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Articles 1 - 14 of 14
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Helping Profession : Can Pro Bono Lawyers Make Sick Children Well?, Lorne Sossin
The Helping Profession : Can Pro Bono Lawyers Make Sick Children Well?, Lorne Sossin
Articles & Book Chapters
"Can pro bono lawyers make sick children well? Surprisingly, the answer might be yes. Or at least pro bono lawyers can improve patients’ experiences and health outcomes for families caught up in the hospital system. ... a pioneering initiative in Boston to locate legal clinics in hospitals. Word of this experiment reached Pro Bono Law Ontario (PBLO), an organization active in referring hospital cases to lawyers willing to take on pro bono cases. The benefits of coordinating such cases through a hospital-based pro bono clinic were clear, and the Family Legal Health Program, renamed PBLO at SickKids, was born."
The Ethical Obligations Of Defence Counsel In Sexual Assault Cases, Elaine Craig
The Ethical Obligations Of Defence Counsel In Sexual Assault Cases, Elaine Craig
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
The treatment of sexual assault complainants by defence counsel has been the site of significant debate for legal ethicists. Even those with the strongest commitment to the ethics of zealous advocacy struggle with how to approach the cross-examination of sexual assault complainants. One of the most contentious issues in this debate pertains to the use of bias, stereotype and discriminatory tactics to advance one’s client’s position. This paper focuses on the professional responsibilities defence lawyers bear in sexual assault cases. Its central claim is as follows: Defence counsel are ethically obligated to restrict their carriage of a sexual assault case …
Legal Ethics As A Moral Idea: A Theory Of Philosophical Legal Ethics Based On The Work Of Lon Fuller, Emanuel Raul Tucsa
Legal Ethics As A Moral Idea: A Theory Of Philosophical Legal Ethics Based On The Work Of Lon Fuller, Emanuel Raul Tucsa
LLM Theses
The legal philosophy of Lon Fuller, both in his idea of internal morality and in his theory of legal interpretation, is particularly useful for the purpose of making sense of the relationship between law and morality vis-à-vis the legal profession. Legal ethicists have recently developed accounts of legal ethics that are based on jurisprudential theories. These include the exclusive positivist theory of Tim Dare, the inclusive positivist approach of Bradley Wendel, and the substantive contextual judgment view of William Simon. Additionally, David Luban has proposed and evaluated an insightful interpretation of Fuller’s legal philosophy.
In this paper, I will argue …
Ethical Lawyering In A Global Community, Trevor C. W. Farrow
Ethical Lawyering In A Global Community, Trevor C. W. Farrow
Comparative Research in Law & Political Economy
The pressures and opportunities of globalization have dramatically changed the nature of legal practice. How and why we practice law? For whom and whose benefit? In what contexts? And on what terms? The answers to these questions are continuously changing as a result of current global trends. The communities served by lawyers, the practice contexts in which they work and the issues that they face are increasingly diverse, complex, transnational and global in character. All of these challenges demand new competencies and raise a host of new issues about ethics and professionalism. As a threshold matter, more and more lawyers …
The Good, The Right, And The Lawyer, Trevor C. W. Farrow
The Good, The Right, And The Lawyer, Trevor C. W. Farrow
Comparative Research in Law & Political Economy
This essay considers whether there is a role for moral pluralism — or morality at all — in legal ethics thinking. In so doing, it has essentially two main goals. First, to contextualise the discussion, it very briefly looks at the leading conceptions of the lawyering role that have unsuccessfully grappled with the issue of morality and lawyering to-date. Second, and primarily, it looks at a new attempt to address these issues that is provided by Bradley Wendel in his recent book Lawyers and Fidelity to Law. This essay claims that while providing an elegant and admirable argument, Wendel’s book …
Ethical Lawyering In A Global Community, Trevor C. W. Farrow
Ethical Lawyering In A Global Community, Trevor C. W. Farrow
Articles & Book Chapters
No abstract provided.
The Good, The Right, And The Lawyer, Trevor C. W. Farrow
The Good, The Right, And The Lawyer, Trevor C. W. Farrow
Articles & Book Chapters
No abstract provided.
