Law Commons^™

Legal Ethics, Patrick Emery Longan

Mercer Law Review

During the survey period from June 1, 2009 through May 31, 2010, the appellate courts in Georgia decided cases involving the discipline of lawyers, ineffective assistance of counsel, legal malpractice, bar admission, judicial ethics, and attorney disqualification. The courts also decided one case involving an important issue of professionalism and several miscellaneous cases. The State Bar of Georgia Formal Advisory Opinion Board issued several opinions that relate to the professional responsibilities of Georgia lawyers.

Legal Profession, William J. Riegger

Cal Law Trends and Developments

No abstract provided.

Professional Responsibility, James M. Mccauley

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legal Profession, William J. Riegger

Cal Law Trends and Developments

During 1967, the California courts made decisions dealing with admission to the bar, discipline, the statute of limitations in legal malpractice, and just compensation. The legislature also affected the legal profession by expanding the power of local government to employ private counsel, by changing the rules governing admission of out-of-state attorneys to the bar, and by changing certain fee provisions.

The California Supreme Court decided several important bar admission cases. In Hallinan v. Committee of Bar Examiners and March v. Committee of Bar Examiners, the Committee of Bar Examiners made value judgments and, in effect, by refusing certification, attempted to …

Government Transparency And The Obama Era, Ross Schulman

Legislation and Policy Brief

Government transparency has been a focus of President Barack Obama’s campaign and administration, but effort has been expended on programs that have emphasized policy and legislative transparency over ethical and data transparency. This emphasis is misplaced. During the 2008 Presidential Election, the Obama campaign tapped into a large reserve of predominantly younger people who demanded a connection with the candidates before them. A large part of that connection was focused on the transparency that came from this highly networked campaign. President Obama’s campaign in particular embodied that approach, both through its promises and its actions. Now that the Obama administration …

The Scarlet "L": Lobbying Reform And The First Amendment, Mona Sheth

Legislation and Policy Brief

While the enactment of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 (HLOGA) in Congress shifted the lobbying industry towards heightened transparency and stronger ethics, future reforms of the executive branch threatened the constitutional rights of lobbyists. As the following pages summarize, the collective forces of the 2008 presidential campaign, executive ethics order, and stimulus restrictions also endangered the success of the congressional response. An examination of the Obama Administration’s executive directives and an exploration of the constitutional issues implicated in the ARRA guidance on stimulus funds reveal that disclosure and enforcement are more effective (and constitutional) methods to …

Domestically Violent Attorneys: Resuscitating And Transforming A Dusty, Old Punitive Approach To Attorney Discipline Into A Viable Prescription For Rehabilitation, Ignascio G. Camarena Ii

Golden Gate University Law Review

This Comment will discuss (1) the prevalence of domestic violence in America, (2) the governmental responses to domestic violence, and (3) preserving the integrity of the legal profession. This Comment will then focus on how disciplinary courts have treated domestically violent attorneys. Part III examines the murky judicial approach to disciplining domestically violent attorneys, and Part IV criticizes that approach. Finally, Part V sets forth a proposal to cure the ill effects of the current approach, by injecting a greater degree of uniformity, ease, predictability and certainty into the disciplinary process.

The Model Rules Of Professional Conduct And Political Campaign Activities, Lauren Gilius

Legislation and Policy Brief

This article will examine whether the American Bar Association’s (“ABA”) Model Rules of Professional Conduct (“Model Rules”) should apply to lawyers in situations where a lawyer-candidate or a lawyer involved in a disingenuous political campaign activity, particularly when the lawyer was not convicted on criminal charges. Though the American Bar Association said that the Model Rules apply to dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation by lawyers, even when acting in a non-professional capacity, the support for applying the Rules in this context is lacking.

