Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

The 'Abuse Excuse' In Capital Sentencing Trials: Is It Relevant To Responsibility, Punishment, Or Neither?, Paul J. Litton

Faculty Publications

The violent criminal who was a victim of severe childhood abuse frequently appears in the responsibility literature because he presents a difficulty for theorists who maintain the compatibility of causal determinism and our practices of holding persons responsible. The challenge is based on the fact that learning about an offender's horrific childhood mitigates the indignation that many persons feel towards him, possibly indicating that they hold him less than fully responsible. Many capital defendants present evidence of suffering childhood abuse, and many jurors find this evidence to count against imposing death. The most obvious explanation for a response like this …

The Federal Government Lawyer's Duty To Breach Confidentiality, James E. Moliterno

Faculty Publications

The lawyer's duty of confidentiality springs from the lawyer-client relationship and its parameters are determined by the nature of that relationship. The federal government lawyer's client is like no other. The uniqueness of representing the United States calls for a unique approach to the duty of confidentiality. Unlike the private individual client, the government as a client does not speak with a single, unmistakable voice. Unlike the private entity client, the federal government has a paramount interest in the public good, including the public's right to know about government (the entity's conduct), especially its misconduct. The result is a client …

Professional Responsibility Redesigned: Sparking A Dialogue Between Students And The Bar, Lois R. Lupica

Faculty Publications

In recent years, there have been many public and private, formal and informal complaints about the behavior of lawyers. Moreover, lawyers' tenuous reputation for honesty and integrity has been tarnished by recent, well-publicized scandals. The public, as well as members of the bench and bar, have further decried a decline in attorney professionalism. More than once, it has been suggested that in some way, failings of law schools are to blame. In response to these observations about the professional behavior of lawyers and as a result of the author's experiences of teaching a traditional, Socratic-method Professional Responsibility class for many …

The Academic Expert Before Congress: Observations And Lessons From Bill Van Alstyne's Testimony, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Merit Vs. Ideology, Michael J. Gerhardt

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Genocide And The Eroticization Of Death: Law, Violence, And Moral Purity, Tawia Baidoe Ansah

Faculty Publications

In this article, I ask: What is the relationship between law and morality in response to mass violence and suffering abroad? How does law shape and determine our moral response to mass death and suffering? We repose in the law itself a desire to define the moral and the ethical parameters of legal-political action. Thus, when faced with mass violence and suffering abroad, law functions as a proxy for morality. The legal prohibition under the Genocide Convention defines morality, or cabins the variety of moral responses into a single and universally applicable ethical-legal norm of response to genocide. The moral …

Solving The Everyday Problem Of Client Identity In The Context Of Closely Held Businesses, Darian M. Ibrahim

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Sec Enforcement Of Attorney Up-The-Ladder Reporting Rules: An Analysis Of Institutional Contraints, Norms, And Biases, Michael A. Perino

Faculty Publications

In their paper and in their earlier comments to the SEC on the proposed attorney reporting rules, Professors Cramton, Cohen and Koniak do an excellent job recounting the genesis of the attorney reporting requirements in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, describing the SEC's proposed and final rules and critiquing the rule's triggering mechanism and now apparently shelved noisy withdrawal requirement. Their case study of the recent Spiegel, Inc. independent examiner's report is a particularly useful vehicle for examining the practical implications of the SEC's policy and drafting choices. Although I was a member of a committee that submitted comments opposed to noisy …

Possibilities For Collaborative Law: Ethics And Practice Of Lawyer Disqualification And Process Control In A New Model Of Lawyering, John M. Lande

Faculty Publications

This article assesses the possibilities for collaborative law (CL) to promote problem-solving negotiation and analyzes the operation and effect of the CL disqualification agreement (DA), which CL leaders hold as essential to the process. In CL, the lawyers and clients agree to negotiate from the outset of the case using a problem-solving approach. Under CL theory, the process creates a metaphorical "container" by using a DA disqualifying both lawyers from representing their clients if either party chooses to proceed in litigation. This article argues that much CL theory and practice is valuable, including protocols of early commitment to negotiation, interest-based …

The Unruliness Of Rules, Peter A. Alces

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Incremental Bar Admission: Lessons From The Medical Profession, Jayne W. Barnard, Mark Greenspan

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Broad Prohibition, Thin Rationale: The Acquisition Of An Interest And Financial Assistance In Litigation Rules, James E. Moliterno

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Statement Before The United States House Of Representatives Concerning Charitable Choice And The Community Solutions Act , Carl H. Esbeck

Faculty Publications

First, charitable choice imposes on both government and participating faith-based organizations (FBOs) the duty to not abridge certain enumerated rights of the ultimate beneficiaries of these welfare programs. Second, the statute imposes on government the duty to not intrude into the institutional autonomy of faith-based providers. Third, the statute reinforces the government's duty to not discriminate with respect to religion when determining the eligibility of private-sector providers to deliver social services.

