Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

How The Butler Was Made To Do It: The Perverted Professionalism Of The Remains Of The Day, Rob Atkinson

St. Thomas Law Review

No abstract provided.

Proverbial Practice: Legal Ethics From Old Testament Wisdom, Gordon J. Beggs

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The Old Testament book of Proverbs supplied foundational moral values for our nation's legal ethics. With the adoption and revision of formal codes, moral teaching has virtually disappeared from legal ethics. This essay suggests that the wisdom of Proverbs offers a timely challenge to the character of the legal profession by advocating values which include justice, purity, mercy, humility, honesty, candor, truthful testimony, and civility.

Some Thoughts About Developing Constructive Approaches To Lawyer And Law Student Distress, Peter G. Glenn

Journal of Law and Health

I am convinced, on the basis of experience as a teacher at five law schools, that it is possible to establish a law school culture in which the administration and faculty can work effectively to substantially reduce the level of unnecessary law student distress. I believe, however, that accomplishing this on any large scale among the law schools generally might require not only implementation of many of the suggestions of Professors Glesner and Kutulakis, but also that we abandon the ideas that all law schools should be fundamentally similar, built on the model of a large-enrollment major research center, and …

Lawyer Distress: A Comment, Susan S. Locke

Journal of Law and Health

I will not debate whether or not the practice of law creates dysfunction, requires dysfunction or perpetuates dysfunction. I am reminded of a colleague who, when looking at his law firm partners who practice in my field of estate planning asked, "Do you have to be eccentric to go into estate planning, or does it just make you that way after a while?" Probably the answer is a little of both, and it is as true for the practice of law in general as it is for estate planning. When the dust settles at some time in the future, we …

The Criminal Defense Attorney, Ethics And Maintaining Client Confidentiality: A Proposal To Amend Rule 1.6 Of The Model Rules Of Professional Conduct, David Rosenthal

St. Thomas Law Review

This Essay asserts that the Model Rules do not sufficiently address the unique problems that criminal defense attorneys face, especially in this scenario. Although the authoritative measure of the Model Rules is found within the text of each individual rule, any "bright-line" solution to the problem is obscured when the Preamble and Scope are read in conjunction with the text of Model Rule 1.6. To resolve this dilemma, this Essay proposes an amendment to Model Rule 1.6 that seeks to effectively address the relevant concerns of the presented scenario. According to the proposed amendment, the attorney's solution is mandated by …

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 …

A Conflict Is A Conflict Is A Conflict: Fiduciary Duty And Lawyer - Client Sexual Relations, Matthew Certosimo

Dalhousie Law Journal

Does a lawyer breach his' fiduciary duty by engaging in sexual activity with a client?' The Nova Scotia Barristers' Society is attempting to answer this very question with a proposed Rule in the Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Handbook : Chapter 24 on Sexual Relation-ships with a Client. The purpose of this paper is to review the proposed Rule in the context of a lawyer's fiduciary duty to his client.

Tending The Bar In Texas: Alcoholism As A Mitigating Factor In Attorney Discipline., Patricia Sue Heil

St. Mary's Law Journal

This Comment describes the nature and scope of alcoholism and chemical dependency in the legal profession. It reviews the current state of the law regarding alcoholism as a mitigating factor in attorney discipline. Addictive illnesses manifest themselves in ways which leave afflicted attorneys unable to practice law in accordance with professional rules of conduct. The majority of attorney-discipline cases involve alcoholism or chemical dependency. An attorney whose illness remains untreated will likely become the subject of grievance-committee investigations. For disciplinary cases involving alcoholism, a suggested analysis includes establishing a nexus between illness and misconduct. Additionally, it includes a causal connection …

Dances With Nonlawyers: A New Perspective On Law Firm Diversification, Gary A. Munneke

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In this Article, Professor Munneke continues the debate over ethical rules governing lawyers' professional affiliations with nonlawyers, arguing in favor of the adoption of uniform rules that regulate lawyers' conduct in the context of specific ethical issues, such as confidentiality and conflicrs of interest. In Professor Munneke's view, the retention of ethical rules that prohibit law firm diversification impedes the ability of lawyers to compete effectively in today's rapidly changing marketplace of professional services.

Professor Munneke moreover questions whether state bar association rules that prohibit law firm diversification are capable of withstanding judicial scrutiny under the federal antitrust laws and …

Where Were The Lawyers?, Mary E. Berkheiser, Ed Hendricks

Scholarly Works

In March 1992, the Office of Thrift Supervision sent shock waves through the legal community when it initiated a $275 million enforcement actions against New York’s Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays & Handler and froze the firm’s assets, all based on the firm’s alleged misdeeds in representing the now-defunct Lincoln Savings & Loan. The OTS action, together with the recent spate of prefessional liability suits by the Resolution Trust Corporation and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, raises questions with far-reaching consequences for the legal profession. Perhaps most disturbing, particularly in light of the OTS’s unprecedented assault on Kaye, Scholer, is the …