This article will first briefly discuss the development of applying the Model Rules to the non-professional conduct, …

Standing Committee On Discipline V. Yagman: The Ninth Circuit Provides Substantial First Amendment Protection For Attorney Criticism Of The Judiciary, Jeffrey A. White

Golden Gate University Law Review

In Standing Committee on Discipline of the United States District Court for the Central District of California v. Yagman, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that an attorney who publicly criticized a federal judge did not commit sanctionable conduct. In determining whether the attorney, Stephen Yagman, had violated a local rule of professional conduct for lawyers, the court applied a "reasonable attorney" standard, rather than a subjective malice standard. The court held that Yagman's statements, in light of this higher standard, did not violate the rule's prohibition against impugning the integrity of the court. The Ninth Circuit also held …

Lawyers, Clients And Sex: Breaking The Silence On The Ethical And Liability Issues, Caroline Forell

Golden Gate University Law Review

This paper examines the existing case law concerning attorney-client sexual relationships and the current ethical rules which may be implicated. Because of the inadequacies in the present system, and the serious harm caused to both women clients and the Bar by these inadequacies, I propose changes in how lawyers regulate themselves and how others are compensated for lawyer's sexual misconduct.

Toward A New Ethical Standard Regulating The Private Practice Of Former Government Lawyers, Barbara G. Mance

Golden Gate University Law Review

This comment advocates the elimination of the "appearance of impropriety" as a legal and ethical standard governing the disqualification of former government lawyers and urges the ABA to adopt Rule LIP of the proposed Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Model Rule 1.11, Successive Government and Private Employment, provides a comprehensible, precise ethical rule regulating the post-government practice of lawyers in conformity with federal statute and regulation.

"We're Not Running A Charity Here": Rethinking Public Interest Lawyers' Relationships With Bottom-Line-Driven Pro Bono Programs, Leonore F. Carpenter

Buffalo Public Interest Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Brady's Bunch Of Flaws, Daniel S. Medwed

Washington and Lee Law Review

The 1970s television program The Brady Bunch provided a lighthearted and optimistic portrayal of American family life. A divorced man with three brown-haired boys married a divorced woman with three blonde daughters. They melded together into a happy, well-adjusted crew committed to mad-cap adventures accompanied by syrupy background music. Yet the promise of The Brady Bunch was illusory. Divorce has wreaked havoc on this country. The problems that derive from divorce and remarriage are multifaceted; they seldom lend themselves to tidy resolution in thirty minutes, let alone a lifetime. The show provided a distractionand a disservice. It sent an inaccurate …

The Worldwide Accountability Deficit For Prosecutors, Ronald F. Wright, Marc L. Miller

Washington and Lee Law Review

In democratic governments committed to the rule of Law, prosecutors should be accountable to the public, just like other powerful government agents who make important decisions. The theoretical need for prosecutor accountability, however, meets practical shortcomings in criminal justice systems everywhere. Individual prosecutors everywhere express allegiance to the rule of Law through the wise decisions made by each prosecutor and across offices as a whole. But the claim "trust us" does not in fact generate the level of public trust that one should expect in a government of Laws. Institutional strategies to guarantee prosecutor accountability all fall short of the …

Law Clerks Gone Wild, Parker B. Potter, Jr.

Seattle University Law Review

This Article grows out of my delight in seeing fellow law clerks break through the paper curtain and onto the pages of the Federal Reporter, the Federal Supplement, or some other compendium of judicial opinions. While my fascination with law clerks as the subjects rather than the instruments of judicial writing is probably not universal, I have selected the opinions I discuss in this Article with an eye toward entertaining—and maybe even instructing, if only slightly—the clerkigentsia and the judiciary. So, with that audience in mind, I set off in search of law clerks who had gone wild …

The Right To Effective Counsel In Criminal Trials: Judicial Standards And The California Bar Association Response, Marlys Fredrickson Huez, Leonard D. Weiler

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Winters V. Cook, 489 F.2d 174 (1973) - Authority Of Defense Attorney To Make A Binding Waiver Of The Client's Rights, Bertrand Leblanc Ii, Virginia Mcconnell

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Developments In California Private Legal Services Plans, Ronald E. Braley

Golden Gate University Law Review

Authors: Ronald E. Braley, et al.

