Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

Elitism In The Legal World: A Comparison Between The U.K. And U.S.A, Michael Johnson Jr

Faculty Curated Undergraduate Works

In this paper I will be discussing the various ways that the United Kingdom has played an integral part in creating the way the world looks at and practices common law, while also addressing the systemic racism and elitism entrenched in the U.K. legal system. I will also be comparing the U.K. to the United States as American law was built on the influence of British law and share deep similarities to how minorities are treated due to constant and ongoing systemic disadvantages and legal elitism. I will be discussing how the U.K. and U.S. are trying to address the …

Chilling Climate Change Disclosure: The Enabling Role Of Corporate Counsel In Management Misstatements Of Esg Matters, J. Robert Brown Jr., Eli Wald

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Regulation of Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) disclosure is necessary to ensure investors receive the information they want to have. Fortunately, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is considering adopting ESG rules. Unfortunately, such rules, if adopted, are likely to be ineffective. New ESG disclosure rules are going to fail for the same reason periodic disclosure rules have been ineffective: managers of publicly-traded companies systematically escape liability for failure to disclose material information to investors. Management escapes liability by pressuring securities lawyers to erroneously advise the companies that material information need not be disclosed, only to then turn around and …

What The Heller Is Going On With The Second Amendment: Are Licensing Requirements Living Up To The Heller Standard?, Josue Barron

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

The full extent and guarantees of the Second Amendment have yet to be understood in light of modern advances in weaponry. Further, there is little Supreme Court precedent to aid in defining the scope of the Second Amendment. With challenges to restrictions on concealed carrying of firearms in public, the Second Amendment requires much clarification. Federal circuit courts are divided on how to apply the Second Amendment to firearm licensing schemes and differ on the interpretation of the Heller decision. This Note provides guidance on understanding the core protection of the Second Amendment and the presumptions left by the Supreme …

Clerical-Collar Crime: How Church Members Deal When Church Leaders Steal Church Property, Preslie B. Grumbles

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

Christian churches will lose an estimated $59 billion worldwide to embezzlement in 2022. Embezzlement and other white-collar crimes are property theft crimes characterized by the violation of another’s trust. This Comment names white-collar crimes committed exclusively by church leaders or officials “clerical-collar crimes.” Distinguishing clerical-collar crime from white-collar crime gives weight to and promotes future consideration of the unique problems that arise when church leaders and officials commit clerical-collar crime.
Although clerical-collar crime is subject to civil and criminal liability, this Comment focuses solely on victims’ experiences in bringing civil claims against perpetrators of clerical-collar crime in Texas and leaves …

Keep Austin…White? How Equitable Development Can Save Austin, Texas From Its Racist Past And Homogenized Future, Kaylie Hidalgo

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

More than a century of racist federal, state, and local government policies created inequitable and racially segregated neighborhoods through a practice known as redlining. I-35 in Austin, Texas, represents one of the most iconic and stark segregationist splits in the country, with the Eastside being impoverished and mostly Black while the Westside’s mostly White population thrives. As a result, Austin is the only fastest-growing city in the nation losing people of color. While there have been some private and local efforts in Austin and across the country to increase investment in marginalized and divested communities, most of these approaches are …

Kukin Program Newsletter – Spring 2023, Kukin Program For Conflict Resolution

Kukin Program Newsletters

The Kukin Program Newsletter – Spring 2023 highlights significant events and achievements in Cardozo Law's Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) initiatives. Key features include Gloria Steinem receiving the 22nd International Advocate for Peace Award, presentations by Securities Arbitration Clinic students to the SEC, and global representation at the ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition and other ADR competitions. The newsletter also covers impactful symposiums, such as "Negotiation Strategies for War by Other Means," and showcases the activities of the Cardozo Dispute Resolution Society and the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution. Alumni achievements, faculty contributions, and new publications further demonstrate the program's dedication …

Cultivating Sense: Cultural Change In The Prosecutor’S Office, Shih-Chun Steven Chien

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Prosecutors exercise broad discretion. They are widely viewed as the gatekeepers of the criminal justice system. To date, studies on prosecutors in different jurisdictions have largely focused on how to conceptualize, manage, and eventually control the exercise of prosecutorial discretion. Scholars have recently turned their attention to the importance of internal organizational management and leadership’s role in changing office culture as a means to regulate prosecutorial discretion. But we have limited empirical evidence as to how changes occur within a prosecutor’s office and what precise role organizational leaders play during this process.

