Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

Ask, Don’T Tell: Ethical Issues Surrounding Undocumented Workers’ Status In Employment Litigation, Christine N. Cimini

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The presence of an estimated 11.5 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, of which an estimated 7.2 million are working, has become a flashpoint in the emerging national debate about immigration. Given these statistics, it is not surprising that many undocumented workers suffer injuries in the workplace that are typically legally cognizable. Even though undocumented workers are entitled to a number of legal remedies related to their employment, seeking legal relief often raises heightened concerns about the disclosure of their status. This article explores lawyers' increasingly complex ethical obligations with regard to a client's immigration status in the context …

Faith In Community: Representing "Colored Town", Anthony V. Alfieri

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No abstract provided.

Clinical Genesis In Miami, Anthony V. Alfieri, Maryanne Stanganelli, Jessi Tamayo, Wendi Adelson

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No abstract provided.

Interdisciplinary Clinical Teaching Of Child Welfare Practice To Law And Social Work Students When World Views Collide, Kathleen Coulborn Faller, Frank E. Vandervort

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Because child welfare cases in the world of professional practice require interdisciplinary collaboration, it would seem to follow that graduate students, who will become child welfare professionals, should be trained together, both in the classroom and in clinical settings. However, the implementation of interdisciplinary training is far from straightforward. In this Article, we focus on law and social work students. First, we describe the roles of lawyers and social worker in child welfare work. Next we argue that interdisciplinary classroom teaching is easier than clinical teaching, proposing a series of topics to be covered in an interdisciplinary course. Finally, we …

The Fall Of Legal Ethics And The Rise Of Risk Management, Anthony V. Alfieri

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Legal Doubletalk And The Concern With Positional Conflicts: A "Foolish Consistency"?, Helen A. Anderson

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This article argues that a legal positional conflict is not a true conflict of interest, and should not be the subject of an ethical prohibition. Because of the incentives it creates, a rule against positional conflicts gives greater control to wealthy clients over the availability of legal services without significantly protecting the rights of the poor or middle income clients. Business conflicts already exert significant pressure on lawyers; too much concern with potential positional conflicts only increases that pressure.

This article also argues that eliminating an ethical prohibition against potential conflicts could mitigate much of the credibility concerns raised by …

Fear, Legal Indeterminacy, And The American Lawyering Culture, Michael Hatfield

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On August 1, 2002, then Assistant Attorney General Jay S. Bybee signed for President Bush a memorandum of law concluding that some torture was not necessarily illegal if the President ordered it. This Essay examines how Bybee could arrive at a conclusion that is fundamentally at odds with both our national moral spirit and our law. In doing so, it cautions American lawyers to recognize the difference between what is "legal" and what is "arguably legal, " and to be aware of their own extra-legal biases when interpreting the law.

On The Applicability Of The Silica Mdl Proceeding To Asbestos Litigation, Lester Brickman

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The article argues that the findings from the silica multidistrict litigation (MDL), presided over by U.S. District Court Judge Janis Jack, have significant implications for understanding the fraudulent practices in asbestos litigation. The author contends that both silica and asbestos litigations share a common "entrepreneurial model" where a small group of doctors and screening companies generate specious claims for financial gain, often without proper medical oversight. Judge Jack's findings in the silica MDL, which revealed widespread fraud and manipulation of medical diagnoses, corroborate the author's long-standing critique of asbestos litigation practices.

Ethical Issues In Asbestos Litigation, Lester Brickman

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Asbestos litigation has given rise to over 50,000,000 claims against 8400 former producers, distributors, installers and sellers of asbestos-containing products. To date, 850,000 claimants have sought compensation, costing businesses and insurance companies over $70 billion and resulting in more than 70 bankruptcies. Over 100,000 deaths are attributable to asbestos exposure with an additional 40,000 deaths anticipated over the next 30 years. Despite the significance of the ethical issues generated by the processes of acquiring, pressing and settling the most massive litigation in history, the legal literature is substantially devoid of any such discussion. One possible reason for this paucity of …

The Intersection Of Evaluation Be Mediators And Informed Consent: Warning The Unwary, Lela P. Love, John W. Cooley

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A Rejoinder To The Rejoinder To On The Theory Class's Theories Of Asbestos Litigation, Lester Brickman

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The article, authored by Lester Brickman, serves as a rebuttal to Professor Charles Silver's rejoinder, which criticized Brickman's original article on asbestos litigation. Brickman defends his assertions regarding Silver's undisclosed retention by the law firm Baron & Budd to defend the controversial Script Memo, arguing that this nondisclosure breaches academic ethics. He also clarifies his stance on the role of attorney William Skepnek and reiterates his scholarly focus on legal ethics, particularly the issues surrounding contingency fees and their potential for overcharging clients. Brickman emphasizes the importance of academic integrity and the necessity of exposing ethical abuses in the legal …

Fletcher's Rethinking: A Memoir, Kyron J. Huigens

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To Discountenance The Haughty And The Lawless: The Ethics Of Dealing With Bad Clients, Donald L. Burnett Jr.

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Professionalism's Second Wave: A Sampling Of Issues Arising Within Legal Education, Donald L. Burnett Jr.

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No abstract provided.

