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- Legal ethics; professional responsibility; administrative law; government lawyers (2)
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- Coordinating discovery attorneys; multidefendant; criminal; federal; legal ethics (1)
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- Legal ethics; professional responsibility; administrative law; government lawyers; DACA; prosecutorial discretion (1)
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Articles 1 - 11 of 11
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Role Of “Coordinating Discovery Attorneys” In Multidefendant Federal Criminal Cases, Hannah Silverman
The Role Of “Coordinating Discovery Attorneys” In Multidefendant Federal Criminal Cases, Hannah Silverman
Fordham Law Review
The twenty-first century’s technological revolution has shifted the practice of law, including litigation, from being primarily paper-based to paperless. To manage the increasingly complex organization and review of evidence in civil and criminal cases, attorneys outsource legal tasks, work on teams, and use discovery coordinators. This Note examines the development of court-appointed coordinating discovery attorneys and their role in multidefendant federal criminal trials involving voluminous discovery. With a background in criminal defense and electronic discovery, these lawyers provide hands-on assistance as a way to cut costs, help overburdened and underfunded defense counsel, and improve representation of criminal defendants. In 2014, …
Lawyers In Government Service—A Foreword, Bruce A. Green
Lawyers In Government Service—A Foreword, Bruce A. Green
Fordham Law Review
Lawyers in government serve in many different roles, both representational and nonrepresentational. Some represent the federal, state, or local government, a particular governmental entity (such as a department of consumer affairs) or agency (such as the NLRB), or public officials in their official capacity. These lawyers render a range of legal services and act as litigators, negotiators, drafters, and counselors. Other lawyers in government serve in nonrepresentative capacities; for example, as elected or appointed officials or as their aides. Scholarship on government lawyers addresses these varied roles and functions from varied perspectives, drawing on different bodies of law and legal …
Mr. Try-It Goes To Washington: Law And Policy At The Agricultural Adjustment Administration, Daniel R. Ernst
Mr. Try-It Goes To Washington: Law And Policy At The Agricultural Adjustment Administration, Daniel R. Ernst
Fordham Law Review
In December 1933, Jerome Frank, the general counsel of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) but better known for writing Law and the Modern Mind (1930), a sensational attack on legal formalism, told an audience at the Association of American Law Schools a parable about two lawyers in the New Deal, each required to interpret the same ambiguous language of a statute. The first lawyer, “Mr. Absolute,” reasoned from the text and canons of statutory interpretation without regard for the desirability of the outcome. “Mr. Try-It,” in contrast, began with the outcome he thought desirable. He then said to himself, “The …
May Federal Prosecutors Take Direction From The President?, Bruce A. Green, Rebecca Roiphe
May Federal Prosecutors Take Direction From The President?, Bruce A. Green, Rebecca Roiphe
Fordham Law Review
Suppose the president sought to serve as prosecutor-in-chief, telling prosecutors when to initiate or dismiss criminal charges in individual cases and making other discretionary decisions that are normally reserved to trained professionals familiar with the facts, law, and traditions of the U.S. Department of Justice. To what extent may prosecutors follow the president’s direction? In recent presidential administrations, the president has respected prosecutorial independence; while making policy decisions, the president deferred to the Attorney General and subordinate federal prosecutors to conduct individual criminal cases. In a recent article, we argued that this is as it should be because the president …
Hidden Nondefense: Partisanship In State Attorneys General Amicus Briefs And The Need For Transparency, Lisa F. Grumet
Hidden Nondefense: Partisanship In State Attorneys General Amicus Briefs And The Need For Transparency, Lisa F. Grumet
Fordham Law Review
In all fifty states, the State Attorney General (SAG)—as the state’s chief legal officer—is charged with defending state laws that are challenged in court. If an SAG declines to defend or challenges a state law on the ground that it is unconstitutional—an action scholars describe as “nondefense”— the SAG ordinarily will disclose this decision to the public. This Essay discusses a hidden form of nondefense that can occur when SAGs file amicus curiae briefs on behalf of their states in matters before the U.S. Supreme Court. Surprisingly, some SAGs have joined multistate amicus briefs that support invalidating other states’ laws …
Daca, Government Lawyers, And The Public Interest, Stephen Lee, Sameer M. Ashar
Daca, Government Lawyers, And The Public Interest, Stephen Lee, Sameer M. Ashar
Fordham Law Review