This Article constructs a new paradigm for the …

Just Choices? Judicial Selection, Ideology, And Partisanship In The Ohio Supreme Court, Margo D'Agostino

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

This thesis joins the conversation on judicial selection and impacts on judicial ideology. This is a multifaceted question that engages with the history of judicial selection, differences between states, growing polarization and partisanship, and an influx in campaign spending that can all influence Justices’ behavior while on the bench. While other theorists have used more quantitative or statistical analytics, more research is still needed on the nuanced and qualitative questions surrounding the judiciary in the United States, especially on the state level. I look at three Ohio Supreme Court Justices—Maureen O’Connor, Jennifer Brunner, and Sharon Kennedy—and decisions they have penned …

The Securities Law Disclosure Conundrum For Publicly Traded Litigation Finance Companies, Robert F. Weber

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The Article examines a peculiar legal dilemma—implicating securities law, legal ethics, and evidence law—that arises when litigation finance companies (LFCs) become public companies. LFCs provide funding to litigants and law firms for prosecuting lawsuits in exchange for a share of the lawsuit recoveries. In recent years, LFCs have significantly altered the landscape of the civil justice system in common law jurisdictions. But their assets, which are just rights to proceeds from lawsuits, are notoriously opaque— who really can predict what a jury will do when it comes to liability and damages? When LFCs go public, this opacity frustrates public investors’ …

Federal Law Enforcement Reform: Depoliticization Into A Constitutional Framework To Restore Public Confidence, Christopher J. Boosey

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis proposes that there is a lack of public confidence in federal law enforcement agencies and that this is because these agencies have become political weapons, investigating individuals rather than crimes, in violation of the U.S. Constitution. Following multiple scandals, from the historical targeting of the Civil Rights movement to present attempts to designate parents critical of school administrators as domestic terrorists, wholesale reform of these agencies is urgent. Therefore, this thesis will address the issue of politicization, political corruption, and the lack of adherence to constitutional principles through the problem, significance, and solution method. This thesis will first …

Developing Inclusive Language Competency In Clinical Teaching, Jennifer Safstrom, Joseph Mead

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Drawing from legal pedagogy, litigation practice, and teaching experience, this article seeks to compile a set of key considerations for inclusive language decision-making in the clinical setting. Using a multi-factor framework--accuracy, precision, relevance, audience, and respect-this analysis explores the process for deciding on terms to use in practice and the potential implications of those choices on student learning, case outcomes, and attorney-client relationships. In addition, this article explores some current trends and best practices when adopting these principles in the context of specific groups. This article connects these principles to broader academic and practice is- sues, including the American Bar …

Cpa – Performed Election Audits: What They Are, Why They Are Coming, And How To Prepare For Them, William Kresse Jd

Research Days

My recent nationwide survey of 1,680 potential American voters shows that over two-thirds would have greater confidence in elections, and that over 40% would vote more frequently, if post-election audits were routinely conducted by independent CPAs credentialed for election auditing. Low voter confidence in American elections has triggered professional groups and state legislators to call for post-election audits. But who should conduct these audits? Post-election audits conducted by election administrators raises the issue of information asymmetry. My research explores whether having routine post-election audits conducted by independent Certified Public Accountants further credentialed for election auditing (“CPA Audits”) would affect the …

Conflicts Of Interest At An Organization’S Highest Authority: How The District Of Columbia’S Rules Of Professional Conduct Can Fail To Protect Private Organizations, Christopher Deubert

Catholic University Law Review

This Article examines how the District of Columbia’s incomplete incorporation of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct into its own Rules of Professional Conduct has created a scenario in which wrongdoing inside a private organization can flourish. In 2002, following the Enron scandal, the American Bar Association (ABA) revisited and revised its Model Rules of Professional Conduct. The ABA nevertheless took a conservative route, rejecting rules long proposed by experts which would have permitted attorneys aware of corporate crimes, fraud, and other wrongdoing to report their concerns to individuals or entities outside the organization’s reporting structure. Additional scandals unfolded contemporaneous …

The Kinder, Gentler Irs? Where?, Harvey Gilmore

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Ethical Principles In Ai Startups, James Bessen, Stephen Michael Impink, Robert Seamans

