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Full-Text Articles in Legal Profession

Racial Trauma In Civil Rights Representation, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Anthony V. Alfieri Jun 2022

Racial Trauma In Civil Rights Representation, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Anthony V. Alfieri

Michigan Law Review

Narratives of trauma told by clients and communities of color have inspired an increasing number of civil rights and antiracist lawyers and academics to call for more trauma-informed training for law students and lawyers. These advocates have argued not only for greater trauma-sensitive practices and trauma-centered interventions on behalf of adversely impacted individuals and groups but also for greater awareness of the risks of secondary or vicarious trauma for lawyers who represent traumatized clients and communities. In this Article, we join this chorus of attorneys and academics. Harnessing the recent civil rights case of P.P. v. Compton Unified School District …


On Sexual Harassment In The Judiciary, Leah Litman, Deeva Shah Oct 2020

On Sexual Harassment In The Judiciary, Leah Litman, Deeva Shah

Articles

This Essay examines the legal profession’s role in sexual harassment, particularly in the federal courts. It argues that individuals in the profession have both an individual and collective responsibility for the professional norms that have allowed harassment to happen with little recourse for the people subject to the harassment. It suggests that the legal profession should engage in a sustained, public reflection about how our words, actions, attitudes, and institutional arrangements allow harassment to happen, and about the many different ways that we can prevent and address harassment.


It’S A Sin To Kill A Mockingbird: The Need For Idealism In The Legal Profession, Jonathan A. Rapping Apr 2016

It’S A Sin To Kill A Mockingbird: The Need For Idealism In The Legal Profession, Jonathan A. Rapping

Michigan Law Review

“[T]he first thing I lost in law school was the reason that I came.” This prescient quote by an unnamed law student defines, in a single sentence, our growing problem in training lawyers. From the moment he or she steps foot in a law school classroom, the future lawyer feels a strong pull to pursue a career that has nothing to do with justice. The law school experience will discourage the future lawyer from pursuing a career advocating for those in society who most need a voice. Once graduated, the young lawyer will enter a world where he or she …


Tribute To John Pickering, Elaine R. Jones Nov 2005

Tribute To John Pickering, Elaine R. Jones

Michigan Law Review

This talented, persuasive, committed lawyer-leader, John Pickering, had several abiding personal and professional interests, two of which enhanced my life directly, and most of which enhanced my life indirectly. The first was the great personal interest he took in lawyers younger than himself, and the second was his passion about civil rights and combating the effects of racial discrimination.


Retrying Race, Anthony V. Alfieri Mar 2003

Retrying Race, Anthony V. Alfieri

Michigan Law Review

This Essay investigates the renewed prosecution of long-dormant criminal and civil rights cases of white-on-black racial violence arising out of the 1950s and 1960s. The study is part of an ongoing project on race, lawyers, and ethics within the criminal-justice system. Framed by this larger project, the Essay explores the normative and sociolegal meaning of that resurgent prosecution. My hope in pursuing this inquiry is to better understand, and perhaps begin to refashion, the prosecutor's redemptive role in cases of racial violence. Both descriptive and prescriptive in nature, the inquiry addresses race in relation to law and community. Grappling with …


Resolving The Title Vii Partner-Employee Debate, Kristin Nicole Johnson Feb 2003

Resolving The Title Vii Partner-Employee Debate, Kristin Nicole Johnson

Michigan Law Review

In January of 2001, a New York court issued an order affirming a plaintiff's ability to bring suit against a law firm partnership for discriminatory acts that occurred during her tenure as an associate at the firm. The plaintiff, Stacy Ballen-Stier, joined Hahn & Hessen, L.L.P. as an associate and, on January 1, 1997, the firm invited her to join the partnership. According to Ms. Ballen-Stier's complaint, the words and actions of a fellow partner, Mr. Blejwas, created a hostile and abusive work environment and continued to plague her "even when [she] was away from the office." Ms. Ballen-Stier alleged …


No Black Names On The Letterhead? Efficient Discrimination And The South African Legal Profession, Lisa R. Pruitt Jan 2002

No Black Names On The Letterhead? Efficient Discrimination And The South African Legal Profession, Lisa R. Pruitt

Michigan Journal of International Law

Although there have long been black lawyers in South Africa, during apartheid only a handful joined the ranks of the country's large commercial firms. Now, in the post-apartheid period, these firms are keenly aware of a range of economic and political incentives to hire black attorneys, and most are doing so at a record pace. Very few black attorneys, however, are enduring the path to partnership in these firms. Based on more than seventy-five interviews conducted in South Africa in 1999 and 2000, this Article both documents and critically examines the reasons for black attrition. While firms' incentives to integrate …


