Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

Acknowledgments, Howard S. Carrier

International Journal on Responsibility

Serious work to bring the International Journal on Responsibility to life commenced during the summer of 2015. In the intervening period between conceptualization and publication, many organizations and individuals within James Madison University and the wider community have contributed enormously to bringing the journal to fruition.

Who Is Responsible For Ethical Legal Education, For What And To Whom? Case Of Kosovo, Sabiha Shala, Gjylbehare Muharti

International Journal on Responsibility

Legal education continues to be one of the most demanded areas of study from the younger generation in Kosovo. As result, the number of law graduates is quite high. On the other hand, the rule of law sector is quite fragile, judges and lawyers are perceived by parts of the society to be ethically dysfunctional. The trust in judicial institutions is quite low. The debate which is going on now is whose main responsibility for such a situation that is. Is the duty of the higher education institutions providing legal education, or is it a responsibility of educational institutions at …

Resolving The Paradox Of Holding People Responsible, Hal Pepinsky

International Journal on Responsibility

Regardless of justification, it is commonplace throughout the U.S. criminal justice system as in everyday life to teach our offenders and children alike that wrong actions “have consequences,” namely, those authority figures promise to impose upon them. We do so in the name of holding people responsible for their actions, or in legal parlance in civil law, holding them accountable or liable. I noticed that in Norwegian, responsibility, accountability and liability translate into one word, ansvar, which I have translated from Germanic to Latin roots as “responsiveness.” In practice, the state of being responsive to others with whom one conflicts …

Political Flip-Flopping, Political Responsibility, Current Governance, And The Disenfranchised, T.Y. Okosun

International Journal on Responsibility

No abstract provided.

What Does Responsibility Mean To Me?, Arun Gandhi

International Journal on Responsibility

No abstract provided.

Who Is Responsible To Do What For Whom? A Letter From The Editor-In-Chief, Terry Beitzel

International Journal on Responsibility

No abstract provided.

Navigating The New York Courts With The Assistance Of A Non-Lawyer, Fern Fisher

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

This Article discusses a program implemented by the New York State Unified Court System in order to address the justice gap for unrepresented litigants. Part I of this Article discusses the process behind creating the New York Navigator’s Program (discussed in more detail Part II), a program designed to help non-lawyer “Navigators” to assist unrepresented litigants in a limited capacity when the litigants appear before different types of state courts. The Navigators must complete training before they are able to assist the litigants. This program has been well received, as Part IV discusses, and has helped more and more unrepresented …

Washington’S Limited License Legal Technician Rule And Pathway To Expanded Access For Consumers, Stephen R. Crossland, Paula C. Littlewood

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Washington’s 2012 adoption of a Limited License Legal Technician (LLLT) rule has been a topic of great interest throughout the United States and elsewhere. This Article is co-written by Steve Crossland, who is the Chair of the Washington Supreme Court’s Limited License Legal Technician Board, which is responsible for implementing the rule, and Paula Littlewood, who is the Executive Director of the Washington State Bar Association, which is the unified bar association charged, inter alia, with lawyer and LLLT regulation. This Article builds on the authors’ previous articles about Washington’s LLLT program by providing previously unpublished information about the …

Pro Se Appellants: Opportunities For Law Libraries, Liz Reppe

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

This article is part of the 2018 Dickinson Law Review Symposium entitled “Access to Justice: Innovations and Challenges in Providing Assistance to Pro Se Litigants.” The author is the state law librarian for Minnesota who reports to the Minnesota Supreme Court. This article surveys various resources that Minnesota provides to unrepresented clients, including the website resources found here: https://perma.cc/R2DP-K9YB. The bulk of the article, however, focuses on Minnesota’s innovative in-person “Appeals Self-Help Clinics.” See https://perma.cc/Y2VN-H2L3.

The article’s discussion of Minnesota’s Appeals Self-Help Clinics begins by highlighting some of the factors that provided the impetus for the development …

Educating The New Lawyer: Teaching Lawyers To Offer Unbundled And Other Client-Centric Services, Forrest S. Mosten, Julie Macfarlane, Elizabeth Potter Scully

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

In this article, Forrest Mosten and Julie Macfarlane build a new bridge in their 30-year professional relationship by linking their separate but complementary work in access to legal services, helping the self-represented litigant (“SRL”), transforming the lawyer from gladiator to problem-solver and conflict resolver, and using interdisciplinary team triage in Collaborative Law and preventive conflict wellness to better serve the public. The New Lawyer and Unbundled Legal Services are independent concepts that the three co-authors link in proposing new topics (including the concept of Legal Coaching, which is evolving from the unbundled model) and pedagogical approaches to teaching law students …

Utah’S Online Dispute Resolution Program, Deno Himonas

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

This article by Utah Supreme Court Justice Deno Himonas describes Utah’s Online Dispute Resolution or ODR system. Launched in September 2018, Utah’s ODR system is available to litigants who have small claims disputes that involve $11,000 or less. The ODR system has been designed to provide “simple, quick, inexpensive and easily accessible justice” that includes “individualized assistance and information that is accessible across a multitude of electronic platforms.”

