Law Commons^™

The Ethics Of Blawging: A Genre Analysis, Judy Cornett

Scholarly Works

Lawyers are blogging. As of October 16, 2009, the website Blawg.com tracked 2,788 legal blogs ("blawgs"). Another blawg directory compiled 4,622 blawgs in 69 substantive categories. When lawyers communicate, by whatever medium, ethical dilemmas arise; when lawyers blog, ethical dilemmas arise that are unique to blogging. The most visible ethical debate inspired by this new genre is the issue of whether to treat a lawyer's blog as advertising. Surprisingly, given the popularity of blawging, there are few resources addressing the full range of its ethical ramifications. This Article applies genre theory to blawging in order to highlight certain characteristics of …

Completing Caperton And Clarifying Common Sense Through Using The Right Standard For Constitutional Judicial Recusal, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Jeffrey W Stempel

In Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co., Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court vacated a state supreme court decision in which a justice who had received $3 million in campaign support from a company CEO cast the deciding vote to relieve the company of a $50 million liability. The Caperton majority adopted a “probability of bias” standard for constitutional due process review of judicial disqualification decisions that differs from the ordinary “reasonable question as to impartiality” standard for recusal. Four dissenters objected to the majority’s limited supervision of state court disqualification practice, minimized the danger of biased judging presented by the …

“The Judge Said, ‘Son, What Is Your Alibi …?” A Survey Of Alaska Criminal Discovery Principles, James Fayette

Alaska Law Review

No abstract provided.

Remodeling The Temple, Phase I: Assessing The Foundations Of Neo-Classical Professionalism In Law And Business, Robert E. Atkinson

Robert E. Atkinson Jr.

Abstract

Both the management of private enterprise and the practice of corporate law must be radically remodeled if they are properly to serve their correlate values: prosperity and justice. In that remodeling, the cornerstone of professional status would be appreciation of the deepest values of our common culture, gained through liberal education in the humanities and social sciences. Lawyers and managers need this appreciation because, under the best available institutional arrangements, they together must actively shape our public world, both in the law and in the market, for the common welfare.

The professional’s requisite cultural appreciation has two essential components, …

Mitigating Death, Emily Hughes

Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy

No abstract provided.

The Monster In The Closet: Declawing The Inequitable Conduct Beast In The Attorney-Client Privilege Arena, Alexis N. Simpson

Georgia State University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Beyond Cardboard Clients In Legal Ethics, Katherine R. Kruse

Katherine R Kruse

Historically, legal ethics has been preoccupied with the moral conflicts that arise when the pursuit of a client’s interests requires a lawyer to harm innocent third parties, undermine the truth-seeking norms of the legal system, or both. But is over-zealous loyalty to clients really the biggest problem in legal professionalism? This Article argues that it is not. Rather, the obsession in legal ethics with the problems of zealous partisanship dates back to the preference of early legal ethicists—many of whom were philosophers—to focus on conflicts between professional role morality and ordinary morality. To generate these conflicts, legal ethicists had to …

Chief William's Ghost: The Problematic Persistance Of The Duty To Sit, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Jeffrey W Stempel

In 1974, the duty to sit -- a doctrine positing that judges should recuse themselves only if the case for disqualification was compelling -- was abolished in federal courts. Then-Justice William Rehnquist's refusal to disqualify himself in Laird v. Tatum (1972) was a partial catalyst in this legal reform, which was consistent with the ABA position on the duty to sit, at least in what I term it's "pernicious" form. Notwithstanding the official abolition of the doctrine, it continues to be invoked, as does the problematic Rehnquist opinion defending his indefensible refusal to recuse in Laird v. Taturm. This article …

Revelation And Idolatry: Holy Law And Holy Terror, Regina Schwartz

Faculty Working Papers

THE Book of Exodus desscribes the identity of justice and the law. Because elsewhere the gap between justice and the law is so wide -- in Christian theology when it sees the Pharisaic law as inhibiting the realization of justice; in philosophy where from Plato on, law is formal while is justice substantive; in political theory, which includes those who endorse "procedural justice" when they abandon substantive justice -- this radical biblical vision, wherein the law is justice is surely unique. This is not an understanding of the law as a series of prescriptions, the "yoke of the law" but …

The Pragmatically Virtuous Lawyer?, Robert F. Blomquist

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Lessons In Legal Ethics From Reading About The Life Of Lincoln, Eugene R. Gaetke

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Abraham Lincoln is an icon of American history. He is prominently named in various opinion polls as among the best Presidents in the history of the United States. His stature as a great President is perhaps best reflected currently in the stream of events constituting a national two-year celebration of his 1809 birth. Even before that, however, scholarly and popular interest and Lincoln’s life and Presidency continued unabated, as indicated by the steady publication and success of books about him. Notable among these works is David Herbert Donald’s best-selling biography of our sixteenth President titled Lincoln.