Using Dispute System Design Methods To Promote Good-Faith Participation In Court-Connected Mediation Programs, John M. Lande

Faculty Publications

This article discusses what can be done to promote productive behavior in mediation and reduce bad conduct. Although most participants do not abuse the mediation process, some people use mediation to drag out litigation, gain leverage for later negotiations, and generally wear down the opposition. Rules requiring good-faith participation are likely to be ineffective and possibly counterproductive. This article proposes using dispute system design principles to develop policies satisfying the interests of stakeholders in court-connected mediation programs. After outlining important interests of key stakeholder groups, including litigants, attorneys, courts, and mediators, the Article describes specific policies that could satisfy their …

Experience And Legal Ethics Teaching, James E. Moliterno

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Renewable Bar Admission: A Template For Making "Professionalism" Real, Jayne W. Barnard

Faculty Publications

The citizens of this country should expect no less than the highest degree of professionalism when they have entrusted administration of the rule of law-one of the fundamental tenets upon which our society is based-to the legal profession. Re-examination was not originally required of medical specialists, but [the American Board of Medical Specialties] quickly recognized that a lifetime certification, even with required continuing education provided little incentive for doctors to keep up with new medical knowledge and techniques. Similarly, continuing [legal] education requirements alone are not sufficient to assure the integration of new law and procedure into a lawyer's practice. …

Ethical Challenges To Legal Education And Conduct, James E. Moliterno

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Law, Ethics, And The Good Samaritan: Should There Be A Duty To Rescue?, Kathleen M. Ridolfi

Faculty Publications

The interdependence of law and morality, the circular influences of one on the other, puts us in a position to fear what we want the law to do. We embrace a legal system that promotes morality, that makes better citizens of us, but we worry that the law will cross an elusive line and infringe on individual rights. For this reason we are careful, and should remain so, in limiting enforcement of laws to reflect only those values that emerge from the overall agreement of the community where they will be enforced.

In this paper, I have focused primarily on …

Why Formalism?, James E. Moliterno

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Leak And The Craft: A Hard Line Proposal To Stop Unaccountable Disclosures Of Law Enforcement Information, John Q. Barrett

Faculty Publications

The critics of Kenneth W. Starr accused him, in the five-plus years that he served as the multi-tasked Independent Counsel, of many failings, mistakes, and improprieties. One of the most prevalent charges was one that has significance to lawyers and resonates with the general public's sense of bad behavior by prosecutors: the allegation that Starr and/or members of his staff "leaked" information. This general accusation was, of course, imprecise. It also might have been overbroad. Prosecutorial "leaks" include such plain illegalities as disclosing grand jury information to the media or other unauthorized persons, and also the much less regulated practice …

In-House Live-Client Clinical Programs: Some Ethical Issues, James E. Moliterno

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Allocation Of Decisionmaking Between Defense Counsel And Criminal Defendant: An Empirical Study Of Attorney-Client Decisionmaking, Rodney J. Uphoff

Faculty Publications

In Commonwealth v. Woodward, the highly publicized murder trial of an au pair accused of killing an infant in her care, the defense team faced a strategic decision commonly encountered at trial: whether to request or to object to lesser included jury instructions. Put simply, the Woodward defense team had to decide whether to ask for an instruction that would permit the jury to return a manslaughter verdict, or to object to such an instruction, leaving the jury only the choice either to acquit the defendant or to convict her of second degree murder as charged in the indictment. Undoubtedly …

Lawyer Creeds And Moral Seismography, James E. Moliterno

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Post-Conference Reflection On Separate Ethical Aspirations For Adr's Not-So-Separate Practitioners, John Q. Barrett

Faculty Publications

At "The Lawyer's Duties and Responsibilities in Dispute Resolution" Symposium at South Texas College of Law, Oct. 25, 1996, a central topic of discussion was ADR's ethical separateness. There was a shared sense that ADR providers and practitioners confront a range of ethical issues that differ from those that confront non-ADR lawyers. On this view, because rules of professional responsibility are geared toward more adversarial forms of legal practice, they at best provide no answers and may provide wrong answers to ethical questions that arise in ADR. One solution would be to create new, separate, "role-specific" ethics rules for ADR …

The Poor Image Of The Profession And The Ethical Pressures On The Modern Lawyer, Rodney A. Smolla

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Professional Preparedness: A Comparative Study Of Law Graduates' Perceived Readiness For Professional Ethics Issues, James E. Moliterno

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Understanding Kaye Scholer: The Autonomous Citizen, The Managed Subject And The Role Of The Lawyer, Nancy Amoury Combs

Faculty Publications

The Office of Thrift Supervision's (OTS) unprecedented enforcement action against Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays and Handler (Kaye Scholer) prompted howls of protest from the legal community. OTS, it was claimed, was using its excessive power to redefine the role of the lawyer. This Comment confirms that OTS sought to impose duties on Kaye Scholer that conflict with professional ethics rules. The Comment then goes on to suggest that the conflict over professional responsibility in the Kaye Scholer case reflects, more fundamentally, a conflict over the role of the citizen, and the citizen's relationship with the state. Our adversarial system of …

Internal Dispute Resolution: The Transformation Of Civil Rights In The Workplace, John M. Lande, Lauren B. Edelman, Howard S. Erlanger

Faculty Publications

Many employers create internal procedures for the resolution of discrimination complaints. We examine internal complaint handlers' conceptions of civil rights law and the implications of those conceptions for their approach to dispute resolution. Drawing on interview data, we find that complaint handlers tend to subsume legal rights under managerial interests. They construct civil rights law as a diffuse standard of fairness, consistent with general norms of good management. Although they seek to resolve complaints to restore smooth employment relations, they tend to recast discrimination claims as typical managerial problems. While the assimilation of law into the management realm may extend …

Rethinking Attorney Conflict Of Interest Doctrine, Kevin C. Mcmunigal

Faculty Publications

This article focuses on conflict of interest doctrine dealing with concur- rent conflict of interest issues. Its thesis is that a primary source of confusion in conflict of interest doctrine is its failure to clearly articulate and answer the central questions which lie at the heart of the subject. In essence it argues that to remedy this confusion we need to rethink attorney conflict of interest doctrine so that it focuses more clearly on articulating and answering these central questions.

An Analysis Of Ethics Teaching In Law Schools: Replacing Lost Benefits Of The Apprentice System In The Academic Atmosphere, James E. Moliterno

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.