Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

From Grievance And Complaint To Sanction: Understanding & Bearing The Burden, John P. Sahl

Akron Law Faculty Publications

This article explores the complex and often opaque process of judicial and attorney discipline, focusing on the path from initial grievance to final sanction. It critically examines how complaints are evaluated, how disciplinary bodies function, and the burdens placed on both the complainant and the accused within this system. The author discusses procedural hurdles, evidentiary standards, and the discretionary nature of disciplinary outcomes, highlighting how these factors can lead to inconsistencies and perceived injustices. The article emphasizes the emotional, professional, and reputational toll on individuals involved and underscores the need for transparency, fairness, and support structures within the disciplinary process. …

On Teaching Legal Ethics With Stories About Clients, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

The comparison I have in mind is between what goes on at Notre Dame and what goes on in one of Professor James Boyd White's law and literature classes at the University of Michigan. Both classes use provocation. White provokes his students with an array of assigned readings, all of them about people, not all of them about law, ranging from Homer and Plato to Fowler on the split infinitive and the autobiography of Dick Gregory. We provoke our students with a parade of accounts from our members, accounts of people they think they can help.

White's enterprise is, I …

Indictments And Informations In Texas: The Conduct/Evidence Pleading Conundrum., Robert R. Barton

St. Mary's Law Journal

In the prosecution of a criminal case in Texas, the State’s primary pleading is an indictment or information. In an indictment or information, there are two basic rules for the charging of an offense. First, the defendant must be given adequate notice to prepare a defense and to plead the judgment from the trial of the case in bar to a subsequent prosecution for the same offense. Second, the State is not required to plead evidentiary matters. The simplicity of these rules exists more in their statement than in their application because circumstances exist which require the State to plead …

A Catholic Lawyer's View Of The Death Penalty Symposium: Thoughts On Death Penalty Issues 25 Years After Furman V. Georgia., Kevin M. Doyle

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.

Victims' Rights And The Death-Sentenced Inmate: Some Observations And Thoughts Symposium: Thoughts On Death Penalty Issues 25 Years After Furman V. Georgia., Susan L. Karamanian

St. Mary's Law Journal

The concept of “victims’ rights” refers to the movement from the 1950s which focuses on enhancing the role of the victim in the criminal process. The movement changed dramatically the manner in which capital cases are investigated and prosecuted. Prosecutors may work with the victims’ families on whether to accept a plea bargain or whether to seek the death penalty. The victims’ families may now also provide victim impact statements to let their own suffering influence the jury during the sentencing phase. The right of the victim’s family to have a say in the process does not end with the …

Lawyer Discrimination Against Clients: Outright Rejection--No; Limitations On Issues And Arguments-Yes, Sam Stonefield

Faculty Scholarship

The issue of lawyer discrimination brings new perspectives to traditional topics like the practice of law, the role of the lawyer and the relationship with, and rights of, the client. It forces us to examine the nature of lawyer discretion, the limits of that discretion and the consequences of trying to regulate that discretion. The examinationis a daunting task. This essay offers an approach that attempts to protect both the prohibition against discrimination and the practice of law and to accommodate the tension that necessarily accompanies this effort. It suggests that the best solution is to prohibit lawyers from discriminating …

Lawyers' Identities, Client Selection And The Antidiscrimination Principle: Thoughts On The Sanctioning Of Judith Nathanson, Bruce K. Miller

Faculty Scholarship

The Author discusses how the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination might justifiably apply the Public Accommodations Statute to the client selection practices of some, perhaps many, lawyers. But it should leave Judith Nathanson alone. Nathanson's decision to represent only women in divorce cases is protected by the First Amendment, not because she is entitled as a lawyer to indulge whatever biases she chooses in her selection of clients, but because, as a lawyer of integrity who has melded her personal values and professional skills in service to the profession's best ideals, she is entitled to represent her chosen clients as she …

Policing For Profit: The Drug War’S Hidden Economic Agenda, Eric D. Blumenson, Eva Nilsen

Faculty Scholarship

In the following pages, we first describe in more detail how the Drug War’s financial largess has kept its soldiers in business. We then discuss the destructive impact of this economic regime, marshaling evidence to show that the corruption of law enforcement priorities and wholesale miscarriages of justice can be attributed to the operation of these incentives. Finally, we explore potential legal and legislative remedies through which law enforcement may regain its bearings.

Our investigation focuses on the economic underpinnings of current drug law enforcement policy. Drug policy also raises an extraordinarily broad range of moral, health, and criminological concerns, …