Challenges To The Legal Profession In The New Millennium, Thomas R. Andrews

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In this paper I discuss four "ethical" challenges faced by the legal profession as we enter into a new millennium. I know that these are challenges faced by the profession in the United States. And from my brief stay in Japan, I think that they are challenges faced by your legal profession, as well. In the process of discussing these challenges, I will also discuss some recent developments in the United States regarding legal ethics.

Here are the challenges I will discuss:

1. The Challenge of a Unified Legal Profession.
2. The Challenge of a Modern Law Firm.
3. The Challenge Posed by …

Partnerships And Facilitation: Mediators Develop New Skills For Complex Cases, Lela P. Love, Joseph B. Stulberg

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Government Officials As Attorneys And Clients: Why Privilege The Privileged?, Melanie B. Leslie

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Ethics, Race, And Reform, Anthony V. Alfieri

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Race Prosecutors, Race Defenders, Anthony V. Alfieri

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First Panel: The Law Schools' Reponse To Professionalism Issues, Jack L. Sammons (Presenter), Anthony V. Alfieri (Presenter), Nathan Crystal (Responder), Richard E. Carter (Responder), The Honorable Roger K. Warren (Responder), Caroline R. Heil (Responder)

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In Memory Of Joni Cesta, Neil D. Levin, Thomas Crane Wales, Glenn J. Winuk, David Yellen

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Volume 30 of the Hofstra Law Review is dedicated to members of the Hofstra community, including four graduates of the Law School, who were violently taken from us during the past year. Of the four Law School graduates, Joni Cesta '91, Neil D. Levin '81, and Glenn J. Winuk '87 were lost in the September 1 1th terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Thomas Crane Wales '79 was murdered in Seattle, Washington on October 11, 2001. The Hofstra Law Review presents the following biographical sketches to honor the memory of these four distinguished alumni.

Lawyers' Ethics And Fiduciary Obligation In The Brave New World Of Aggregative Litigation, Lester Brickman

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Over the past several decades and at a quickening pace, we have seen the rise of the mass tort phenomenon. The term mass tort refers to an allegation of injury by large numbers of persons due to a calamity or exposure to defectively produced foods, drugs, products implanted in the body, or improperly designed or constructed vehicles, other products, materials or structures, which is sought to be redressed by combining (aggregating) large numbers of claims sharing like issues of fact and law into a litigation against one or more defendants using such structural aggregative methods as class actions, consolidations, and …

Training Mediators To Listen: Deconstructing Dialogue And Constructing Understanding, Agendas, And Agreements, Lela P. Love

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This article examines the unique components of dialogue between disputing parties that mediators extract and reframe to move the discussion forward. The same components provide the building blocks of the discussion agenda and the framework of the mediation agreement. The article suggests a number of teaching strategies for training mediators to listen effectively and proactively.

Adr: An Eclectic Array Of Processes, Rather Than One Eclectic Process, Lela P. Love, Kimberlee K. Kovach

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When mediators try to resolve a controversy by providing their analysis of the legal – or other – merits, they are providing the service that judges, arbitrators and neutral experts provide. In essence, such endeavors use the neutral’s judgment, award or opinion to determine or jump-start a resolution. This article urges that this add-on activity to mediation should be called by its proper name. The essay highlights the advantages of calling "mediation plus evaluation" a mixed process and discusses the advantages of having an eclectic and diverse mix of processes from which parties and counsel can choose to promote party …

The Costs Of Confidentiality And The Purpose Of Privilege, Melanie B. Leslie

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Letters To The Editor, Lela P. Love

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In Slip-Sliding Into Mediation: Can Lawyers Mediate Their Clients' Problems? [5 CLIN. L. REV. 47 (1998)], Jonathan Hyman argues that lawyers can mediate their clients' problems or transform themselves from a client's legal counselor and advocate to a neutral mediator. Professor Hyman points out that such a transformation can occur if (1) both clients give their informed consent; and (2) the lawyerturned-mediator does not offer evaluations of the case or subsequently represent either party. While Professor Hyman himself is quick to point out the many problems with this thesis, he nonetheless propounds it. I would argue that a partisan lawyer, …

Professionalism: Restoring The Flame, Donald L. Burnett Jr.

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Professionalism: Restoring The Flame, Donald L. Burnett Jr.

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No abstract provided.

Prosecuting Race, Anthony V. Alfieri

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Theoreticians and practitioners in the American criminal justice system increasingly debate the role of racial identity, racialized narratives, and race-neutral representation in law, lawyering, and ethics.

This debate holds special bearing on the growing prosecution and defense of acts of racially motivated violence. In this continuing investigation of the prosecution and defense of such violence, Professor Alfieri examines the recent federal prosecution of five white New York City police officers charged with assaulting Abner Louima, a young male Haitian immigrant, in 1997. Professor Alfieri presents a race conscious, community-oriented model of prosecutorial discretion guided by constitutional precepts, citizenship ideals, professionalism …

Thinking Like A Lawyer Or Acting Like A Judge: A Response To Professor Simon, David Yellen

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Professor William Simon argues that the principal professional responsibility of all lawyers should be to "seek justice."' He defines this as pursuing the client's rights, but not the client's interests, if those interests are incompatible with the "truth." As a concrete example of this approach, Professor Simon states that it would normally be inappropriate for a lawyer to subject a vulnerable, but accurate, witness to cross examination intended to create the impression that the witness' testimony was mistaken.

In my view, Professor Simon's position would not really further "justice" at all. In these brief comments, by focusing on the likely …