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 …

Television Advertising: Professionalism's Dilemma., Laura R. Champion, William M. Champion

St. Mary's Law Journal

Lawyers are concerned about tactics and antics of advertising attorneys because of possible harm to the reputation of the legal profession due to tasteless, crass ads circulated among the non-legal public. This controversial issue of what is good taste includes the question of how far ads can go before crossing the line of prohibited solicitation. Lawyers advertise through direct mail, television, radio, telephone yellow pages, billboards, newspapers, and magazines. This Article traces the background of legal advertising, focusing on the particular issue of television ads. Some courts purposefully avoid this aspect of legal communication with the public and leave many …

The Legal Skills Program At The College Of William And Mary: An Early Report, James E. Moliterno

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Ringing The Bell, Roger J. Miner '56

Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Professionalism: Rekindled, Reconsidered Or Reformulated?, Nancy J. Moore

Faculty Scholarship

It is increasingly commonplace for bar officials and others to decry what they see as a decline in "professionalism" among lawyers in recent years. For example, in 1984, former Chief Justice Warren Burger gave a speech to an ABA meeting in Las Vegas in which he chastised some members of the profession for taking their freedom to advertise as a "release from all professional restraints," as they use the "same modes of advertising as other commodities from mustard, cosmetics and laxatives to used cars.' 1 Catchy phrases, attractive well-dressed lawyers, and special rates on lossleader items are but some of …

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.

Character And Community: Rispetto As A Virtue In The Tradition Of Italian-American Lawyers, Thomas L. Shaffer, Mary M. Shaffer

Journal Articles

Our project is to contemplate a discrete piece of applied ethics in the American legal profession, a piece of what one might call Italian-American legal ethics. We propose to describe a moral value for which we will use the Italian word rispetto. Our understanding of rispetto is that it is a virtue, a good habit, through which the person learns, practices, teaches, and remembers his place within the family. We will argue here that the practice of this virtue will allow a modern lawyer to be in and of his or her civic and professional community without loss of dignity …

Women In The Law School: It's Time For More Change, Karen Czapanskiy, Jana B. Singer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Common Issues Of Professional Responsibility, Thomas Ehrlich

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Ethics: Professionalism, Craft, And Failure, James R. Elkins

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Legal Competence Yesterday And Tomorrow, Leon E. Trakman

Dalhousie Law Journal

Attacks have been lodged against the legal profession for many years, indeed, since even before Shakespeare commented in Henry VI, "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." However, it is only more recently, with the growth of mass education and public awareness and with technological advances, that suspicions of the incompetence of lawyers has arisen again with a vengeance. Some would credit this new trend to the condemnation of alleged incompetence among trial lawyers by Chief Justice Burger of the American Supreme Court. But to limit the attack on lawyers to this Chief Justice is to ignore …

Rethinking The Legal Profession's Approach To Collective Self-Improvement: Competence And The Consumer Perspective, Bryant G. Garth

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Legal Ethics Of The Two Kingdoms, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

The question I propose to address while I am with you is this: Is there a special morality for professional life? In terms of convention and argot, the answer to that question would appear to be: Yes, there is a separate morality for the professional lives of lawyers and judges. We do not follow the same morals in public and professional life as we follow in personal life.

Attorney Accountability In Kentucky--Liability To Clients And Third Parties, Gerald P. Johnston

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

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

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Legal Malpractice: A Calculus For Reform, Fredrick W. Huszagh, Donald W. Molloy

Scholarly Works

Our most distinguished professions do not maintain congruency between membership standards and actual performance. This deficiency is manifest; spiraling malpractice litigation witnesses a substantial increase in both the number of suits and the amount of recovery. Neither the professions nor public can long endure this trend. Governmental and possibly lay intervention in profession affairs is imminent unless the professions move decisively to understand better the dynamics of malpractice and do excise its causes. This article examines professional malpractice and existing responses to it, relates various cases in a calculus that can be employed to anticipate systemic patterns of malpractice, and …

The Unpopularity Of Lawyers In America, Jon R. Waltz

Cleveland State Law Review

What's wrong with us lawyers? Mainly, it is that the worst among us pose for our portrait, so that we are viewed as avaricious and egomaniacal, all flair and no substance, seeking and wielding power without having the strength of character to wield it well. Lost to the public is the portrait of most lawyers, the sorts of lawyers that I hope this University produces. They are quiet people who come to the law, and stay with it, because they know that the law's power lets them help people make the best of a trying world.

New Directions..., Thomas Ehrlich

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Lawyers' Professional Liability Insurance, Donald J. Ladanyi

Cleveland State Law Review

Due to the nature of his profession, the practicing lawyer is invariably confronted with significant financial risks. Because of the growing number of claims for professional negligence, coupled with the fact that the monetary risk of claims is largely unmeasurable, a constantly increasing proportion of lawyers is considering the feasibility of professional liability insurance protection. This type of insurance offers not only financial security, but also a means for the advantageous and efficient settlement of just claims without damaging notoriety.