On June 15, 2012, the Obama administration announced a significant change in immigration policy: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano began to instruct immigration officials to defer enforcement actions against those noncitizens who would likely be eligible for relief under the DREAM Act, should Congress choose to pass it. This program, which came to be known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), has become the most significant immigration-benefits program in a generation. Not since Congress passed a comprehensive reform bill in 1986, which included a pathway to citizenship, has an immigration program so quickly and positively changed the lives of …
Legal Dilemmas Facing White House Counsel In The Trump Administration: The Costs Of Public Disclosure Of Fisa Requests, Peter Margulies
Legal Dilemmas Facing White House Counsel In The Trump Administration: The Costs Of Public Disclosure Of Fisa Requests, Peter Margulies
Fordham Law Review
Not every presidential administration can forge a new brand of government lawyering. Historically, government lawyering has swung between two poles: (1) dialogic lawyering, which stresses reasoned elaboration, respect for institutions, and continuity with unwritten norms embodied in past practice; and (2) insular lawyering, which entails opaque definitions, disregard of other institutions, and departures from unwritten norms. Because President Trump regularly signals his disdain for institutions, such as the intelligence community, and unwritten norms, such as prosecutorial independence, senior lawyers in the White House have added a new mode of legal representation that entails ad hoc adjustments to President Trump’s mercurial …
Professionals, Politicos, And Crony Attorneys General: A Historical Sketch Of The U.S. Attorney General As A Case For Structural Independence, Jed Handelsman Shugerman
Professionals, Politicos, And Crony Attorneys General: A Historical Sketch Of The U.S. Attorney General As A Case For Structural Independence, Jed Handelsman Shugerman
Fordham Law Review
Historically, the office of the U.S. Attorney General has been identified as “quasi-judicial” or having “quasi-judicial” aspects. Other parts of the Department of Justice (DOJ) have also been described as quasi-judicial, such as the Office of Legal Counsel and the Solicitor General. A glance at a list of past attorneys general seems to confirm this judicial aspiration in practice. Nine attorneys general became U.S. Supreme Court justices, and others were notably judicious and professional in their tenure in the office. Of course, there are some infamous examples of unprofessional cronyism—the appointment of friends or associates to positions of authority, without …
Law And Nonlegal Norms In Government Lawyers' Ethics: Discretion Meets Legitimacy, W. Bradley Wendel
Law And Nonlegal Norms In Government Lawyers' Ethics: Discretion Meets Legitimacy, W. Bradley Wendel
Fordham Law Review
This Essay is about the role of unwritten norms in the ethical decisionmaking of government lawyers. Because the ethical obligations of lawyers, including government lawyers, are closely tied to the legal rights and obligations of clients, this analysis necessarily depends on understanding the relationship between written law and unwritten norms. As we all know, however, written law leaves gaps, ambiguities, and zones of unregulated discretion. Prosecutors in the United States, for example, have virtually unreviewable discretion to decide who to investigate and charge, what charges to bring, and whether to offer immunity in exchange for cooperation. No one has a …
Institutional Independence: Lawyers And The Administrative State, Melissa Mortazavi
Institutional Independence: Lawyers And The Administrative State, Melissa Mortazavi
Fordham Law Review
The institutional structure where federal government lawyers practice is fraught with political and economic pressures that undermine the ability of lawyers to exercise independent professional judgment. A lack of candid legal advice in this space not only removes a pivotal fail-safe between legal and illegal state action but also precariously imbalances the powerful administrative state, exposing it to undue political influence. For these reasons, this Article argues that structural changes to administrative institutions must be made to support and nurture lawyers’ ability to independently determine the bounds of legality. Previous scholarship has examined the role of professional independence for lawyers …
Regulating Prosecutors’ Courtroom Misconduct, Bruce A. Green
Regulating Prosecutors’ Courtroom Misconduct, Bruce A. Green
Faculty Scholarship
Trial prosecutors’ visible misbehavior, such as improper questioning of witnesses and improper jury arguments, may not seem momentous. Sometimes, the improprieties are simply the product of poor training or overenthusiasm. In many cases, they pass unremarked. As the Chicago Eight trial illustrated, trial prosecutors’ improprieties may also be overshadowed by the excesses of other trial participants—the witnesses, the defendants, the defense lawyers, or even the trial judge. And when noticed, prosecutors’ trial misbehavior can ordinarily be remedied, and then restrained, by a capable trial judge. It is little wonder that disciplinary authorities, having bigger fish to fry, are virtually indifferent …