This article describes the history and philosophy behind Utah’s ODR system and includes a number of screen shots that show what an ODR litigant will see. Utah is the first U.S. state …

The Limits Of Pro Se Assistance In Immigration Proceedings: Discussion Of Nwirp V. Sessions, Ryan D. Brunsink, Christina L. Powers

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

This Article discusses issues regarding assistance of pro se litigants in the context of immigration law. In particular, Part II of this Article highlights programs such as the Legal Orientation Program (LOP) and Immigration Court Helpdesk (ICH) that attempt to alleviate some of the inherent difficulties non-citizen detainees face in immigration proceedings. Part III of this Article focuses on a 2008 Regulation by the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR), which calls for discipline against attorneys that engage in a pattern or practice of failing to enter a Notice of Appearance when engaged in practice or preparation. Lastly, Part IV …

Using Social Media Research To Your Advantage, Endia S. Paige

Continuing Legal Education Presentations

We live in a time when Facebook, Twitter, and other social media networks have become so integrated into daily life that it is critical for attorneys to maintain a basic understanding of the most popular platforms and how they can benefit his or her legal practice.

Social media has made it easier to gather information about litigants and other professionals in the legal field. This paper provides an overview of the most popular social media platforms used by adults in the United States and gives insight into how attorneys can use them to conduct legal and investigative research.

Ethics Of Using Artificial Intelligence To Augment Drafting Legal Documents, David Hricik

Articles

Skynet is not and may never be self-aware, but machines are al-ready doing legal research, drafting legal documents, negotiating disputes such as traffic tickets and divorce schedules, and even drafting patent applications. Machines learn from us, and each other, to augment the ability of lawyers to represent clients—and even to replace lawyers completely. While it also threatens lawyers’ jobs, the exponential increase in the capacity of machines to transmit, store, and process data presents the opportunity for lawyers to use these services to provide better, cheaper, or faster legal representation to clients. By way of familiar example, instead of determining …

Avoiding Ethics Complaints: Finding The Rules And Leos, Joyce Manna Janto

Law Faculty Publications

One nightmare shared by all lawyers is the prospect of a letter from the Standing Committee on Lawyer Discipline informing them of a complaint. Prudent lawyers avoid this by becoming familiar with the ethical rules and standards of their jurisdiction. Because, as many a lawyer has learned, ignorance of the rules is no excuse.

It’S All Your Fault!: Examining The Defendant’S Use Of Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel As A Means Of Getting A “Second Bite At The Apple.”, Prentice L. White

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The United States Constitution provides individuals convicted of a crime with “a second bite at the apple.” The Sixth Amendment provides an avenue to appeal one’s conviction based on the claim of “ineffective assistance of counsel.” What were the Framers’ true intentions in using the phrase “effective assistance of counsel”? How does the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) of 1996 affect habeas corpus appeals? This article answers these questions through the eyes of Thomas—a fictional character who is appealing his murder conviction.

This article first looks at the history surrounding effective assistance of counsel and discusses the difficulties …

The Truth Of The Matter: Why The Social Contract Dictates Legal Scholar's Sincerity, Candor, & Thoroughness, Nicola A. Boothe-Perry

Journal Publications

Legal scholars have filled books, treatises, magazines, journals and law reviews with various writings ranging from highly intricate and complex theses to oversimplified and homogenous explanations. In all its forms, legal scholarship has been both touted and taunted by external and internal critics throughout the years. Some suggest that legal scholarship should holistically "frame recommendations to responsible decision makers," and more specifically "help the reader understand law." Others suggest that it should be used to bring "restraint, proportion, perspective and atmosphere" into the legal landscape and society at large. Whatever its stated purpose and whether it be doctrinal, descriptive or …

The Language Of Neutrality In Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings, Carolyn Shapiro

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

At Justice Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation hearing, then-Judge Gorsuch repeatedly insisted that judging involves no more than examining the legal materials—like statutes and precedents— and applying them to the facts of the case. There is, he emphasized, no room for a Justice’s “personal views,” and he refused even to state his agreement (or disagreement) with such iconic cases as Loving v. Virginia and Griswold v. Connecticut. Instead, then Judge Gorsuch reiterated only that they were precedents of the Court and thus entitled to respect. Frustrating as his answers may have been to some senators, however, they differed from answers given …

Detection And Correction Of Case-Publication Bias, Edward K. Cheng

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The article proceeds as follows. Section 2 motivates the study by de scribing the reasons why case publication bias may be especially acute in the evidentiary context. Section 3 discusses methods for detecting and correcting publication bias. It surveys existing approaches, introduces the intuition behind MSE, and then develops a series of detection models. Section 4 turns to applications. To validate the method, I first apply the proposed model to simulated data sets in which I control the level of publication bias present. I then apply the model to a newly compiled data set of evidentiary rulings dealing with false …