Although Mr. Donald’s …

Judicial Transparency, Judicial Ethics, And A Judicial Solution: An Inspector General For The Courts, Ronald Rotunda

Ronald D. Rotunda

Many federal judges routinely fear criticism, but that fear is unwarranted. The public is rightly concerned that the procedure to investigate and discipline problem-judges is flawed, particularly in a few high-profile cases discussed in this article. Several recent indictments of federal judges add to the problem. As Judge Ralph Winter has acknowledged, the status quo is "not a confidence builder". Judges should welcome an Inspector General for the Federal Courts, who could restore public confidence in the federal judicial discipline system. The Inspector General can investigate potential ethical violations and proceed in those few instances where more is needed. This …

La Pobreza Como Desastre, Óscar Súmar

Oscar Súmar

No abstract provided.

The Corporate Lawyer's Role In A Contemporary Democracy, Colin P. Marks, Nancy B. Rapoport

Faculty Articles

In this paper, we review the traditional arguments for corporate social responsibility and ask the question of what corporate lawyers should do to help their clients do the right thing ethically. We also set out a test - the technically test -- that highlights when something is usually on the wrong side of the ethical line. (If you have to give legal advice starting with Well, technically..., you're on the wrong side of the line.)

Cast Back Into "Tempest-Tost Waters": "The Uncharted Seas" Of Private Medical Repatriations, Sarah E. Greenlee

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Shifting Paradigms Of Lawyer Honesty, John A. Humbach

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The Model Rules currently contain at least four distinct conceptions of what it means for a lawyer to be honest. Moreover, the levels of honesty that the ethical rules demand have changed markedly in recent times. This article explores why, for the lawyers of today, being “honest” seems to be so complicated.

The exploration begins by reviewing recent changes in the honesty concepts embodied in the Model Rules, particularly the new duty to reveal confidential information that lawyers have under Rule 4.1. Attention then turns to what it means to be “honest” in the context of our modern exaggerated version …

Whistleblowing Attorneys And Ethical Infrastructures, Alex B. Long

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legal Ethics And Collaborative Practice Ethics, Robert F. Cochran Jr.

Hofstra Law Review

In Collaborative Practice (CP), the clients and their attorneys (and other professionals in the case, if there are any) contract to resolve the issues presented in a structured process without litigation. Lawyers who engage in CP are governed by the legal professional rules in their state. However, Collaborative Practice differs greatly from adversarial dispute resolution practice. It challenges practitioners in ways not necessarily addressed by the ethics of individual disciplines. Therefore, collaborative professionals have developed their own standards to provide guidance for their members. Cochran describes the legal and ethical context within which professionals engage in CP in the United …

The Corporate Lawyer's Role In A Contemporary Democracy, Colin Marks, Nancy B. Rapoport

Scholarly Works

This paper reviews the traditional arguments for corporate social responsibility and asks the question of what corporate lawyers should do to help their clients do the right thing ethically. It also sets out a test - the technically test -- that highlights when something is usually on the wrong side of the ethical line. (If you have to give legal advice starting with "Well, technically...," you're on the wrong side of the line.)

Swimming With Shark, Nancy B. Rapoport

Scholarly Works

In this essay, Nancy Rapoport discusses how Sebastian Stark (played by James Woods) seduces the lawyers on his legal team into ignoring legal ethics in favor of Stark's own version of ethics. Stark -- a criminal defense lawyer who becomes a deputy district attorney -- bends the ethics rules past the breaking point in order to put bad guys behind bars. His team of lawyers knows right from wrong but follows Stark's lead in breaking the rules anyway.

The Two Faces Of Lawyers: Professional Ethics And Business Compliance With Regulation, Christine E. Parker, Robert E. Rosen, Vibeke Lehmann Nielsen

Articles

No abstract provided.

Lessons In Legal Ethics From Reading About The Life Of Lincoln, Eugene R. Gaetke

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Vision For Collaborative Practice: The Final Report Of The Hofstra Collaborative Law Conference, J. Herbie Difonzo

Hofstra Law Review

In November 2009, Hofstra University School of Law’s Center for Children, Families and the Law hosted a Conference on the Uniform Collaborative Law Act, in conjunction with the Uniform Law Commission, the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals ("IACP"), and the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution. This event marked the first time a law school has sponsored a conference exclusively focusing on the innovative practice of collaborative law.

The goal of the Conference was to assess collaborative practice in light of the adoption of the Uniform Collaborative Law Act (“UCLA”). This Report …

Lawyers And The War, Robert Power

Robert C Power

No abstract provided.

A Survey Of Professional Responsibility Courses At American Law Schools In 2009, Laurel S. Terry, Andrew Perlman, Margaret Raymond

Laurel S. Terry