Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

Mapping The World: Facts And Meaning In Adjudication And Mediation, Robert Rubinson

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores what is and what is not in adjudication and mediation, thus illuminating the profound differences between these two processes. The Article does this work in four parts. First, it offers an analysis of cognitive mapmaking and its inevitability in constructing meaning. It then explores how adjudication defines meaning in a particular way. This Article then conducts a comparable analysis of mediation. Finally, it focuses on the bridging function attorneys play between the worlds of mediation and adjudication.

Professional Responsibility, James M. Mccauley

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Model Rules Of Professional Conduct And Serving The Non-Legal Needs Of Clients: Professional Regulation In A Time Of Change, Robert Rubinson

All Faculty Scholarship

The practice of law is changing. Lawyers who act solely as advocates and zealous representatives of clients in legal matters still represent the core of what lawyers do and of how many lawyers see their work, but other trends are filtering into "on the ground" practice. Increasing numbers of lawyers are mediating, consulting on traditionally non-legal issues, and approaching clients' needs "holistically" by associating with and integrating other professional services. These trends cut across virtually all segments of the profession, from prosecutors and criminal defense lawyers, to lawyers whose practices involve, among other things, public interest work, personal injury, family …

A How To Guide For Incorporating Global And Comparative Perspectives Into The Required Professional Responsibility Course, Laurel S. Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

This article was written for an AALS symposium on "Teaching Legal Ethics" and discusses how to incorporate global and comparative perspectives into the required Professional Responsibility course. The scope of the paper is much broader, however. The first half of the paper explains why global and comparative perspectives are relevant to contemporary law practice. This section explains why global perspectives are relevants to clients and lawyers and explains why lawyer regulators now use a more global approach to regulation than previously. The second half illustrates how one can introduce global and comparative perspectives into a professional responsibility course without taking …

Conscripting Attorneys To Battle Corporate Fraud Without Shields Or Armor? Reconsidering Retaliatory Discharge In Light Of Sarbanes-Oxley, Kim T. Vu

Michigan Law Review

This Note advocates that federal courts should allow attorneys to bring retaliatory discharge claims under SOX. Traditional rationales prohibiting the claims of retaliatory discharge by attorneys do not apply in the context of Sarbanes-Oxley. This Note contends that the Department of Labor and the federal courts should interpret the whistleblower provisions of § 806 as protecting attorneys who report under § 307. Assuring reporting attorneys that they have protection from retaliation will encourage them to whistleblow and thereby advance SOX's policy goal of ferreting out corporate fraud. Part I explores the legal landscape of retaliatory discharge suits by attorneys. This …

Bankruptcy Ethics Issues For Solos And Small Firms, Nancy B. Rapoport

Scholarly Works

This chapter, in Corinne Cooper & Catherine E. Vance's book Attorney Liability in Bankruptcy, walks the reader through some of the traditional ethics issues triggered by representing consumers and small businesses. It also addresses some of the ethics issues that the recent Bankruptcy Amendments (BAPCPA) have created.

Enron, Watergate And The Regulation Of The Legal Profession, Arnold Rochvarg

All Faculty Scholarship

The most famous scandal of the twentieth century was the Watergate scandal, which most notably led to the resignation of Richard Nixon as President of the United States. The significance of Watergate, however, extends further than the resignation of Nixon. Because Watergate involved so many lawyers, it had a great impact on the regulation of the legal profession. Although the twenty-first century has just started, the strongest contender for this century's most famous scandal is the Enron scandal. Although the Enron scandal is identified mostly with misconduct by accountants and corporate officials, it too involved lawyers and has impacted on …

Mdps, Spinning, And Wouters V. Nova, Laurel S. Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

This article is one of a series of articles by Professor Laurel Terry regarding the topic of MDPs of multidisciplinary partnerships. In February 2002, the European Court of Justice issued its opinion in Wouters v. NOVA (Case C-309/99), which addressed a Netherlands Bar rule that prohibited multidisciplinary partnerships (MDPs) between lawyers and accountants. Wouters decided: 1) that the bar was an “undertaking” that was subject to the competition (antitrust) provision in the EU Treaty; 2) that the Dutch MDP ban restricted competition and that this restriction on competition was appreciable and affected intra-community trade; 3) that the Dutch MDP ban …

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

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Intractable Problem Of Bankruptcy Ethics: Square Peg, Round Hole, Nancy B. Rapoport

Scholarly Works

This article continues my earlier research on conflicts of interest in bankruptcy cases, particularly in chapter 11 cases. It suggests that conflicts in interest in chapter 11 bankruptcy cases should not be handled the same way that conflicts are handled under state ethics rules, and it proposes a new section of the Bankruptcy Code to cover conflicts of interest in cases filed under chapter 11.

