Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

Ethical Considerations: Corporate Social Responsibility And The 21st Century, Joan Macleod Heminway, Irma S. Russell

Book Chapters

This chapter provides perspectives on the balance of professional and personal ethical considerations that lawyers must achieve to deal effectively and ethically with the conundrums they face in their representation of business clients. This task requires consideration of both issues that some might regard as isolated (or at least mundane and local) and, at the same time, issues that are global and existential—critical to the survival of our species. Although the focus is on the role of lawyers, the challenges con- fronted by lawyers and the rules governing their conduct also inform the ethical responsibilities and role of nonlawyers.

The …

Jewish Lawyers And The U.S. Legal Profession: The End Of The Affair?, Eli Wald

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ai Report: Humanity Is Doomed. Send Lawyers, Guns, And Money!, Ashley M. London

Law Faculty Publications

AI systems are powerful technologies being built and implemented by private corporations motivated by profit, not altruism. Change makers, such as attorneys and law students, must therefore be educated on the benefits, detriments, and pitfalls of the rapid spread, and often secret implementation of this technology. The implementation is secret because private corporations place proprietary AI systems inside of black boxes to conceal what is inside. If they did not, the popular myth that AI systems are unbiased machines crunching inherently objective data would be revealed as a falsehood. Algorithms created to run AI systems reflect the inherent human categorization …

The Institute For The Future Of Law Practice: A New Narrative For Legal Education And The Legal Profession, William D. Henderson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

"The mission of IFLP is to produce more legal professionals who have strong legal knowledge plus foundational training in allied disciplines — in other words, “T-shaped” legal professionals."

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You look down at your smartphone and see that you just got a text from a close family relative. They are asking to schedule a phone call.

The next line reads, “I’m thinking about going to law school.”

Well, if you read PD Quarterly, you’re likely a logical person to seek out for advice. You’ve got some time to think about it. What are you going to say?

Whatever your counsel, …

Ethics Or Law: Which Should Prevail In Conflicts Regarding The Restitution Of Nazi-Looted Art?, Anthony Caruso

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Museums and sovereign states often face a dilemma when confronted with a claim seeking restitution of Nazi-looted artwork. The assertion of legal technicalities may allow an institution to maintain possession of its artwork whereas ethics would dictate its return. This paper discusses three cases where legal technicalities take precedence over ethics. This conflict demonstrates the need to have such disputes addressed in a forum other than a court system.

A Rhetorical Analysis Of Opening Statements In Trial: Reconsidering The Classical Canon Of Invention, Andrew Chandler

Undergraduate Theses

This analysis of 21 opening statements probes at current persuasive practices employed by trial attorneys through the lens of mainstream legal advice and an expanded definition of rhetorical invention – one which includes both discovery and creation. An evaluation of such practice reveals the utility, and furthermore the duty of the advocate, to draw upon an expanded realm of available arguments.

Civility, Courtesy, Professionalism And Behaving Responsibly In An Age Of Rudeness, Leonard Pertnoy

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

As members of the legal profession, we live out who we are by our actions, and it is time this includes good manners, disciplined behavior, and respect for each other and for the legal system. It is these requirements that are at the core of maintaining and preserving our democratic system. Perhaps it is time to supplement the code of professional responsibility with a code of personal behavior to ensure civility in courts. Toward this end, I propose the following: The Twelve Commandments of Professional Behavior

Conflicts Of Interest And Law-Firm Structure, Cassandra Burke Robertson

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

Business and law are increasingly practiced on a transnational scale, and law firms are adopting new business structures in order to compete on this global playing field. Over the last decade, global law firms have merged into so-called “mega-brands” or “mega-firms”—that is, associations of national or regional law firms that join together under a single brand worldwide. For law firms, the most common mega-firm structure has been the Swiss verein, though the English “Company Limited by Guarantee” structure is growing in popularity as well, as is the similar “European Economic Interest Grouping.” All of these structures allow related entities to …

Teaching Bioethics: The Role Of Empathy & Humility In The Teaching And Practice Of Law, Barbara A. Noah

