Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

Mapping The Issues: Public Health, Law And Ethics, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The field of public health is typically regarded as a positivistic pursuit and, undoubtedly, our understanding of the etiology and response to disease is heavily influenced by scientific inquiry. Public health policies, however, are shaped not only by science but also by ethical values, legal norms, and political oversight. Public Health Law and Ethics: A Reader (expanded and updated 2nd ed., 2010) probes and seeks to illuminate this complex interplay, through a careful selection of government reports, scholarly articles, and court cases together with discussion and analysis of critical problems at the interface of law, ethics, and public health. The …

Matthew S. Weinert On Hegel’S Laws: The Legitimacy Of A Modern Legal Order. By William E. Conklin. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008. 381pp., Matthew S. Weinert

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Hegel’s Laws: The Legitimacy of a Modern Legal Order. By William E. Conklin. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008. 381pp.

Bisexuals Need Not Apply: A Comparative Appraisal Of Refugee Law And Policy In Canada, The United States, And Australia, Sean Rehaag

Articles & Book Chapters

This paper offers an analysis of refugee claims on grounds of bisexuality. After discussing the grounds on which sexual minorities may qualify for refugee status under international refugee law, the paper empirically assesses the success rates of bisexual refugee claimants in three major host states: Canada, the United States, and Australia. It concludes that bisexuals are significantly less successful than other sexual minority groups in obtaining refugee status in those countries. Through an examination of selected published decisions involving bisexual refugee claimants, the author identifies two main areas for concern that may partly account for the difficulties that bisexual refugee …

Why Care About The Polar Bear?: Economic Analysis Of Natural Resources Law And Policy [Outline], Lisa Heinzerling

The Future of Natural Resources Law and Policy (Summer Conference, June 6-8)

1 page.

"Lisa Heinzerling, Georgetown Law School" -- Agenda

The Word And The Law, James B. White

Georgia Law Review

The Word and the Law is an extraordinary combination of law, personal statement, literary criticism, and theology. In a sense its central question is whether it is possible to have a life in the law that is good, and the answer is yes-yes, though not at all easy. I have often suggested it as reading to students who are worried about the profession they have chosen, and they frequently return to me with deep thanks for the introduction. Milner's commitment throughout is not to abstraction or theory or generalization, but to particular realities. Partly for this reason he begins the …

Res Ipsa Loquitor -- Law A Noble Profession, Marissa Moran

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Expecting Too Much And Too Little Of Lawyers, Eugene R. Gaetke

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The regulation of lawyers' behavior remains a controversial topic. Over the past hundred years, the organized bar has engaged in a number of efforts to generate rules governing lawyers' conduct. Still, prominent lawyers and jurists, the public media, and legal scholars perceive an ongoing decline in the profession's ethics.

Bar leaders tend to respond to the problem by calling for greater "professionalism" among practicing lawyers. Drawing on professional images from earlier times, they urge lawyers to look beyond the rules and to be more virtuous, selfless, independent of clients, and dedicated to justice.

A number of commentators go further. These …

Comment: Autonomy And The Public-Private Distinction In Bioethics And Law, Susan H. Williams

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Back to Government?: The Pluralistic Deficit in the Decisionmaking Processes and Before the Courts, Symposium. University of Trento, Italy, June 11-12, 2004.

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 …

Taking The Lawyer's Craft Into Virtual Space: Computer-Mediated Interviewing, Counseling, And Negotiating, Robert M. Bastress, Joseph D. Harbaugh

Law Faculty Scholarship

Bellow's and Moulton's The Lawyering Process emphasized the need for law students and lawyers to draw on other disciplines for effective skills development, to make self-analysis of their professional skills and principles a career-long practice, and to remain ever vigilant of emerging ethical issues. This article attempts to honor those lessons by applying them to lawyers' use of computer mediated communication (CMC) in interacting with clients and in negotiating for clients. The article examines the social science research on CMC, applies that research to the lawyer's context, and makes some tentative assessments about the skills involved in lawyers' use of …

