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Legal ethics

Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility

Cleveland State University

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Full-Text Articles in Law

Abandoning An "Unethical" System Of Legal Ethics, David R. Barnhizer Jan 2012

Abandoning An "Unethical" System Of Legal Ethics, David R. Barnhizer

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

It is time to abandon the pretense of "legal ethics" as an independent lawyer-run system and to design a civil liability system in which lawyers can be held accountable to wronged clients at reasonable costs with ready access and fair modes of proof. To the extent that the system of ethics actually caused lawyers to act "ethically" (which is a major and largely unsupportable supposition), the competitive dynamics of the legal profession, coupled with the significant decline in values, honesty, and accountability in American society, have rendered even that historically suspect system illegitimate. This does not mean that there are …


Professional Ethics Opinion 89-1, Propriety Of Non-Lawyer Employees' Names On Letterheads And Business Cards, David F. Forte Jan 1989

Professional Ethics Opinion 89-1, Propriety Of Non-Lawyer Employees' Names On Letterheads And Business Cards, David F. Forte

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

A lawyer or law firm may include on its letterhead and business cards the names and titles of its nonlawyer employees, so long as the letterhead or business card describes such employees as nonlawyers.


The Role Of The Law School In The Teaching Of Legal Ethics And Professional Responsibility, Warren E. Burger Jan 1980

The Role Of The Law School In The Teaching Of Legal Ethics And Professional Responsibility, Warren E. Burger

Cleveland State Law Review

My thesis is simple and straightforward. Every law school has a profound duty-and a unique opportunity-to inculcate principles of professional ethics and standards in its students. This duty should permeate the entire educational experience beginning with the first hour of the first day in law school.


Minimum Fee Schedules: Guides Or Strait Jackets, Robert L. Simmons, Gary N. Holthus Jan 1972

Minimum Fee Schedules: Guides Or Strait Jackets, Robert L. Simmons, Gary N. Holthus

Cleveland State Law Review

Several states have minimum fee schedules that set the least amount of compensation a lawyer should charge for a specific legal service. There has been much confusion in bar associations across the country as to the application of minimum fee schedules and the consequences of non-compliance. The American Bar Association has published both formal and informal opinions in an attempt to clearly define the functions of the schedules. In view of the opinions, interviews and statistical studies on the subject of minimum fee schedules, it is apparent that they are too rigid to cope with the practical needs of the …


Education In Professional Responsibility, David B. Goshien Jan 1972

Education In Professional Responsibility, David B. Goshien

Cleveland State Law Review

The problems, indeed the inadequacy of present legal education in ethics and professional responsibility are well known. The traditional methods of preparing law students for the avoidance of ethical and even criminal complaints against them in their future practice of law have been, in the main, divisible into two general categories: the "pervasive" method, through which understanding is supposed to be gained by students as if by osmosis through all courses and general law school contract, and the "specific" method which offers a course in the subject. Both methods are commonly used but neither seems to have achieved an acceptable …


Commencement Of Statute Of Limitations For Malpractice Of An Attorney, James Gordon Joseph Jan 1972

Commencement Of Statute Of Limitations For Malpractice Of An Attorney, James Gordon Joseph

Cleveland State Law Review

In almost all jurisdictions the statute of limitations for the malpractice of an attorney is between one and three years. Although some argue that this is too short a period, the main problem is not in the statute but in its application. Difficulty arises when a court must decide at what point the statute of limitations begins to run. To appreciate a court's problem, the nature and reasons behind statutes of limitations must be understood


Legal Malpractice: Improper Representation Of Conflicting Interests, Marshall J. Nachbar Jan 1972

Legal Malpractice: Improper Representation Of Conflicting Interests, Marshall J. Nachbar

Cleveland State Law Review

When an attorney, for whatever reason-sloth, over zealous conduct, or personal greed-represents a client without being completely loyal to the client's interests there are several things that may occur. The attorney may be subject to disciplinary or disbarment proceedings. He may be disqualified from further representing his client. If the attorney's actions have resulted in damage to his client the attorney may find himself the defendant in a malpractice action. If the cause of the damage is alleged to be the result of an attorney representing dual interests or improperly representing adverse interests then the cause of action will be …


Lawyers' Malpractice In Litigation, Nathaniel Rothstein Jan 1972

Lawyers' Malpractice In Litigation, Nathaniel Rothstein

Cleveland State Law Review

Until recently, when we spoke of malpractice we invariably meant medical malpractice. Less than 20 years ago only a handful of lawyers carried professional liability (malpractice) insurance. This is no longer true. Attorneys who practice in large metropolitan areas are now keenly aware of the importance and necessity of having this insurance coverage; and in no segment of the legal profession is this more urgent than amongst trial lawyers-for much like surgeons in the medical field, trial lawyers are the most vulnerable in attorney-malpractice lawsuits.


Contingent Fee: Champerty Or Champion, Arthur L. Kraut Jan 1972

Contingent Fee: Champerty Or Champion, Arthur L. Kraut

Cleveland State Law Review

In 1952, an article appeared in Reader's Digest magazine castigating both the contingent fee system of financing litigation and the trial lawyers of the United States. Since that article appeared, the client public has been barraged with a stream of propaganda aimed at barring the use of the contingent fee as a means of retaining a lawyer.


Pragmatic Approach To Problems Of Group Law Practice, Herschel Kriger Jan 1969

Pragmatic Approach To Problems Of Group Law Practice, Herschel Kriger

Cleveland State Law Review

United Mine Workers of America, District 12 v. Illinois State Bar Association, is one of the latest in a line of holdings which have demonstrated that areas heretofore considered by the Bar as sacrosanct unto itself or the state courts are not immune from re-evaluation. That decision, rendered on December 5, 1967, was not unexpected in the light of the pronouncements of the Supreme Court in NAACP v. Button, and Railroad Trainmen v. Virginia Bar Association, and the process is likely to continue.