Recalling Atticus Finch: Conversations With Practicing Lawyers, Deborah A. Schmedemann

Faculty Scholarship

This article discusses the skills, values, and attitudes that are key to practicing law. Input from practicing attorneys shows that while some traits are essential for all practice areas, other traits are specifically necessary for certain types of attorneys.

German Mdps: Lessons To Learn, Laurel Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

This article is the third of four major articles or book chapters that I have written about MDPs. This article focuses on German multidisciplinary partnerships (MDPs) between lawyers and accountants. The German MDP experience is important because Germany is one of the few jurisdictions that expressly permits MDPs and because conferences about World Trade Organization's General Agreement on Trade in Services (the GATS) have cited to Germany when suggesting that other countries' MDP bans may be unnecessarily restrictive. After introducing common MDP regulatory issues, this article focuses on Germany. The article explains Germany's current regulation of MDPs and provides a …

Dressed For Excess: How Hollywood Affects The Professional Behavior Of Lawyers, Nancy B. Rapoport

Scholarly Works

This article discusses two related points: first, that the way in which movies portray lawyers shapes how clients view effective/ineffective lawyer behavior, and second, that the portrayal also helps lawyers to forget appropriate professional behavior.

The Professional And The Liar, Richard H. Underwood

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Many individuals in society think that all lawyers are liars. Some think lawyers are allowed to lie. Regrettably, some American lawyers apparently think so too. In the United States there has been, and continues to be, a troubling lack of professional consensus when it comes to litigating a case. Indeed, lawyers who are neither corrupt nor insensitive have been accused of arguing that the elicitation of false testimony, and the use of it, is a professional responsibility. Fairness also calls for some acknowledgment that even the most cunning, zealous, and successful of trial lawyers have agonized over such moral choices. …

Renewed Introspection And The Legal Profession, Eugene R. Gaetke

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

As the twentieth century draws to a close, the legal profession again immersed in a process of self-assessment, reflection, and reform. Operating on several fronts, various constituent elements of the bar have recently completed or have underway significant projects relating to the law of lawyering.

Two efforts stand out in particular. For more than a decade, the American Law Institute has labored in the production of a new Restatement of the Law Governing Lawyers, and the organization stands now on the brink of that monumental work's publication. Equally significant, the American Bar Association has again undertaken a comprehensive review of …

Limited Representation: Helping Clients While Protecting Yourself, Mary E. Berkheiser

Scholarly Works

The lawyer-client relationship is defined by what the client retains the lawyer to do, and that retention may be as general or specific as the lawyer and client desire. The Nevada Supreme Court has recognized that even with regard to “a particular transaction or dispute, an attorney may be specifically employed in a limited capacity.” This freedom to contract for broader or narrower representation benefits both lawyers and clients. No lawyer can be a true generalist anymore, and most clients cannot afford the full range of representation that the legal profession offers on a single matter.

1998 Survey Of Ethics In Land-Use Planning, Patricia E. Salkin

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Lawyers' Duty To Do Justice: A New Look At The History Of The 1908 Canons, Susan Carle

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Legal Ethics And Fugitive Slaves: The Anthony Burns Case, Judge Loring, And Abolitionist Attorneys, Paul Finkelman

Cardozo Law Review

Judges and lawyers seek to enforce and uphold the "law" while also proclaiming an interest in an abstraction we call "justice." As we know, there is often a tension between the two. Consequently, serving the law often means not serving justice. Similarly, often a tension exists between a lawyer's duty both to seek a legal remedy to a problem and to act in the best interests of a client. Activist lawyers can have an agenda that is at odds with members of the class they claim to serve. These two problems are complicated by a third. Lawyers and judges have …

