Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

An Empirical Study Of Associate Satisfaction, Law Firm Culture, And The Effects Of Billable Hour Requirements - Part Two, Susan Saab Fortney

Faculty Scholarship

This article considers billing practices, the effects of hourly billing pressure, and firm culture as reflected in a survey of associates in Texas law firms. Part I of this article reports the empirical information from the survey. This information includes insight into the toll an increase in billable hour requirements has taken on legal practitioners and the consequent affect on the legal field. Part II discusses what the data means and how it might be used to improve the outlook for attracting and retaining good associates.

Legal And Professional Ethics: Protection Of Client Identity, Rebecca Wood Hunter

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Change Is In The Air: Lawyer Advertising And The Internet, Louise L. Hill

University of Richmond Law Review

Today, virtually all the large law firms, as well as most of the small firms, have Web sites. These sites established by law firms vary considerably, with many containing a great deal of material that is informational in nature. When considering whether state ethics rules are applicable to lawyer communications on the Internet, an initial question is whether the communication is commercial speech. Regulations on advertising and solicitation that impose restrictions on commercial speech are limited to speech of that kind. This notwithstanding, states have uniformly held that these communications are subject to regulation under their respective rules governing lawyer …

Ad Rules Infinitum: The Need For Alternatives To State-Based Ethics Governing Legal Services Marketing, William E. Hornsby Jr.

University of Richmond Law Review

For most of the Twentieth Century, lawyer advertising was prohibited. Beginning with the Canons of Ethics ("Canons"), adopted by the American Bar Association (the "ABA" or "Association") in 1908, it was unethical for lawyers to advertise or engage in most forms of marketing. The 1977 United States Supreme Court decision of Bates v. State Bar of Arizona held that, under the First Amendment doctrine of commercial speech, states did not have the right to ban lawyer advertising. The decision, however, gave states the responsibility to regulate this activity. This began an experiment to balance consumer protection with the flow of …

The Ethics 2000 Process: Revisions To The Aba Model Rules Approved By The Aba House Of Delegates, Irma S. Russell

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

This article provides examples of the Ethics 2000 Commission's work and examines a few changes likely to affect lawyers practicing in the environmental arena.

The Ethics 2000 Process: Revisions To The Aba Model Rules Approved By The Aba House Of Delegates, Irma S. Russell

Faculty Works

This article provides examples of the Ethics 2000 Commission's work and examines a few changes likely to affect lawyers practicing in the environmental arena.

Client Confidences And Public Confidence In The Legal Profession: Observations On The Aba House Of Delegates Deliberations On The Duty Of Confidentiality, Irma S. Russell

Faculty Works

This article sets forth points to encourage the ABA House of Delegates to reconsider proposed revisions to Model Rule 1.6 (b)(2) and (b)(3) and to reject any proposals to revert back to the former rule. Specifically, the article urges the delegates to: 1) be aware of absolutes and consider proportionality; 2) recognize lawyers as trustworthy decision makers; and 3) acknowledge the profession's responsibility to the public. The article suggests that the possibility of reverting to the former rule is radically out of step with the tradition of confidentiality in the American legal profession and with the rules of professional conduct …

Don't Believe Everything You Think: Cognitive Bias In Legal Decision Making, Ian Weinstein

Faculty Scholarship

This article discusses the role of cognitive bias in legal decision making. Drawing on research in cognitive science and law, it explores the impact of cognitive bias on both lawyers and clients. These often subtle mental biases can lead to pervasive errors in decision making by causing us to ignore important information and make inaccurate predictions. They may lead a client to underestimate the risk of litigation. They may also lead a lawyer to miscategorize a client's value choice as a misjudgement of fact. The article offers illustrative stories of the impact of bias on both client and lawyer and …

The Lawyer As Consensus Builder: Ethics For A New Practice, Carrie Menkel-Meadow

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this Article, I explore the roles of lawyers in alternative dispute resolution ("ADR"), including traditional roles in arbitration and "new" roles in mediation and facilitation. I also discuss how conventional ethics rules for lawyers fail to provide guidance and "best practices" for lawyers who serve in these new roles. State legislatures and professional associations, such as the American Arbitration Association ("AAA"), the Center for Public Resources Institute for Dispute Resolution ("CPR"), and the Association of Conflict Resolution, have adopted ethical codes for mediators and arbitrators. Select professional associations are also developing "best practice" guides for the provision of ADR …