Contingent Fees In California After Fracasse V. Brent, Brian F. Gill, George A. Mealy

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Relative Importance Of Skills Used By Attorneys, Robert A.D. Schwartz

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Recent Developments In Stem Cell Research: Social, Ethical, And Legal Issues For The Future (George P. Smith Ii Lecture), Loane Skene

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

On February 12, 2009, Professor Skene delivered the George P. Smith II Lecture at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law.

Misfeasance, Nonfeasance, And The Self-Interested Attorney, C. D. Freedman

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

How extensive should the liability of an attorney acting under a "continuing power of attorney" be? Where the donor is capable, the question is not unduly complicated. However, where the donor is incapable and the attorney has an interest in the donor's estate, the question is more difficult. Attorneys acting on behalf of incapable donors should conduct themselves according to the highest standards of probity and fidelity in addition to performing their duties competently. Unexcused breach of the duty of care should result in compensation. For breach of fiduciary duty, restitution should be the norm rather than compensation. In the …

Trusting The Machines: New York State Bar Ethics Opinion Allows Attorneys To Use Gmail, Kevin Raudebaugh

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

Information technology is evolving at an unprecedented rate; new forms of communication appear so often that it is difficult to keep track of them all. This presents a difficult problem for attorneys, who must carefully consider whether using new technology to communicate with clients is consistent with the duty of confidentiality. Google’s Gmail scans the content of e-mails to generate targeted advertising, a controversial practice that raises questions about whether its users have a reasonable expectation of privacy. The New York Bar responded to this issue in Opinion 820, which states that using an e-mail provider that scans the e-mail …

Shadow Lawyering: Nonlawyer Practice Within Law Firms, Paul R. Tremblay

Indiana Law Journal

Lawyers commonly associate with nonlawyers to assist in their performance of lawyering tasks. A lawyer cannot know with confidence, though, whether the delegation of some tasks to a nonlawyer colleague might result in her assisting in the unauthorized practice of law, because the state of the law and the commentary about nonlawyer practice is so confused and incoherent. Some respected authority within the profession tells the lawyer that she may only delegate preparatory matters and must prohibit the nonlawyer from discussing legal matters with clients, or negotiating on behalf of clients. Other authority suggests that the lawyer may delegate a …

Paying Women For Their Eggs For Use In Stem Cell Research, Pamela Foohey

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Misunderstanding Lawyers' Ethics, Monroe H. Freedman, Abbe Smith

Michigan Law Review

The title of Daniel Markovits's book, A Modern Legal Ethics, gives the impression that it is a comprehensive treatise on contemporary lawyers' ethics. The contents of the book, however, are both more limited and more expansive than the title suggests. Markovits's treatment of lawyers' ethics concerns itself with what he conceives to be the pervasive guilty conscience of practicing lawyers over their "professional viciousness" (p. 36), and how lawyers can achieve a guilt-free professional identity "worthy of ... commitment" (p. 2). Markovits's goal in the book is to "articulat[e] a powerful and distinctively lawyerly virtue" (p. 2), one that …

The Supreme Court's Increased Attention To The Law Of Lawyering: Mere Coincidence Or Something More? , Renee Newman Knake

American University Law Review

The United States Supreme Court considered seventeen cases raising issues related to the role of attorneys and the practice of law during the 2009 Term. This body of cases represents a substantial departure from dockets in recent history, where typically the Court took up less than a handful of cases involving regulation of the legal profession. While some might consider the increased number of cases addressing the law of lawyering a mere coincidence, this article contends that something more is occurring. The Court’s decision to devote so much of its limited time to these matters is noteworthy not only for …

Judicial Selection, Judicial Disqualification, And The Role Of Money In Judicial Campaigns, Charles Gardner Geyh

McGeorge Law Review

No abstract provided.

Should Judges Regulate Lawyers, Eli Wald

McGeorge Law Review

No abstract provided.

Codifying Caperton V. A. T. Massey Coal Co., Ronald D. Rotunda

McGeorge Law Review

No abstract provided.