The Underrepresentation Of Minorities In The Legal Profession: A Critical Race Theorist's Perspective, Alex M. Johnson Jr. Feb 1997

The Underrepresentation Of Minorities In The Legal Profession: A Critical Race Theorist's Perspective, Alex M. Johnson Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Over the last four years, I have taught a course in Critical Race Theory at the University of Virginia School of Law three times. Although each course is different, given the interplay between the teacher and the students and the integration of new developments into the course, there has been one constant subject that the students and I address: Of what import is the development of Critical Race Theory for the legal profession and larger society? Can Critical Race Theory have a positive or any effect for those outside legal academia? This article represents an attempt to explore that question …


The Breath Of The Unfee'd Lawyer: Statutory Fee Limitations And Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel In Capital Litigation, Albert L. Vreeland Ii Dec 1991

The Breath Of The Unfee'd Lawyer: Statutory Fee Limitations And Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel In Capital Litigation, Albert L. Vreeland Ii

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that fee limitations deprive indigent defendants of their right to effective assistance of counsel. Part I of this Note reviews state court decisions that address Sixth Amendment challenges to fee limitations, yet fail to address the broader concerns about the appointed counsel system. Part II considers the inherent disincentives and burdens fee limitations impose on attorneys and suggests that the limits threaten the indigent accused's right to effective assistance of counsel. A comparison of the fee limitations and the time required to prepare and try a capital case reveals the gross inadequacy of statutory fee provisions. In …


Women Lawyers And The Quest For Professional Identity In Late Nineteenth-Century America, Virginia G. Drachman Aug 1990

Women Lawyers And The Quest For Professional Identity In Late Nineteenth-Century America, Virginia G. Drachman

Michigan Law Review

Whenever Lelia Robinson, a nineteenth-century woman lawyer, prepared to take a case to court, she faced a particular problem what to do about her hat. "Shall the woman attorney wear her hat when arguing a case or making a motion in court," she asked in 1888, "or shall she remove it?" Robinson's question was not a frivolous matter of fashion, but a serious concern to every woman lawyer who entered the courtroom. As a proper lady of her day, it was not only appropriate that she wear a hat in public, it was expected of her. But as a lawyer, …


Applicability Of Federal Antidiscrimination Legislation To The Selection Of A Law Partner, Michigan Law Review Dec 1977

Applicability Of Federal Antidiscrimination Legislation To The Selection Of A Law Partner, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The decision by the members of a law partnership to invite an associate of the firm to become a partner involves careful consideration of the associate's qualifications. Recently some associates who have been denied advancement to partnership have alleged improper consideration of religion, national origin, or sex in the partner selection process. There are, of course, practical difficulties in proving discrimination in the subjective context of partnership selection. Assuming clear evidence of such discrimination, this Note addresses the question whether an associate may invoke the protection of federal antidiscrimination legislation.


Self Defense For Women Lawyers: Enforcement Of Employment Rights, Giovanna M. Longo Jan 1971

Self Defense For Women Lawyers: Enforcement Of Employment Rights, Giovanna M. Longo

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Employment and a concomitant opportunity to compete on the basis of individual merit for the rewards of achievement, whether they be money, power, prestige, personal satisfaction in a job well done, or the fulfillment of broad social aims, contribute to the assertion of legitimate human needs for independence and self-respect, and contribute to the expression and realization of individual potential. Women professionals and professional employers need to understand the applicable law regarding the proof of sex discrimination, what exceptions there are to prohibited sex discrimination, the procedures for enforcing that law and the benefits or detriments to be expected from …


Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review Jan 1907

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Attorney and Client--Unnecessary Services--Compensation; Bankruptcy--Title to Bankrupt's Property; Banks and Banking--Checks--Appropriation of Deposit--Garnishment; Chattel Mortgages--Retention of Possession and Power of Sale by Mortgagor--Fraud; Civil Rights--Power of Congress to Protect Against Individual Interference; Common Carriers--Limitation of Liability--Agreed Valuation; Constitutional Law--Delegation of Legislative Power--Regulations of Executive Departments; Constitutional Law--Regulation of Child Labor; Contracts--Mutuality--Consideration; Contracts--Restraint of Trade; Corporations--Misuse of Funds--Right of Stockholder to Sue; Corporations--Preferred Stock--Priorities--Cumulative Dividends; Covenants--Knowledge by the Grantee of Incumbrance; Criminal Law--conviction of Lesser Offense as Acquittal of Graver Offense--Former Jeopardy--Remanding Cause for Sentence; Damages--Mental Anguish--Undelivered Telegram; Deeds--Exceptions--Reservations--Abandonment of Right of Way--Reversion--Effect; Eminent Domain--Cemeteries; Evidence--Privileged Communications--Attorney and Client; Evidence--Res Gestae--Spontaneous …