The Continuing Duty In Reality: A Preliminary Empirical Look, David M. Siegel, Tigran W. Eldred

Faculty Scholarship

The continuing duty of criminal defense counsel to their former clients, even when those former clients bring post-conviction actions alleging ineffective assistance of counsel, has existed as a national practice standard in capital cases since at least 1987. In addition to its inclusion in the ABA’s Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Counsel in Death Penalty Cases since 1989, duties to former clients exist in state ethics rules as well as the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct. The duty has been further operationalized in non-capital litigation through a 2010 ABA formal ethics opinion concerning disclosures by trial counsel …

Lawyers In The Mist: The Golden Age Of Legal Nostalgia, Marc Galanter

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

No one watching the contemporary furor over the litigation explosion and lawsuits devouring America can fail to be impressed by the power of folklore to overwhelm workaday organized social knowledge. Time and again, the protestations of bean-counters and skeptics are vanquished by stories about perverse institutions peopled by malingering plaintiffs, greedy lawyers, capricious jurors, and arrogant judges, proving yet again that it is not what is so that matters, but what people—at least for the moment—think is so. Tenacious belief may not make it so, but can have powerful effects.

In this essay I address another cluster of folklore about …

Introduction To Section V: Facilitating Dialogue With And About The Profession, Maureen Weidman

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

No abstract provided.

The Fault In Legal Ethics, Anthony T. Kronman

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

No abstract provided.

“The Lost Lawyer” Regained: The Abiding Values Of The Legal Profession, Robert Maccrate

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

No abstract provided.

Money Didn’T Buy Happiness, Lawrence J. Fox

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

No abstract provided.

Law Firm Economics And Professionalism, Ward Bower

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Both Dean Kronman in The Lost Lawyer and Professor Glendon in A Nation Under Lawyers attribute some of the problems and challenges facing lawyers today to economic pressures and to a preoccupation with profits and fees. For Kronman, this economic focus interferes with the “moral detachment” necessary for achievement of the “lawyer-statesman” ideal. For Glendon, professional dilemmas caused by the deterioration of the legal economy, competition in the marketplace, lawyer-shopping by clients, early specialization, lack of mentoring and emphasis on the billable hour have created an unhappy generation of ethically challenged practitioners.

Both authors accurately assess the state of the …

Volume 1, Issue 1 (2017) Inaugural Issue

International Journal on Responsibility

Contents:

1 – 4 Terry Beitzel, Who is Responsible to do what for Whom? A letter from the Editor-in-Chief.

5 – 20 Arun Gandhi, What Does Responsibility Mean to Me?

21 – 42 T.Y. Okosun, Political Flip-flopping, Political Responsibility, Current Governance, and the Disenfranchised.

43 – 54 Hal Pepinsky, Resolving the Paradox of Holding People Responsible.

55 – 66 Kendra A. Hollern, Dying with Dignity: Where is the Compassion in Compassionate Release Programs?

67 – 82 Sabiha Shala & Gjylbehare Muharti, Who is Responsible for Ethical Legal Education, for what and to whom? Case of Kosovo.

83 Acknowledgments.

Liba2j! The Continuum Of Access To Justice Services, Yolanda Jones

Library Faculty Publications

Some have urged law libraries to undergo what appears to be a large-scale transformation, where access to justice in incorporated as a core feature of the library mission. While Access to Justice (A2J) services are provided by many libraries, they can be seen by law library managers as costly, unfunded mandate. One way of approaching the issue is to consider library access to justice services as a continuum within the broader range of legal services. Within this Library Access to Justice Continuum (LIBA2J), librarians can select access to justice services consistent with their mission, budget, and general library resources. For …

Incorporating Social Justice Into The Law School Curriculum With A Hybrid Doctrinal/Writing Course, 50 J. Marshall L. Rev. 221 (2017), Rosa Castello

UIC Law Review

Educating future lawyers is about more than just teaching them substantive law. We are preparing professionals who will go out into our world and shape and affect it in deep and impacting ways. They will make law, enforce law, determine policy, defend people, advocate, and influence lives and businesses. Therefore, any thorough law school education should teach social justice and encourage students to become more engaged in activism. One way to incorporate social justice into the law school curriculum is to offer specific courses focused on social justice. However, administrators may be concerned about demand for such classes or ability …

Who’S Gonna Take The Weight: Using Legal Storytelling To Ignite A New Generation Of Social Engineers, 50 J. Marshall L. Rev. 231 (2017), Camille Lamar Campbell

UIC Law Review

So I ask the rhetorical question: “Who’s Gonna Take the Weight?” to mobilize law professors—the people responsible for shaping students’ professional identities—to use storytelling techniques to overcome the corrosive effects of stereotypes and implicit biases on controversial clients’ access to legal services and on the lawyer’s professional identity as a social engineer. This article precedes in two parts. Part II explores traditional client selection models and endorses a Houstonian approach to client selection, one that acknowledges the challenges of representing controversial clients within a framework that also acknowledges the social justice consequences of denying representation to controversial clients. Part III …