Faculty Scholarship

Do high-tech startups benefit from developing more ethical AI? AI startups implement policies and take actions to manage ethical issues associated with data collection, storage, and usage and adapt to the norms of their industry. This paper describes these startups' ethics-related actions, including ethical AI policy adoption, and examines how these actions relate to startup performance. We find that merely adopting an ethical AI policy (i.e., a less costly signal) does not relate to increased performance. However, there is evidence that investors reward startups that take more costly preventative pro-ethics actions, like seeking expert guidance, training employees about unconscious bias, …

Clinics, The Cloud, And Protecting Client Data In The Age Of Remote Lawyering, Andrew C. Budzinski

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Technology has become central to law practice. Attorneys have an ethical obligation to understand how that technology works, how it can facilitate client representation—and the risks it poses to the confidentiality of clients’ electronically-stored data. Law school clinics seem to fall behind the curve on this obligation. Some maintain outdated protocols, and some have no protocols at all, to manage and safeguard client data. This leaves client data less secure than it ought to be, risking harm to clients, ethical violations for attorneys, and missed opportunities to communicate the importance of ethical technology use to clinic students.

This Article offers …

The Lawyer's Duty Of Tech Competence Post-Covid: Why Georgia Needs A New Professional Rule Now—More Than Ever, Julia Webb

Georgia State University Law Review

The American Bar Association (ABA) promulgates the Model Rules for Professional Conduct (Model Rules), which prescribe the behavior with which lawyers must comply in demonstrating competency to practice law. In 2012, the ABA updated Comment 8 to Model Rule 1.1 to require maintaining competence in the “benefits and risks associated with relevant technology,” also known as a lawyer’s “duty of technological competence.” A decade later, the majority of state bar associations have adopted and implemented this language. Georgia, however, remains among the last ten states that have not yet formally adopted the duty of technological competence. The COVID-19 pandemic forced …

The Shape Of A Life: Deborah L. Rhode In Memoriam, David Luban

Fordham Law Review

In this Essay honoring the life and work of Professor Deborah Rhode, Professor David Luban examines Professor Rhode's moral sensibility, which runs through all her writings, and situates this sensibility on a map of moral theories.

Deborah L. Rhode In Memoriam: Three Stories And Ten Life Lessons, Benjamin H. Barton

Fordham Law Review

In this Essay, Professor Benjamin H. Barton offers a heartfelt tribute to the late legal scholar, Professor Deborah L. Rhode. Professor Barton reflects on Rhode’s prolific career, which spanned areas including legal ethics, feminism and women in the law, and lawyers as leaders. He also examines Rhode’s later works, which delved into more personal topics such as character, ambition, and legacy. Through personal anecdotes and life lessons, Professor Barton honors Rhode’s legacy as a model academic, mentor, and transformative force in the legal profession.

An Ode To Rhode: In Principle And In Practice, Scott L. Cummings

Fordham Law Review

This Essay is a tribute to Professor Deborah L. Rhode by Professor Scott L. Cummings and discusses her legacy through the impact of her scholarship and leadership on both legal ethics and the community of legal ethics scholars. It reviews Deborah’s findings on pro bono in principle and in practice, revealing a Janus face—one that is built on altruism but used to benefit individual interests. This Essay shares Professor Cummings’s own experiences with Deborah as an inspirational and courageous individual who spoke truth to power to elevate the interests of those with less power and the ideal of lawyers as …

The Legal Ethics Of Family Separation, Milan Markovic

University of Richmond Law Review

On April 6, 2018, the Trump administration announced a “zero tolerance” policy for individuals who crossed the U.S. border illegally. As part of this policy, the administration prosecuted parents with minor children for unlawful entry; previous administrations generally placed families in civil removal proceedings. Since U.S. law does not allow children to be held in immigration detention facilities pending their parents’ prosecution, the new policy caused thousands of children to be separated from their parents. Hundreds of families have yet to be reunited.

Despite a consensus that the family separation policy was cruel and ineffective, there has been minimal focus …

Law School As Straight Space, Swethaa S. Ballakrishnen

Fordham Law Review

In honoring Professor Deborah L. Rhode’s commitment to making space for the marginal in legal education and clarifying the “no-problem” problems in our midst, Professor Ballakrishnen’s Essay focuses on one strain of nonnormative experience—that of genderqueer persons—to clarify the ways in which law schools reinforce linear hierarchies of identity and performance. Professor Ballakrishnen catalogues ethnographic student interview data to highlight perspectives of genderqueer law students, the result of which suggests that “normal” professional practices in law school reinforce the rigidity of the gender binary. They conclude by suggesting that paying attention to these student subpopulations is crucial to reform legal …

