Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

Lawyers, Learning, And Professionalism: Meditations On A Theme, Judith Welch Wegner

Cleveland State Law Review

This essay will offer three meditations on the theme of "lawyers, learning and professionalism." First, it lays a foundation by arguing that a commitment to learning is an appropriate and necessary professional value for lawyers. Next, it contends that lawyers need to take this professional value more seriously. It will suggest that lawyers lag behind other professions in learning about learning, and urge more lawyers deliberately do just that. Finally, the essay shares some important lessons about professionalism recently learned through learning experiments with practicing lawyers and law students.

Self-Inflicted Wounds: The Duty To Disclose Damaging Legal Authority, Angela Gilmore

Cleveland State Law Review

This article analyzes Rule 3.3(a)(3) and its implications for opposing parties in an adversarial legal system. The article's conclusion is that strict compliance with Rule 3.3(a)(3) by all members of the Bar is necessary to preserve the integrity of the legal system. Circumvention of the Rule is a disservice to the legal system. Part II explains Rule 3.3(a)(3) so that lawyers can grasp the ethical duty owed. Part III examines three roles simultaneously played by a lawyer: a representative of clients, an officer of the legal system, and a private citizen having a special responsibility for the quality of justice.7 …

The Lawyer's Duty Of Public Service: More Than Charity?, Tigran W. Eldred, Thomas Schoenherr

Faculty Scholarship

The question of whether lawyers have an ethical duty to perform public service-and, in particular, whether the obligation requires that a percentage of time be devoted to providing free legal services to the poor'-has a disjointed and uneven history. Leaders of the bar, espousing various and often conflicting views of morality, compassion, noblesse oblige, and individual autonomy, have contributed to this state of affairs, creating a complicated web of vague ideals that today jeopardizes the legal profession's sense of its own public obligations. On the one hand, the legal profession remains dedicated to the traditional view that public service …

The Ethics Of Criminal Defense, William H. Simon

Michigan Law Review

A large literature has emerged in recent years challenging the standard conception of adversary advocacy that justifies the lawyer in doing anything arguably legal to advance the client's ends. This literature has proposed variations on an ethic that would increase the lawyer's responsibilities to third parties, the public, and substantive ideals of legal merit and justice.

With striking consistency, this literature exempts criminal defense from its critique and concedes that the standard adversary ethic may be viable there. This paper criticizes that concession. I argue that the reasons most commonly given to distinguish the criminal from the civil do not …

Determining The Appropriate Time Limitations On Attorney Malpractice Lawsuits In West Virginia: A Brief Overview, Vincent Paul Cardi

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Symptoms Exposed When Legalists Engage In Moral Discourse: Reflections On The Difficulties Of Taking Ethics, James R. Elkins

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Scholar As Advocate, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Articles

Academic freedom in this country has been so closely identified with faculty autonomy that the two terms are often used interchangeably, especially by faculty members who are resisting restraints on their freedom to do as they please. While there may be some dispute as to whether or how far academic freedom protects the autonomy of universities or of students, the autonomy of faculty members seems to lie close to the core of the traditional American conception of academic freedom. As elaborated by the American Association of University Professors, this conception of academic freedom calls for protecting individual faculty members from …

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 …

All That Glitters, Roger J. Miner '56

Bar Admissions

No abstract provided.

Doing Business: The Management Of Uncertainty In Lawyers' Work, John Flood

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Apparently naive, but in fact not, is the question: What do lawyers do? Many scholars assume the central role of the lawyer is that of the advocate, but among lawyers working in law firms advocacy consumes little of their time. Similarly, the term lawyer provides hardly any meaning in itself. The research presented here is based on a participant-observation study of a corporate law firm. The central thesis proposed, in the light of case studies of the selling of shopping mall and the arranging of a bank loan, is that business lawyers are engaged in managing uncertainty for both their …

Ringing The Bell, Roger J. Miner '56

Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Recognizing An Implied Warranty That Professional Services Will Be Performed In A Good And Workmanlike Manner., Mark L. Kincaid

St. Mary's Law Journal

Although the Court received a deluge of amicus curiae briefs after its initial ruling in Melody Home ushering the Court to reevaluate the consequences of its decision, there is no sound basis for excluding professional services from the implied warranty recognized by the Texas Supreme Court that services will be performed in a good and workmanlike manner. The issue of what is properly considered a “professional” service or what definition is to be applied to distinguish “non-professional” and “professional” services if the latter were to be excluded from the implied warranty. Instead of differentiating between “non-professional” and “professional” services in …