Can A Lawyer Ever Do Right?, Owen M. Fiss

Cardozo Law Review

Jacques Maury and Maurice Gargon were good people, but not good enough. They resisted the harshness of the racial laws of Vichy France but not as fully as they should have. Falling victim to the proclivity of all lawyers, they became ensnared within the technical trappings of the law. They helped individual clients who suffered under the Vichy laws, but are faulted by Richard Weisberg for failing to challenge those laws at a foundational level. Professor Weisberg described the result as grotesque.

Attorneys: The Hypocrisy Of The Anointed--The Refusal Of The Oklahoma Supreme Court To Extend Antidiscrimination Laws To Attorneys In Bar Disciplinary Hearings, Stephen M. Hines

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Part-Time Prosecutors And Conflicts Of Interest: A Survey And Some Proposals, Richard H. Underwood

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

For many jurisdictions, the need for part-time prosecutors is a reality that will continue into the foreseeable future. The daunting task of balancing a private practice with prosecutorial duties is made all the more difficult by the lack of a coherent set of guidelines for minimizing the impact of conflicts of interest. What is needed is a set of guidelines flexible enough to permit attorneys to balance the part-time prosecutor's dual practice yet concrete enough to protect the system and its participants from conflicts of interest. Of prime importance in establishing any such system is the need for a clear …

Kentucky's New Rules Of Professional Conduct For Lawyers, Eugene R. Gaetke

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

On July 12, 1989, the Kentucky Supreme Court adopted its own version of the American Bar Association's 1983 Model Rules of Professional Conduct as the body of disciplinary law applicable to lawyers practicing in the state. These new rules constitute a major improvement in the state's law of legal ethics. Their adoption should be considered a victory for Kentucky lawyers and, more importantly, a victory for the people of the state, the ultimate beneficiaries of the regulation of the legal profession.

As with most victories, the adoption of the new rules was not unequivocally positive. Kentucky's version of the Model …

Lawyers As Officers Of The Court, Eugene R. Gaetke

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Lawyers like to refer to themselves as officers of the court. Careful analysis of the role of the lawyer within the adversarial legal system reveals the characterization to be vacuous and unduly self-laudatory. It confuses lawyers and misleads the public. The profession, therefore, should either stop using the officer of the court characterization or give meaning to it. This Article proposes certain modifications of the existing rules of professional responsibility that would bring lawyers' actual obligations more in line with those suggested by the label of officer of the court.

Monetary Sanctions Against Attorneys For Discovery Abuse In Federal Court: When Can They Be Appealed, Nancy E. Berman

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

When Is An Attorney Unreasonable And Vexatious?

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reflections On Client Perjury, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Most experienced prosecutors, judges, and defense attorneys would probably agree that perjury in the criminal justice system occurs often. Although the frequency of perjury has never empirically been demonstrated, it is not surprising that with so much at stake, prosecution and defense witnesses would be tempted to fabricate testimony to meet the exigencies of the case. Detecting and dealing with perjurious testimony, however, is another matter. Implicated are complex legal and ethical problems for both prosecutors and defense attorneys. The judiciary's response to these problems, moreover, has largely been formalistic, without enunciating sufficiently clear standards to guide future behavior.

For A Few Dollars More: Client’S Right To Discharge His Attorney Under A Contingent Fee Contract, Irving Cohen

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legal Ethics And Class Actions: Problems, Tactics And Judicial Responses, Richard H. Underwood

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Perhaps no procedural innovation has generated more controversy than the class action. As Professor Arthur Miller has observed, debate over “class action problem[s]” has raged at several different levels. For example, opponents and proponents of class actions disagree on whether such actions produce socially desirable results in an economical fashion and whether an already overburdened judiciary can handle the additional supervisory demands of the class action. Recently, a somewhat more ideological dialogue has addressed the merit of publicly funded class actions. Such questions arise only indirectly in the context of class action litigation. However, a certain hostility toward class actions …

The Confidential Communication Element Of The Attorney-Client Privilege, Gerald Sobel

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.