Legal Profession Commons^™

Money Didn’T Buy Happiness, Lawrence J. Fox

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

No abstract provided.

Changing The Modal Law School: Rethinking U.S. Legal Education In (Most) Schools, Nancy B. Rapoport

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

This essay argues that discussions of educational reform in U.S. law schools have suffered from a fundamental misconception: that the education provided in all of the American Bar Association-accredited schools is roughly the same. A better description of the educational opportunities provided by ABA-accredited law schools would group the schools into three rough clusters: the “elite” law schools, the modal (most frequently occurring) law schools, and the precarious law schools. Because the elite law schools do not need much “reforming,” the better focus of reform would concentrate on the modal and precarious schools; however, both elite and modal law schools …

Introduction To Section Iv: Reflections About Legal Education, Laurel Terry

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

No abstract provided.

Law Firm Economics And Professionalism, Ward Bower

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Both Dean Kronman in The Lost Lawyer and Professor Glendon in A Nation Under Lawyers attribute some of the problems and challenges facing lawyers today to economic pressures and to a preoccupation with profits and fees. For Kronman, this economic focus interferes with the “moral detachment” necessary for achievement of the “lawyer-statesman” ideal. For Glendon, professional dilemmas caused by the deterioration of the legal economy, competition in the marketplace, lawyer-shopping by clients, early specialization, lack of mentoring and emphasis on the billable hour have created an unhappy generation of ethically challenged practitioners.

Both authors accurately assess the state of the …

Rock, Paper Scissors…Loot!, Michael A. Mogill

Faculty Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Hitting The Mark? Aall Legal Research Competencies: From Classroom To Practice, Gail A. Partin, Sally H. Wise

Faculty Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Transnational Legal Practice [In 2015], Laurel Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

This 2015 Year-in-Review article continues the tradition of collecting and publicizing the developments that occurred during the year related to transnational legal practice (TLP). This year’s article builds on the work set forth in the 2014 Year-in-Review.

The 2014 TLP Year-in-Review provided a departure from the Year-in-Review’s typical method of presentation by identifying two categories of what that article called “TLP-Nets.” One group of TLP-Nets is nationally based and the other is inherently transnational. The 2014 article identified examples of TLP-Nets and highlighted the meeting points and relationships that facilitate border-crossing for the variety of actors involved in TLP policy-making …

When It Comes To Lawyers, Is An Ounce Of Prevention Worth A Pound Of Cure, Laurel Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

This 3-page blog post addresses the topic of proactive lawyer regulation, which is also known as proactive management-based regulation or PMBR. This blog post reviews Professor Susan Fortney's article entitled "Promoting Public Protection through an “Attorney Integrity” System: Lessons from the Australian Experience with Proactive Regulation System," and summarizes some of the impressive data that Professor Fortney collected in Australia, including her finding that sixty-two percent of the respondents reported that they agreed or strongly agreed with the following statement: the self-assessment process ‘was a learning exercise that enabled our firm to improve client service.’” The article also reports that …

The Power Of Lawyer Regulators To Increase Client & Public Protection Through Adoption Of A Proactive Regulation System, Laurel S. Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

This Article focuses on those who regulate U.S. laywers. The Article argues that the lawyers who head regulatory bodies in the United States have the ability to adjust the focus of the regulator for which they work in a way that will increase client and public protection. The Article further argues that it is appropriate for lawyers in these positions to exercise this power and that they should do so. The Article concludes by offering two concrete recommendations.

The first recommendation is that those who are in charge should, upon reflection, adopt a mindset in which they recognize that the …

The Power Of Lawyer Regulators To Increase Client & Public Protection Through Adoption Of A Proactive Regulation System, Laurel Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

The idea behind this Article is Ben Franklin's statement that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." This Article builds on the author's prior articles that argue that one can think about lawyer regulation issues as involving who-what-when-where-why-and-how to regulate issues. This Article addresses the issue of "WHEN" regulation should occur. It argues that regulators should be trying to PREVENT problems, as well as responding AFTER problems occur. This Article is primarily directed toward those who regulate U.S. lawyers. The Article argues that the lawyers who head regulatory bodies in the United States have the ability to …

Igniting The Conversation: Embracing Legal Literacy As The Heart Of The Profession, Laura J. Ax-Fultz

Faculty Scholarly Works

Law librarians are experts in instruction, databases, scholarship, and more. This broad expertise has exacerbated an identity crisis in the profession. The author argues that law librarians must develop a core identity, such as legal literacy, to navigate an ever-changing legal landscape that questions the future necessity of law librarians.

Creating A Legal Research Audit: Assessing Competency, Gail Partin, Sally Wise

Faculty Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Globalization And Regulation, Laurel S. Terry

Faculty Contributions to Books

This chapter is part of a 20-chapter book that features essays by subject-matter experts and advances and sharpens the dialogue within the bar about accelerating disruption of the legal services marketplace. It identifies forces that are creating pressure for regulatory change across the United States, summarizes regulatory reforms that have taken place elsewhere in the world, and highlights issues that U.S. lawyer regulators must confront soon in response to a rapidly evolving legal industry. It concludes by offering predictions about the future course of lawyer regulation in the United States. While it is impossible to know exactly which regulatory changes …

Taming The Tigers: Domestic Violence, Legal Professionalism, And Well-Being, Jill C. Engle

Faculty Scholarship

Domestic violence kills thousands of American women every year. In 2013, one of them was my client. My law school clinic represented a woman divorcing her abusive husband after twenty years of marriage. Three days after we served him with the divorce complaint, he walked into the grocery store where she worked and shot her dead. He then turned the gun on himself, and died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds. The lead student working her case listened in horror as one of our local colleagues who had heard the breaking news described it to her in a phone call to the …

