Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

Ethical Problems For Lawyers Upon Trust Terminations: Conflicts Of Interest, Joel C. Dobris

University of Miami Law Review

Trust terminations pose ethical problems for lawyers. Beneficiaries often view the trustee's lawyer as "their" lawyer. The Code of Professional Responsibility and the recently adopted Model Rules of Professional Conduct provide little guidance in resolving the conflicts of interest that arise in trust terminations

Soliciting Sophisticates: A Modest Proposal For Attorney Solicitation, Victor P. Filippini Jr.

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note advocates an amendment to the ethical standards governing attorneys that will permit the personal solicitation for pecuniary gain of sophisticated prospective clients - that is, those persons having general knowledge of their legal needs and the expertise to assess adequately the information and presentation of an attorney. Part I of this Note shows that lawyer solicitation is a form of commercial speech under recent Supreme Court decisions. It also asserts that, though the traditional reasons for banning lawyer solicitation still have some validity, these reasons do not justify prohibiting the solicitation of sophisticated clients. Part II suggests some …

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 …

Kentucky Law Survey: Professional Responsibility, Eugene R. Gaetke, Rebecca G. Casey

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In the face of persistent criticism of the legal profession, from within as well as without, the Kentucky Supreme Court exhibits a certain degree of ambivalence toward issues of professional responsibility. This ambivalence manifests itself in two ways.

First, the Court's treatment of different categories of professional misconduct seems at times unjustifiably inconsistent. The Court reacts to certain misconduct in an almost uniformly harsh manner, evincing the attitude of a strict disciplinarian for the practicing bar. Occasionally, however, the Court responds to various other kinds of equally gross misconduct with apparently undue leniency. In such cases the Court seems to …

The Judge's Role In The Enforcement Of Ethics - Fear And Learning In The Profession, John M. Levy

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Sec Disciplinary Proceedings Against Attorneys Under Rule 2 ( E ), Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note reassesses SEC authority to discipline attorneys under rule 2( e ). Part I explores the history of rule 2( e) proceedings against attorneys and the troublesome policy issues raised by the SEC's new approach to rule 2(e) enforcement. Part II examines the SEC's claim that general rulemaking provisions give it authority to discipline attorneys. The Note concludes that a proper construction of statutes and case law bars rule 2( e) proceedings against attorneys.

Prospective Waiver Of The Right To Disqualify Counsel For Conflicts Of Interest, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Part I of the Note discusses canon 4, first explaining the presumptions and policies that underlie it, then arguing that courts should enforce prospective waivers of the presumption of shared confidences when conditioned on the law firm's effective screening of client confidences - keeping them from the attorneys within the firm who will take part in the adverse representation. Part II turns to canon 5, and argues that prospective waivers of the presumption of diluted loyalties should be enforced against clients moving to disqualify law firms for a canon 5 violation.

An Analysis Of The Employment Patterns Of Minority Law Graduates, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article will discuss the findings of the annual Employment Report of the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) as they relate to the employment patterns of black law school graduates. The NALP surveys provide a reliable and informative picture of legal employment in this country. The survey should prove useful in the development of in-depth instruments to measure career development among black attorneys. This article will present the background and methodology of the Employment Survey in order to aid in the interpretation of the data.

Singing Those Law Office Blues, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

There were 2,750 young lawyers, 1.8 percent of all young attorneys in the ABA, who responded to the Career Satisfaction Survey. The preliminary survey involved in-depth interviews with 150 young lawyers. The final questionnaire was based upon these interviews. The responses were many and varied, and it was difficult to find many answers "In common. Some respondents found it necessary to elaborate on their answers by writing comments in the columns of the survey. A few of these answers are included because they were both humorous and enlightening.

Choice Of Federal Or State Law For Attorneys' Professional Responsibility In Securities Matters, Ted J. Fiflis

Publications

Professional standards of duty are implicated in the federal securities laws in two types of cases: those instituted by the SEC to impose sanctions for lack of character or unethical conduct and those brought by the SEC or private parties for violations of substantive provisions of the securities laws. The question faced by Professor Fiflis is whether state or federal standards should define the duties imposed under these laws. He argues that the proper method of resolving this question is to apply an interest analysis. Analyzing the various state and federal interests leads Professor Fiflis to the conclusion that federal …

The Attorney-Client Privilege After Attorney Disclosure, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note examines the interests that must be balanced in determining when an attorney's disclosure waives the attorney-client privilege. Part I presents three judicial standards defining the class of attorney disclosures that waive the privilege: the traditional client consent rule that only attorney disclosures to which the client has consented constitute waiver; the broader "implied authority" view that attorney disclosures made with the client's consent or with an intent to further the client's cause constitute waiver; and the still more expansive view that all attorney disclosures falling within the scope of the attorney's agency authority to act for the client …

Constitutional Law - Attorneys' Right To Free Speech Versus Protection Of Fair Trial - Dr 7-107 Restricting Attorneys' Speech During Pending Litigation Only Constitutional To Protect Criminal Jury Trial From Reasonable Likelihood Of Prejudice, Eugene Hamill