Lawyer Conduct In The "Tobacco Wars", Roger C. Cramton

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Ethics For Skeptics, W. Bradley Wendel

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

One of the themes of the 2002 annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools ("AALS") has been that we, as teachers, must do better at engaging our students "where they're at." A number of speakers on various panels addressed the consumerist mentality among students, the desire of a population raised on MTV for multimedia lectures that resemble rapidly paced entertainment with high production values, and the suspicion of students toward claims of authority by teachers that are not backed up by respect and hard work. In addition, I would add a further observation as a teacher of ethics …

Lawyer Advertising And The Philosophical Origins Of The Commercial Speech Doctrine, Ronald D. Rotunda

University of Richmond Law Review

The topic of lawyers advertising for clients seems prosaic enough, but it is really a subset of a much larger, more theoretical question. What Americans think about the Constitutional right of lawyers to advertise and market their services both reflects and molds what we think about the right to be left alone. In 1928, Justice Brandeis, in his famous dissent in Olmstead v. United States, wrote that our Constitution "conferred, as against the Government, the right to be left alone-the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men." Justice Brandeis did not speak in a vacuum; …

Treating Persons As Ends In Themselves: The Legal Implications Of A Kantian Principle, R. George Wright

University of Richmond Law Review

In one of the most stirring passages in modern ethics, Immanuel Kant famously enjoins: "act that you use humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end, never merely as a means." Precisely what Kant means here, however, is not entirely clear. More than one interpretation of this formula is possible. But the importance of Kant's "formula of ends" in modern moral philosophy is impossi- ble to deny.

Maccrate's Missed Opportunity: The Maccrate Report's Failure To Advance Professional Values Symposium, Russell G. Pearce

Faculty Scholarship

The 1992 Report of the Task Force on Law Schools and the Profession: Narrowing the Gap (the "Task Force"), Legal Education Professional Development - An Educational Continuum, popularly known as the MacCrate Report (the "Report"), was the most ambitious effort to reform legal education in the past generation. Some commentators have described the Report as "the greatest proposed paradigm shift in legal education since Langdell envisioned legal education as the pursuit of legal science through the case method in the late 19th century.” Although the Report sought to promote education in both lawyering skills and values, its major influence has …

Conceptions Of Lawyers' Agency In Legal Ethics Scholarship, Susan Carle

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Legal Services Provision Through Multidisciplinary Practice- Encouraging Holistic Advocacy While Protecting Ethical Interests, Stacy L. Brustin

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

Context And Institutional Structure In Attorney Regulation: Constructing An Enforcement Regime For International Arbitration, Catherine A. Rogers

Faculty Scholarship

The question that looms large over the future of international arbitration is: How much should states yield to the international arbitration system? This Article attempts to answer the question as it applies to the specific context of regulating attorney conduct.

The Ethics Of Narrative, Muneer I. Ahmad

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

The Ethics Of Narrative, Muneer I. Ahmad

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Legal Ethics Must Be The Heart Of The Law School Curriculum Symposium: Recommitting To Teaching Legal Ethics- Shaping Our Teaching In A Changing World, Russell G. Pearce

Faculty Scholarship

Despite what seems to be far greater attention paid to the teaching of legal ethics than to any other law school subject, legal ethics remains no better than a second class subject in the eyes of students and faculty. This essay suggests that all efforts at innovation in legal ethics teaching are doomed to a marginal impact at best. Only recognition that legal ethics is the most important subject in the law school curriculum will lead to real and significant changes in the teaching of legal ethics. If the commitment of the legal profession and of legal academia to producing …

Industry And The Academy: Conflicts Of Interest In Contemporary Health Research, Jocelyn Downie

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The case of Dr. Nancy Olivieri, the Hospital for Sick Children (HSC), the University of Toronto, and Apotex Inc. (hereinafter the "Olivieri case") is critically important to an understanding of the issues central to contemporary health research and the safety of research participants. First, the case illustrates the huge stakes in such research – not only billions of dollars, but the health of Canadians. Second, the case played out at a crucial time in the history of the regulation of health research. Like other recent high-profile cases, it challenged the ways in which research is governed at the local and …