Why The 30 Percent Mansfield Rule Can't Work: A Supply-Demand Empirical Analysis Of Leadership In The Legal Profession, Paola Cecchi-Dimeglio

Fordham Law Review

The Mansfield Rule proposes that if 30 percent of the candidate pool is drawn from underrepresented groups, then a legal workplace will become more diverse and inclusive as a result. However, across the legal profession, statistics related to the numbers of women and other underrepresented groups in leadership roles continue to paint a bleak picture of diversity and inclusion. Professor Cecchi-Dimeglio’s Essay presents a supply-demand empirical analysis of the legal profession at the leadership level, and argues that the 30 percent Mansfield Rule ultimately does not enhance diversity in the legal profession, especially in leadership positions.

Mentored: On Leaders, Legacies, And Legal Ethics, Renee Knake Jefferson

Fordham Law Review

Professor Renee Knake Jefferson shares insights on mentorship and legal ethics gleaned from her relationship with Professor Deborah Rhode. The Essay, written as part of the Fordham Law Review colloquium in Professor Rhode’s memory, argues that the stories of women and minority lawyers—regardless of whether one had a personal relationship with them—are an unrealized, valuable source of informal mentorship. It lays the groundwork for formalizing mentorship as an ethical obligation of leaders in the legal profession and beyond.

Rhode Was Right (About Character And Fitness), Leslie C. Levin

Fordham Law Review

In this Essay, Professor Leslie C. Levin revives Professor Deborah L. Rhode’s forty-year-old critique of the character and fitness process and shows that not much has changed. Levin exposes the process’s core problems, including the lack of public information available about character and fitness decisions, the process’s subjectivity, the disconnect between information sought and future lawyer misconduct, and the deterrent effect on individuals considering a legal career. Levin proposes that task forces reexamine problematic application questions, such as those targeting decriminalized conduct and mental health, and push for more transparency and disclosure.

John Osborn's Enduring Words On Law & Learning, Walter Effross

Popular Media

When I started my first year at Harvard Law School, 17 years after Osborn did, I wasn’t looking for enlightenment. But I expected to be — and was — intimidated by Socratic taskmasters who, like the movie version of Osborn’s Professor Kingsfield (a role for which John Houseman won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award in 1973), were ready with “always another question, another question to follow your answer.”

Modalities Of Social Change Lawyering, Christine N. Cimini, Doug Smith

Articles

The last decade has seen the rise of new kinds of grassroots social movements. Movements including Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, Sunrise, and #MeToo pushed back against long-standing political, economic, and social crises, including income inequality, racial inequality, police violence, climate change, and the widespread culture of sexual abuse and harassment. As these social change efforts evolve, a growing body of scholarship has begun to theorize the role of lawyers within these new social movements and to identify lawyering characteristics that contribute to sustaining social movements over time. This Article surveys this body of literature and proposes a typology …

Citation, Slavery, And The Law As Choice: Thoughts On Bluebook Rule 10.7.1(D), David J.S. Ziff

Articles

Today, more than 150 years after the end of the Civil War, lawyers and judges continue to rely on antebellum decisions that tacitly or expressly approve of slavery. This reliance often occurs without any acknowledgement of the precedent’s immoral and legally dubious provenance. Modern use of these so-called “slave cases” was the subject of Professor Justin Simard’s 2020 article, Citing Slavery. In response to Professor Simard’s article, the latest edition of The Bluebook includes Rule 10.7.1(d), which requires authors to indicate parenthetically when a decision involves an enslaved person as a party or the property at issue. Unfortunately, Rule 10.7.1(d) …

Should Prosecutors Be Expected To Rectify Wrongful Convictions?, Bruce A. Green

Texas A&M Law Review

In 2008, the American Bar Association amended the Model Rules of Professional Conduct to address prosecutors’ post-conviction conduct. Model Rules 3.8(g) and (h) establish the remedial steps a prosecutor must take after achieving a criminal conviction when confronted with significant new evidence of an injustice. They require prosecutors to disclose the new exculpatory evidence and to take reasonable steps to initiate an investigation, and if clear and convincing evidence then establishes the convicted defendant’s innocence, the prosecutors’ office must take reasonable steps to rectify the injustice. Since then, 24 state judiciaries have adopted versions of one or both rules. Although …

What A Waste! An Evaluation Of Federal And State Medical And Biohazard Waste Regulations During The Covid-19 Pandemic And Their Impact On Environmental Justice, Samantha Newman

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.