Self-Interest, Public Interest, And The Interests Of The Absent Client: Legal Ethics And Class Action Praxis, Jasminka Kalajdzic
Self-Interest, Public Interest, And The Interests Of The Absent Client: Legal Ethics And Class Action Praxis, Jasminka Kalajdzic
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Are existing ethical norms adequate to address the realities of class proceedings? In this article, the author explores the premise that current rules of professional conduct are effective when applied to class action praxis. In Part I, she discusses the peculiar features of class proceedings and how they create unique challenges to the ethical conduct of litigation. In Part II, the author confronts a fundamental (and often overlooked) question: Who is the client in a class proceeding to whom ethical duties are owed? Having identified the range of judicial and academic views on the unique dimensions of class actions, she …
Does Civility Matter?, Alice Woolley
Does Civility Matter?, Alice Woolley
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Recent discussion of legal ethics in Canada has focused on the importance of "civility" as a fundamental value and goal of ethical conduct. This comment questions that focus. After defining the content of "civility' and reviewing its treatment in these initiatives by both the law societies and the courts, the author suggests that the emphasis on civility is misplaced. Focusing on civility has the undesirable tendency to impede lawyer reporting of misconduct by other lawyers and potentially undermines the effective representation of client interests. It also shifts emphasis away from the ethical values that should be the focus of our …
Canadian Legal Ethics: Ready For The Twenty-First Century At Last, Adam M. Dodek
Canadian Legal Ethics: Ready For The Twenty-First Century At Last, Adam M. Dodek
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article analyzes the transformation in the scholarship of legal ethics that has occurred in Canada over the last decade, and maps out an agenda for future research. The author attributes the recent growth of Canadian legal ethics as an academic discipline to a number of interacting factors: a response to external pressures, initiatives within the legal profession, changes in Canadian legal education, and the emergence of a new cadre of legal ethics scholars. This article chronicles the public history of legal ethics in Canada over the last decade and analyzes the first and second wave of scholarship in the …
Sustainable Professionalism, Trevor C. W. Farrow
Sustainable Professionalism, Trevor C. W. Farrow
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article challenges traditional visions of lawyering by building on current alternative narratives and articulating a new discourse of professionalism that is personally, politically, ethically, economically, and professionally sustainable. It is a discourse that makes space for lawyers' principles, interests, and life preferences by balancing them with other important interests (including, but not dominated by, those of clients). It is a discourse that seeks to make good on aspirational promises of equality, access to justice, and protecting the public interest. And it is a discourse that takes seriously obligations to, as well as benefits from, the culturally complicated makeup of …
In The Public Interest': The Responsibilities And Rights Of Government Lawyers, Allan C. Hutchinson
In The Public Interest': The Responsibilities And Rights Of Government Lawyers, Allan C. Hutchinson
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
While considerable thought and effort have been put into exploring and fixing the ethical rights and professional responsibilities of private Lawyers, little energy has been directed towards defining and defending the role and duties of government lawyers. As a result, the traditional understanding seems to be that government lawyers are to consider themselves as being under the same regimen and restrictions as their private counterparts. After criticizing this default approach, the article offers a fresh evaluation of what is different about the role of government lawyers and develops a more appropriate model for thinking about their professional responsibilities and ethical …
The Public Interest, Professionalism, And Pro Bono Publico, Lorne Sossin
The Public Interest, Professionalism, And Pro Bono Publico, Lorne Sossin
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
There is a clear public interest benefit for lawyers to ensure access to the rule of law, especially on the part of the vulnerable. This article seeks to show that the seemingly simple relationship between the legal profession and the public interest is in fact more complicated than it looks. Pro bono may be viewed from two perspectives-that of the lawyer and that of the client. From the perspective of the lawyer, the important question is whether there is ethical motivation to engage in pro bono. If, however, the perspective of the client is paramount, then meeting the client's needs …
Representing A Minor: A Shared Dilemma In Ontario And Massachusetts, Andrew L. Kaufman
Representing A Minor: A Shared Dilemma In Ontario And Massachusetts, Andrew L. Kaufman
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This commentary considers what lawyers should do when confidential information from their minor clients indicates that the minor's instructions either present a substantial risk of harm to the minor or are irrational. The commentary then asks readers to decide whether and how their personal resolution should be generalized into the law of professional responsibility. The author compares current Ontario and Massachusetts law with a new Massachusetts proposal. The author strongly criticizes the proposal as violating the tenuous compromise between "client-directed" and "best- interests" or "substituted judgment" theories that appear to govern in both jurisdictions in favour of a rule that …