Hired Guns And Smoking Guns: Mccabe V British American Tobacco Australia Ltd, Camille Cameron

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Significant ethical and procedural issues raised in the case of McCabe v British American Tobacco Australia Services Ltd - history of events leading to the Supreme Court of Victoria decision, particularly the implementation of the controversial 'Document Retention Policy' - procedural issues, including the role and purpose of discovery, nature of the striking out remedy and extent to which the adversarial system might be to blame for some of the conduct of the defence and its solicitors - ethical issues raised in the case - close links between American and Australian tobacco litigation and the influence of American tobacco lawyers …

Standards Of Review In Texas., W. Wendell Hall

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.

The Bounds Of Zeal In Criminal Defense: Some Thoughts On Lynne Stewart, Abbe Smith

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

What caused Lynne Stewart, after more than two decades of defense lawyering in the best tradition of the legal profession to cross the line? Holding aside the political climate of the times, did Stewart's approach to lawyering--whether in political or not terribly political cases--lead to her demise? Is her approach to lawyering different from most of the bar?

This paper discusses the conduct that led to Stewart's prosecution and her approach to lawyering generally. The author examines whether her view of zeal and devotion is at odds with the prevailing ethics and ethos of defense lawyering, and, if not, what …

The Inside Scoop: What Federal Judges Really Think About The Way Lawyers Write, Kristen Konrad Robbins-Tiscione

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

A recent survey indicates that what troubles federal judges most is not what lawyers say but what they fail to say when writing briefs. Although lawyers do a good job articulating legal issues and citing controlling, relevant legal authority, they are not doing enough with the law itself. Only fifty-six percent of the judges surveyed said that lawyers “always” or “usually” make their client’s best arguments. Fifty-eight percent of the judges rated the quality of the legal analysis as just “good,” as opposed to “excellent” or “very good.” The problem seems to be that briefs lack rigorous analysis, and the …

A Midrash On Rabbi Shaffer And Rabbi Trollope, David Luban

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Thomas Shaffer is the most unusual, and in many ways the most interesting, contemporary writer on American legal ethics. A lawyer impatient with legalisms and hostile to rights-talk, a moral philosopher who despises moral philosophy, a Christian theologian who refers more often to the rabbis than to the Church Fathers, a former law school dean who is convinced that law schools have failed their students by teaching too much law and too little literature, a traditionalist who' wholeheartedly embraces feminism, an apologist for the conservative nineteenth-century gentleman who describes his own politics as "left of center," Shaffer is a complex …

Toward A History Of The Legalization Of American Legal Ethics -- Ii The Modern Era, Charles W. Wolfram

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Professional Discipline For Law Firms? A Response To Professor Schneyer’S Proposal, Julie R. O'Sullivan

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Model Rule of Professional Conduct 5.1(a) requires individual partners to make "reasonable efforts" to ensure that their firm has measures in effect that give "reasonable assurance" that all lawyers in the firm conform to ethical rules. Similarly, Model Rule 5.3(a) imposes upon individual partners the obligation of making "reasonable efforts" to ensure that the firm has measures in place giving "reasonable assurance" that the conduct of non-lawyers affiliated with the firm is compatible with the partner's professional obligations. These rules were adopted to encourage firms to create firm cultures and institute prophylactic policies and procedures--an "ethical infrastructure"--that would prevent misconduct …

When Lawyers And Law Firms Invest In Their Corporate Clients’ Stock, Donald C. Langevoort

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

I will state my conclusion at the outset. I am not convinced that lawyers' investments in clients in lieu of fees are problematic enough from a conflicts standpoint that the rules of professional responsibility should treat them as presumptively inconsistent with the lawyer's fiduciary responsibility. Lawyers' investments in their clients do raise interesting and unsettling issues, but these issues are not qualitatively different from issues raised by many other norms or practices within the legal profession that also threaten lawyerly objectivity. Indeed, in contrast to some other practices, these fee arrangements can, in some respects, enhance objectivity, or at least …

Can Saints Negotiate? A Brief Introduction To The Problems Of Perfect Ethics In Bargaining, Scott R. Peppet

Publications

No abstract provided.