Professionalism Without Parochialism: Julius Henry Cohen, Rabbi Nachman Of Breslov, And The Stories Of Two Sons, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

Professor Levine addresses the question of whether the practice of law a business or a profession and looks at sources where practitioners might draw inspiration for ethical behaviors. He examines two works: a 1916 book by Julius Henry Cohen - The Law: Business or Profession?; and a tale by Chasidic master Rabbi Nachman of Breslov. Both works tell the story of two sons from two different fathers with different ethical natures that manifest in their different choices of and approaches to their careers. Professor Levine uses these two parables to suggest that a more inclusive question than those posed above: …

Lawyers As Prophets, Thomas L. Shaffer

St. Thomas Law Review

Legal ethics is about injustice. My effort here is part of the broad, modern academic enterprise, and of the broad, modern professional enterprise now usually called professional responsibility. Both date from the Watergate scandal in the administration of President Richard M. Nixon, and the rejection, by legal academics and practicing lawyers, of the behavior of the President and other lawyers in that affair. Our modern enterprise, like the biblical Exodus, was born in outrage at the abuse of legal power. In university law schools such as this one, legal ethics is now a discipline characterized by schools of thought on …

What I Think That I Have Learned About Legal Ethics, Richard H. Underwood

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In this short piece I want to say a few things that other academics teaching legal ethics may find disturbing. I say this because I believe that I may be swimming against the current academic fashion. Of course, it is possible that I do not have a very good handle on the current academic fashion. I hope I am not setting up a straw person to knock down, but I may be. If I am, I am sure someone will call me to task. What I am going to say is this: contrary to popular belief (among practitioners, at least) …

Charles Dickens' Bleak House: Mr. Tulkinghorn As A Successful Literary Lawyer, Maureen E. Markey

St. Thomas Law Review

After a short summary of the story of Bleak House, this Article analyzes the character of Mr. Tulkinghorn as a "successful literary lawyer" according to the criteria described by Richard Weisberg in his book Poethics. This Article concludes that, although Mr. Tulkinghom may be considered "successful" in one sense of the word-he is powerful, he achieves his goals, he makes money-he is an abject failure from an ethical, moral, humanistic, or any other perspective. Mr. Tulkinghorn's behavior simply cannot and should not be justified under ethical norms. This Article challenges attempts by lawyers to do so, as providing ammunition for …

Ethics, Race, And Reform, Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

No abstract provided.

Legal Ethics & Religion: An Oxymoron Essay, Helen Berrigan

St. Thomas Law Review

This topic originated in an annual CLE lecture, to be given at the end of the year for procrastinating lawyers who needed "that hour of ethics" to comply with local bar association requirements. Having done this type of lecture before. I wanted to do something different - step back from the trees and look at the forest. Given that it was then the holiday season for Christians and Jews, a religious topic seemed appropriate. As someone without a formal religious background, and one who is wary of people who openly espouse religious views, I realized this would be a good …

Are Medical Ethics Different From Legal Ethics?, Mervin H. Needell

St. Thomas Law Review

In this paper I shall compare and contrast some relevant ethical positions of legal and medical precepts and practices which seem to suggest or predispose to a professional bias. I derive these conclusions from official positions contained in institutional accounts, such as case law or treatises. Even if such comparisons do not make a convincing case for professional bias, they should still provide some insight into the ways in which the thought processes of lawyers and doctors do or do not differ. Although the words "moral" and "ethical" are often used interchangeably, if a distinction must be made here, I …

The Intersection Of Law And Medicine Legal Ethics In Medicine: Foreword, Kathy L. Cerminara

St. Thomas Law Review

Foreword: The Intersection of Law and Medicine by Kathy L. Cerminara.