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 …

Teaching Legal Ethics In A Program Of Comprehensive Skills Development, James E. Moliterno

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Risks Of Violation Of Rules Of Professional Responsibility By Reason Of The Increased Disparity Among The States, Ted J. Fiflis

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Lawyer's Duty To Keep Clients Informed: Establishing A Standard Of Care In Professional Liability Actions, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article will explore the problem of the attorney's duty to provide clients with adequate information to make informed decisions. It will discuss situations in which such a duty is appropriate, and suggest that a cause of action for informed consent must be limited to those fact patterns where courts have established the right of the client to make the decision. The analysis rejects establishment of a broad right of the client to control all aspects of the representation. The Article will first review the history of the development of professional liability law with particular emphasis on the medical profession, …

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.

The Duties Of Lawyers To One Another, Roger J. Miner '56

Lawyers and the Legal Profession

No abstract provided.

Learning The Law Of Lawyering, Ronald D. Rotunda

Law Faculty News Articles, Editorials, and Blogs

No abstract provided.

The Lawyer’S Duty To Report Another Lawyer’S Unethical Violations In The Wake Of Himmel, Ronald D. Rotunda

Law Faculty Articles and Research

No abstract provided.

Current Issues In Professional Responsibility, James P. Holden

William & Mary Annual Tax Conference

No abstract provided.

Common Issues Of Professional Responsibility, Thomas Ehrlich

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Screening The Disqualified Lawyer: The Wrong Solution To The Wrong Problem, Thomas D. Morgan

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

In Defense Of A Double Standard In The Rules Of Ethics: A Critical Reevaluation Of The Chinese Wall And Vicarious Disqualification, Frances Witty Hamermesh

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note suggests that no change is warranted at the present time; courts should not adopt the Chinese wall defense to vicarious disqualification of private firms. The Chinese wall should, however, continue to operate as an internal device for protection of confidentiality. As such, it encourages firms to avoid disqualification by obtaining client consent to successive representation. Neither the historical record of the work of the Commission on the Evaluation of Professional Standards (the Kutak Commission), the empirical evidence currently available, nor the pragmatic arguments offered by many commentators justify an exception to, or modification of, the standard of imputed …

Can A Good Lawyer Be A Bad Person, Stephen Gillers

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Good Lawyer: Lawyers' Roles and Lawyers' Ethics edited by David Luban and The Adversary System: A Description and Defense by Stephan Landsman

Why Kentucky Should Adopt The Aba's Model Rules Of Professional Conduct, Eugene R. Gaetke

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In 1983, after six years of drafting and lively debate, the American Bar Association adopted the Model Rules of Professional Conduct as its most recent statement of the ethical norms of the legal profession. Shortly thereafter the ABA forwarded the rules to the states for consideration and possible adoption as binding ethical principles. As of this writing, a number of states have adopted the Model Rules, in full or in substantial form, and several more have proposals for such adoption pending before their supreme courts

The Kentucky Supreme Court presently awaits the state bar association's recommendation regarding the Model Rules' …

A Judge’S Advice To Today’S Law Graduates, Roger J. Miner '56

Lawyers and the Legal Profession

No abstract provided.

Ethical Problems Of An International Human Rights Law Practice, David Weissbrodt

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article examines two sources of ethical constraint on U.S. lawyers practicing international human rights law: the Model Code of Professional Responsibility (CPR or Model Code), which was adopted by the American Bar Association (ABA) in 1969, and the Model Rules of Professional Conduct (Model Rules), which were adopted in 1983. Part I establishes that these sources apply to the U.S. lawyer regardless of whether or not the lawyer is in the United States and whether or not he is acting as an attorney. Attorneys who leave the countries where they practice law and travel to other nations to observe …

Private Settlement As Alternative Adjudication: A Rationale For Negotiation Ethics, Robert B. Gordon

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

A rule of ethics like the one proposed in this Note takes a step toward this goal. Part I explores the general nature of unethical settlement negotiation, and the inadequate responses offered by both the American Bar Association Model Code of Professional Responsibility and the American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Part II presents a theory for recognizing private settlement negotiation as a substantive component of the adjudicatory process, deserving of all the ethical protections afforded forensic litigation. Part III evaluates certain proposals for reform and responds to various criticisms commonly leveled against efforts to regulate private negotiation …

Book Review, Mark J. Loewenstein

Publications

No abstract provided.