Faculty Scholarship

This essay considers the role of empathy and humility in the professional practices of physicians and lawyers and in those who prepare students for these professions. Beginning with an overview of the goals and methods of legal education, it compares similar goals in medical education and the value of practicing law (and medicine) with empathy and humility. The essay then describes exercises used in the law school classroom designed both to teach law students about end-of-life law and also to allow them to practice counseling clients. Through these exercises, law students can experience firsthand the challenges of advising a client …

Transactional Real Estate Law: From Contract To Closing, Jacqueline A. Revis, Ronald Brown

NSU Law Seminar Series

This particular seminar is designed to educate attorneys about how to process a real estate transaction from contract to closing, focusing on the current rules and regulations for financed transactions.

• How to competently act as a closing agent for a real estate transaction in Florida
• Review requirements of a title agent
• Discuss difference between being only a title agent and the additional role representing a particular party (buyer or seller)
• Understanding the new closing disclosure form and the difference between a buyer closing disclosure and a seller closing disclosure
• Handling special challenges that arise in the context of real estate …

Telling A Story, Changing The World: California Rural Legal Assistance, Jonathan J. Chavez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone project attempts to provide an in-depth view of how stories influence change in our lives as well as in the field of law.

Inside Professionalism: How In-House Counsel Can Give Practical Effect To The Ethical Responsibility To Society At Large When Reviewing Items For Form And Legal Sufficiency In A Manner That Supports The Integrity Of The Representative Form Of Governance Of Public Corporations And Local Governments, R A. Cuevas, Jr.

St. Thomas Law Review

Messrs. Heineman, Jr., Lee, and Wilkins of the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School have written on the need for lawyers to recognize that, as professionals and citizens, they owe ethical responsibilities to the rule of law, society at large, and the clients and institutions they represent. This Essay identifies a situation where a routine task performed by lawyers in the legal departments of public corporations and local governments can implicate this ethical responsibility owed to society at large. The lawyers' task is the review of documents and other items relating to their clients' operations for form …

Am I A “Licensed Liar”?: An Exploration Into The Ethic Of Honesty In Lawyering . . . And A Reply Of “No!” To The Stranger In The La Fiesta Lounge, Josiah M. Daniel Iii

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

After hearing for the first time the lawyer-disparaging phrase, “licensed liar,” the author investigated its significance. This article presents the question of those two words’ meaning and explains how the author reached the conclusion that, as applied to attorneys, the phrase is an unmerited epithet. The phrase is known and utilized in nonlegal texts in fields such as fiction, poetry, literary criticism, and journalism, but the two words are absent from legal texts. The author’s discovery of the phrase in various criticisms of lawyers in other publications illuminates and confirms that the phrase constitutes the pejorative allegation that an attorney …

Criminal Prosecution And Section 1983, Barry C. Scheck

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Problems Concerning Litigating Custom And Practice Cases, Steve Ryals

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Restricted Nature Of The Profit Motive: Perspectives From Law, Business, And Economics, Keith William Diener

Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy

This essay investigates the permissible limits of the profit motive in business contexts by examining theory and cases from law, business, and economics. This essay aims to remind the reader that the theoretical principles upon which the profit motive is founded require abidance to law, ethics, and customary societal rules. Accordingly, the application of the profit motive as a purported justification for illegal or immoral business decisions does not withstand scrutiny. Part I distinguishes between restricted and unrestricted profit motives, and illustrates this distinction by the use of three business cases that improperly appeal to the unrestricted profit motive. Part …

Probable Cause Revisited, William Ortman

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Supreme Court, Kings County, People V. Chapman, Kerri Grzymala

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Appellate Division, First Department, People V. Ramirez, Nicole Compas

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Ethical-Religious Framework For Shalom, Michael E. Cafferky

Faculty Works

This paper explores the ancient Hebrew Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, a traditional ethical-religious framework for business conduct, in terms of its contribution to well-being. Some elements of the Decalogue align with what contemporary scholars believe are generally-accepted moral principles expected of businesses. This paper addresses the question of how all the elements of the Decalogue contribute to the Hebrew concept of Shalom. The purpose of the Decalogue is established in the context of a covenant community of believers. Each of the Ten Commandments is evaluated in terms of its contribution to Shalom.