Annotating The News: Mitigating The Effects Of Media Convergence And Consolidation, Eric Easton

All Faculty Scholarship

This essay is a personal inquiry into the nature of media technology, law, and ethics in an era marked by the convergence of media that have been largely separate-print, broadcast, cable, satellite, and the Internet-and by the consolidation of ownership in all of these media. What inventions, practices, and norms must emerge to enable us to take advantage of this vast new information-based world, while preserving such important professional values as diversity, objectivity, reliability, and independence?

The right to know belongs not only to individuals, but to the public at large, it can (or, perhaps, must) be vindicated by government …

The Ethics Of Advocacy For The Mentally Ill: Philosophic And Ethnographic Considerations, Bruce A. Arrigo, Christopher R. Williams

Seattle University Law Review

In this Article, we critically address several philosophical underpinnings of ethical decision-making that impact persons with psychiatric disorders. We focus our attention, however, upon an admittedly limited target area. Thus, we canvass a select number of significant issues that pose unique problems for humanity. The purpose of these excursions is that of reflection. In brief, we will speculatively examine: (1) the relationship between human rights and the law; (2) the relationship between mental illness and the law (i.e. the rights of the mentally ill); (3) the ethics of involuntary confinement (i.e., taking away and giving back rights to the mentally …

Slavery And The Sudan: Can Good Works Be Good?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article focuses on the consequences of attempts to free slaves and abolish slavery in the Sudan.

Devlin Was Right: Law And The Enforcement Of Morality, Gerald Dworkin

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

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.

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 …

Independent, Professional Judgment: The Essence Of Freedom, Bennett H. Brummer

St. Thomas Law Review

This Article will address the concept of professionalism from a criminal defense attorney's perspective and, more specifically, from the perspective of a public defender. The public defender mission is based on our ideals of freedom and equal justice under law. I have spent twenty-five years as a participant in, and observer of, our judicial system. Whether in government or professional circles, public defenders are often outsiders. We are often treated as the illegitimate children at the family reunion. It is from that perspective that I hope to be of some service to you.

Introductory Note: Symposium On Lawyering And Personal Values – Responding To The Problems Of Ethical Schizophrenia, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

In recent years, legal practitioners and scholars alike have identified a growing crisis in the legal profession. Increasingly, lawyers feel dissatisfied with the roles they are expected to play and the conduct demanded of them. In particular, many lawyers see a widening gap between their personal values and those employed in legal practice. In response to the dichotomy between personal and professional values, some lawyers attempt to develop a corresponding dichotomy in their personalities, separating the “professional self” from the “personal self.” Such a response, however, may lead to a kind of “ethical schizophrenia,” a condition in which an individual …

Genetics, Genetic Testing, And The Specter Of Discrimination: A Discussion Using Hypothetical Cases, Richard H. Underwood, Ronald C. Cadle

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

A "genetic revolution" is upon us. Techniques for genetic testing have increased in sophistication, and an international effort to map and sequence human DNA—The Human Genome Project ("HGP")—is now well under way. We are beginning to exploit our new found genetic knowledge. Recognition of the relationship between developments in genetic science, law, and public policy, is creeping into the "literature" and into the law school curriculum. Even the popular 60 Minutes television "news magazine" recently did a program on the perils of genetic testing. Still, for lawyers and policymakers at least, the material is not all that accessible.

The following …

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 …

Stevens's Professionalism And Ours, David Luban

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The (Social And Economic Paradigm Of Racism And Its Impact On The Educational And Professional Experiences Of Seven African-American Attorneys In Oklahoma City, Tynan D. Anderson

McCabe Thesis Collection

Through the years Blacks have struggled for equality from the right to sit anywhere they chose on a bus to the right to eat in any restaurant. One of the most significant areas of struggle has been equal employment opportunities for Black professionals. The number of Black professionals has increased through the years; however, this increase is minimal when compared to the overall number of professionals in the United States. For example, "the number of Black attorneys has increased by 600% over the past seventeen years... [yet] they only constitute four percent of the total number of lawyers in the …