Legal Profession Commons^™

Foreword, The Honorable L. A. Harris Jr.

University of Richmond Law Review

“Your writing is so bad you will not be considered for Law Review and there is some question about your admittance to Law School.”

Life is strange and ironic. In 1974 as a second year law student at the T. C. Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond, I was invited to submit an article to determine if I would be permitted to serve on the Law Review. A member of the Law Review evaluated my article and met with me. In summation he said my writing was so bad that I would not be considered for Law …

Improving Lawyers’ Health By Addressing The Impact Of Adverse Childhood Experiences, Karen Oehme, Nat Stern

University of Richmond Law Review

Although the legal profession has recognized the importance of improving attorneys’ mental health, it has largely ignored recent social and scientific research on how adverse childhood experiences (“ACEs”) can harm attorneys’ long-term well-being. This article reviews the science of ACEs and argues that law schools and the legal profession should educate law students and attorneys about the impact of prior trauma on behavioral health. Without such education, law schools and the legal system are missing a crucial opportunity to help lawyers prevent and alleviate the maladaptive coping mechanisms that are associated with ACEs. Until such knowledge is widespread, many lawyers …

Professional Responsibility, James M. Mccauley

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Professional Responsibility, James M. Mccauley

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Professional Responsibility, James M. Mccauley

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legal Advice Toward Illegal Ends, Joel S. Newman

University of Richmond Law Review

Suppose you discovered a wonderful fishing hole hidden on some public lands. Would you be obligated to tell others about it? Of course not. But, could you go out of your way to hide its existence? Of course not-especially not from your friends.

Unlocking The Chamber Doors: Limiting Confidentiality In Proceedings Before The Virginia Judicial Inquiry And Review Commission, Brian R. Pitney

University of Richmond Law Review

In a Mississippi case, a judge imposed and collected criminal fines, then willfully and fraudulently documented the case as dismissed, keeping the money for himself. In California, the Commission of Judicial Qualifications removed a judge for prodding an attorney with a "dildo," grabbing a court commissioner by his testicles in a public hallway, and habitually making offensive sexual remarks at his office. A Massachusetts judge received public censure for making derogatory and obscene references to members of the bench and bar, becoming intoxicated and urinating in public, and setting unusually high bail for African-American defendants. After a Federal Bureau of …

Procedural Solutions To The Attorney's Fee Problem In Complex Litigation, Christopher P. Lu

University of Richmond Law Review

Justice William Brennan once observed that disputes about attorneys' fees are "one of the least socially productive types of litigation imaginable." Socially productive or not, attorneys' fees are a major problem in complex litigation today because of both the time and resources needed to determine appropriate fees and the public perception that fees are excessive. While the attorneys' fee problem is not unique to complex suits, the problem is magnified because: 1) complex suits are often more protracted than ordinary suits and necessarily require more lawyers; 2) many fee shifting statutes can be triggered in complex suits; and 3) class …

The Investigation Of Good Moral Character For Admission To The Virginia Bar - Time For A Change, Kristine M. Trevino

University of Richmond Law Review

One of the most essential and critical components of a democratic society is the law profession. Lawyers are charged with the preeminent duty of assisting citizens in the maintenance of their individual rights. Because of a lawyer's "enviable position of prestige and respect," he "enjoy[s] much public confidence and trust." Therefore, society expects, and the profession demands, that only individuals possessing an adequate degree of intelligence, education, and good moral character be permitted to practice law.

Lawyer Advertising: Permissibility Of Indicating The Nature Of Legal Practice In Advertisements, Kenneth J. Alcott

University of Richmond Law Review

Canon 27 of the ABA Canons of Professional Ethics, adopted by the American Bar Association in 1908, provided that it was "unprofessional" for lawyers to advertise or solicit professional employment. This prohibition made sense in a time when most lawyers were general practitioners and communities were small, so that a lawyer's reputation was well known. However, the increasing size and complexity of both society and the law have made it necessary for lawyers to select certain areas of law in which to practices in order to develop the expertise necessary to deal with today's complex legal issues. A corresponding need …

Corporate Attorney-Client Privilege - New Emphasis On The Lawyer's Need To Know: Upjohn Co. V. United States, Michael J. Viscount Jr.

University of Richmond Law Review

In seeking the advice of legal counsel, the corporation may, out of necessity, communicate through its representatives confidential secrets about its conduct in business. As is the case with individuals, it is well settled that a corporation may avail itself of the evidentiary privilege which allows concealment of such confidential communications. This so-called attorney-client privilege is the oldest of the privileges for confidential communications known to the common law. However, its application in the corporate context has been quite unpredictable for the past twenty years.

Counsel Fees In Stockholders' Derivative And Class Actions-Hornstein Revisited, Douglas G. Cole

University of Richmond Law Review

In 1939, the first in a series of four comprehensive law review articles by Professor George D. Hornstein was published on the subject of the award of counsel fees in stockholders' derivative suits and corporate class actions. These articles highlighted equitable principles peculiar to such actions, previously not fully understood by either attorneys or the courts, which have made derivative and class actions extremely effective weapons in the battle for corporate democracy. Three very basic questions were posed and answered: 1) Who will pay for the attorneys fees and expenses incurred in such litigation? 2) What factors govern the award …

Student Practice-Limited Appearances In Court By Third Year Law Students

University of Richmond Law Review

The practice of law as it is known to our legal system has been a closely guarded institution since its development in England during the Middle Ages. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the legal profession became organized and obtained the monopoly of legal work it still enjoys today. Even before the end of the thirteenth century, it was generally recognized that although a litigant could personally appear and argue in his own behalf, the party represented by a lawyer, who was an expert in the law and its language, would have a decided advantage over his opponent.

Lawyers And The Professional Association Act, Ellsworth Wiltshire

University of Richmond Law Review

The Professional Association Act passed by the recent Gen- eral Assembly of Virginia becomes effective as Chapter 277 of the Acts of 1962 on June 29, 1962. It permits three or more individuals authorized to practice in Virginia any one of the following named professions to form an association, which will be a legal entity separate from the associates comprising it: "architecture, professional engineering, land surveying, certified public accounting, dentistry, optometry, practice of the healing arts, and veterinary medicine, surgery and law".