Why U.S. Jurisdictions Should Adopt ‘Regulatory Objectives’ For The Legal Profession, Laurel S. Terry

Howard Lichtenstein Distinguished Professorship in Legal Ethics Lectures

As a Lichtenstein Distinguished Lecturer, Professor Terry was asked to write an article for the Hofstra Law Review. Her article, cited below, may be downloaded from the link at the top of the page.

Laurel S. Terry, Globalization and the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20: Reflections on Missed Opportunities and the Road Not Taken, 43 Hofstra L. Rev. 95 (2014)

The ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 was established in order to “perform a thorough review of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and the U.S. system of lawyer regulation in the context of advances in technology and global …

"Uncivil By Too Much Civility"?: Critiquing Five More Years Of Civility Regulation In Canada, Alice Woolley

Dalhousie Law Journal

The author revisits criticisms of the civility movement made in an earlier paper ("Does Civility Matter?" (2008) 46 Osgoode Hall LJ 175). She argues that Canadian law societies remain concerned with lawyer incivility, despite bringing surprisingly few formal prosecutions against lawyers for incivility. In a few cases the law societies' concern can be justified insofar as lawyer incivility in those cases appears to correlate with serious professional dysfunction. Generally however, the focus on incivility is counter-productive. First, in several cases the focus on lawyer incivility elides the complex and difficult ethical issues raised by the behaviour of the lawyers in …

The Modern Corporation Magnified: Managerial Accountability In Financial Services Holding Companies, Anita Krug

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article first recalls the primary contours of Adolf Berle and Gardiner Means’s acclaimed observations regarding the separation of ownership and control in the “modern corporation,” as well as their conclusions about the implications of those observations for the doctrine of shareholder primacy. Second, the Article describes how the activities of FSHCs generally differ from what we think corporations do and, certainly, from what Berle and Means conceived of as the purpose of corporations or, indeed, any business enterprise. Third, this Article articulates how those business activities render more acute the problem of the separation of ownership and control that …

Foreword To The Conference: The Law: Business Or Profession? The Continuing Relevance Of Julius Henry Cohen For The Practice Of Law In The Twenty-First Century, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Disappearing Fourth Wall: Law, Ethics, And Experiential Theatre, Mary Lafrance

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The cutting edge of experiential theatre blurs the lines between performer and audience. Both the performer and the audience are vulnerable. Audiences may be subject to assaultive or disturbing behavior or images. The performance may take place in an unconventional venue that poses safety hazards. A single audience member may be alone with a performer, who may engage in provocative or shocking behavior, including verbal abuse or touching. The performer may invite similar conduct from the participant. Typically, the participant does not know in advance what will take place and does not sign a waiver. While the performer has a …

The Limited Power Of The Bar To Protect Its Monopoly., Zachary C. Zurek

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

The weaknesses within unauthorized practice of law (UPL) laws, coupled with shaky and fragmented enforcement, allow nonlawyers to perform activities that are otherwise characterized as the practice of law. Certified Public Accountants (CPAs), non-lawyers representing individuals in administrative settings, legal document preparation services, and other non-lawyers offering detailed legal advice pose serious threats to the bar and the individuals they serve. Uniformed standards of liability, ethics, and certification should be developed to ensure a balanced group of practitioners is available to the public. Pulling nonlawyers into the realm of liability for breach of professional responsibility would result in a higher …

Ethics In Legal Education: An Augmentation Of Legal Realism, Gerald R. Ferrera

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Corporations As Ships: An Inquiry Into Personal Accountability And Institutional Legitimacy , Art Wolfe

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Practicing On Purpose: Promoting Personal Wellness And Professional Values In Legal Education, Gretchen Duhaime

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Guy Lancaster On Genocide: A Normative Account. By Larry May. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2010. 283 Pp., Guy Lancaster

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Genocide: A Normative Account. By Larry May. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2010. 283 pp.