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

The Role Of The Lawyer In Matrimonial Cases, Eric D. Turner

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

An Assessment Of Alternative Strategies For Increasing Access To Legal Services, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Since the late 1930s, lawyers have argued that their services are not used to the fullest advantage by a large segment of the population. More recently, other concerned groups such as trade unions and consumer organizations also have become convinced that there is an underutilization of lawyers' services, and that it is important to increase access to such services. As a result, attempts have been made to develop alternatives to the traditional methods of providing legal services that to date have proved inadequate in meeting the legal needs of the public. Legal clinics have proliferated, prepaid legal services plans have …

Criminal Law - Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel - Burden On Defendant To Demonstrate That Serious Incompetency, Falling Measurably Below The Performance Ordinarily Expected Of Fallible Lawyers, Was Likely To Have Affected The Outcome Of Trial, Clifford H. Lange

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Machiavelli And The Bar: Ethical Limitations On Lying In Negotiation, James J. White

Articles

Upon the enactment of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, published ethical norms will for the first time give explicit consideration to the lawyer's behavior in the process of negotiation. Rules 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3 deal with negotiation. Although the Canons, the interpretations of the Canons, and the Disciplinary Rules and Ethical Considerations gave tangential consideration to negotiating, 1 none of the Disciplinary Rules or Ethical Considerations explicitly considered negotiation apart from the process of litigation or counseling. The mere recognition of negotiation as a separate process worthy of unique rules is a large step. The purpose of this paper …

The Pursuit Of A Client's Interest, Warren Lehman

Michigan Law Review

There has been recently a resurgence of interest in how the lawyer serves his client. Much of that interest has been occasioned by the indigestibility of the idea that the lawyer is, as it is said, a hired gun. There are those who think that instead the lawyer ought to act toward his client as a therapist. Others are concerned with rationalizing for the lawyer the ethical discomforts of servantship (which many might guess have been brought to the fore by Watergate). Yet others see the client as victim of a structure - represented by the lawyer - that frustrates …

Serving The Public Interest: An Overstated Objective, John A. Humbach

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

It is clear that there are many occasions when legal services would be useful but are not being provided. The question is what the legal profession can do and should be fairly expected to do about this.

Attorneys - Law Firm May Obtain Injunction Barring Soliciation Of Clients By Former Salaried Associates, John Stemplewicz

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

A Dialogue On The Unauthorized Practice Of Law, Roger Hunter, Robert Klonoff

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Charles H. Miller Lecture -- Lawyers And Their Public Responsibilities, Thomas Ehrlich

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Presuming Lawyers Competent To Protect Fundamental Rights: Is It An Affordable Fiction?, Robert G. Lawson

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article explores the ramifications of Wainwright v. Sykes, a case decided before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1977. The broad question before the Court in Sykes concerned the extent to which state prisoners should have access to federal court by use of the writ of habeas corpus. The narrow issue before the Court concerned the impact on a prisoner's claim for habeas relief of procedural defaults (such as a failure to object to evidence, a failure to perfect an appeal, etc.) that occur in the state proceeding under attack. In considering these important issues Justice …

The Corporate And Securities Adviser, The Public Interest, And Professional Ethics, Simon M. Lorne

Michigan Law Review

It is the thesis of this Article that we, as a society, need to make deliberate decisions about the proper role of the corporate adviser, and, when that function has been defined, to develop a structure within which it can be performed. As the Article makes clear, the logical choices involve what might be described as either revolutionary change or reactionary change. That is, the current trends should either be accelerated or reversed; the present situation is intolerable. While the author will contend that the case for shifting into reverse is more persuasive, getting into a gear, and out of …

If We Don't Take Care Of Young Lawyers, Who Will?, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

There are now more than 450,000 lawyers in this country, almost double the number of 20 years ago. The American Association of Law Schools estimates that the number of law student graduates averages about 34,000 a year. And the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the Department of Labor projects that there will be 26,400 new legal jobs each year until 1985. If law school enrollments stay at their current level, that would mean about 8,000 graduates each year would not be able to find a law-related job.

Attorney Misappropriation Of Clients' Funds: A Study In Professional Responsibility, Gregory Dunbar Soule

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The legal profession has initiated disciplinary processes and clients' security funds in order to achieve certain objectives. This article will delineate these objectives and evaluate whether they have been satisfied. Moreover, it will propose additional goals that the legal profession, given its present status as a self-regulating profession, should attain in satisfying its responsibility for governing the professional conduct of its members. Finally, additional measures that several states have instituted in order to complement the efforts of disciplinary agencies and clients' security funds by fulfilling unsatisfied needs of professional responsibility will be examined.

Lawyers And Justice: The Uneasy Ethics Of Partisanship, Harry W. Jones

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Pennsylvania Clients' Security Fund - How Secure Is The Public, Robert B. Gigl Jr.

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Review Of Freedman’S “Lawyers’ Ethics In An Adversary System”, Ronald D. Rotunda

Law Faculty News Articles, Editorials, and Blogs

No abstract provided.

The Other Government, Daniel D. Polsby

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Other Government by Mark J. Green

Attorneys--Malpractice--Statute Of Limitations Extended, James D. Gray

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.