mission and Ministry Publications

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

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 …

The Principles Of Justice, Richard W. Wright

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Free Speech For Lawyers, W. Bradley Wendel

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

One of the most important unanswered questions in legal ethics is how the constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression ought to apply to the speech of attorneys acting in their official capacity. The Supreme Court has addressed numerous First Amendment issues involving lawyers, of course, but in all of them has declined to consider directly the central conceptual issue of whether lawyers possess diminished free expression rights, as compared with ordinary, non-lawyer citizens.

The arguments of this Article are synthetic in structure. I do not aim just to criticize reported cases, but rather to show how the regulation of lawyers' …

Toward A History Of The Legalization Of American Legal Ethics -- I. Origins, Charles W. Wolfram

Cornell Law Faculty Publications