Globalization And The Aba Commission On Ethics 20/20: Reflections On Missed Opportunities And The Road Not Taken, Laurel S. Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

The ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 was established in order to “perform a thorough review of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and the U.S. system of lawyer regulation in the context of advances in technology and global legal practice developments.” The thesis of this article is that the Commission was much more successful with the “technology” aspect of its work than it was with the globalization aspect of its work. This article offers an explanation for these differing levels of success and identifies an alternative path the Commission might have taken that might have led to greater success …

Why U.S. Jurisdictions Should Adopt ‘Regulatory Objectives’ For The Legal Profession The Legal Profession, Laurel Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

This link goes to the Professor Terry’s Lichtenstein lecture, which was on the topic of her recent article about regulatory objectives for the legal profession. For Professor Terry’s scholarship on this topic, see her long article here, a short article here, and the “regulatory objectives” research area section on her personal webpage. As Professor Terry noted in her lecture, t “regulatory objectives movement” can be traced to the adoption of the 2007 UK Legal Services Act. Section 1 of that Act, which was hotly debated, set forth the regulatory objectives that the Act—and its implementation—should achieve. The UK Act was …

Transnational Legal Practice (International) [In 2010-2012], Laurel S. Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

This article covers three years of Transnational Legal Practice developments outside of the US. (It is the companion piece to 47 Int'l Law. 499 (2013) which discusses US developments.) This article discusses the approval of an Alternative Business Structure licensing system by the UK Solicitors Regulation Authority and its subsequent issuance of ABS licenses. The second section reviews the emergence of the “Troika” as a new regulatory influence in Europe, citing as an example the joint ABA-CCBE letter to the IMF. (The Troika refers to the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank, and the European Commission.) The third section …

Transnational Legal Practice (United States) [In 2010-2012], Laurel S. Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

This article covers three years of Transnational Legal Practice developments in the U.S. (It is the companion article to 47 Int’l Lawyer 485 (2013) which discusses transnational legal practice developments outside of the U.S.) This article begins by briefly reviewing the uncertainty about the future of U.S. legal education and legal services. The next section discusses the proposals and changes that emanated from the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20, which was tasked with evaluating what changes were needed in light of globalization and technology developments. The third section of this article discusses the Uniform Bar Exam and its implications for …

Trends In Global And Canadian Lawyer Education, Laurel S. Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

Globalization and technology have changed the practice of law in dramatic ways. This is true not only in the U.S. and Canada, but around the world. Global regulatory trends have begun to emerge as lawyer regulators have had to respond to new developments. In 2012, Australian regulators Steve Mark and Tahlia Gordon and the author, who is a U.S. academic, documented some of these global trends in lawyer regulation. See Laurel S. Terry, Steve Mark, & Tahlia Gordon, Trends and Challenges in Lawyer Regulation: The Impact of Globalization and Technology, 80 Fordham L. Rev. 2661 (2012), https://works.bepress.com/laurel_terry/95/. Their article concluded …

Reflections On Us Policies Regarding Effective Regulation And Discipline And Foreign Lawyer Mobility: Has The Time Come To Talk About The Elephant In The Room, Laurel S. Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

The ABA has adopted four model policies that address, in one way or another, the issue of foreign lawyer mobility. These policies are the ABA Model Foreign Legal Consultant Rule, which is commonly known as the FLC rule, the ABA Model Rule for Temporary Practice by Foreign Lawyers, which is commonly known as the FIFO rule, ABA Model Rule of Professional Conduct 5.5, which permits foreign lawyers to serve as in-house counsel, and the ABA Model Rule on Pro Hac Vice Admission. All four of the ABA’s foreign lawyer mobility recommendations include a requirement that the mobile foreign lawyer is …

Trends And Challenges In Lawyer Regulation: The Impact Of Globalization And Technology, Laurel Terry, Steve Mark, Tahlia Gordon

Faculty Scholarly Works

Globalization and technology have changed the practice of law in dramatic ways. This is true not only in the United States, but around the world. In this article, author Laurel Terry, along with Australian regulators Steve Mark and Tahlia Gordon, documented some of these global trends in lawyer regulation. Their article concluded that regulators face issues in common regarding “who” is regulated, “what” or whom is regulated, “when” regulation occurs, “where” regulation occurs, “how” it occurs, and “why” regulation occurs.

This article uses this who-what-when-where-why-and-how framework to discuss events around the world. These developments include the 2007 UK Legal Services …

Preserving The Rule Of Law In The 21st Century: The Importance Of Infrastructure And The Need To Create A Global Lawyer Regulatory Umbrella Organization, Laurel S. Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Adopting Regulatory Objectives For The Legal Profession, Laurel Terry, Steve Mark, Tahlia Gordon

Faculty Scholarly Works

In 2007, the United Kingdom adopted a new law called the Legal Services Act. This Act radically changed certain aspects of U.K. lawyer regulation. Section 1 of that Act identified eight “regulatory objectives” that provide the basis for the regulation of the legal profession. The United Kingdom is not the only jurisdiction that has identified regulatory objectives. Most Canadian provinces, for example, have provisions that are tantamount to regulatory objectives. Australia routinely used “purpose statements” when enacting legal profession regulation and was in the process of developing regulatory objectives at the time this article was written. Despite these examples, however, …

Trends And Challenges In Lawyer Regulation: The Impact Of Globalization And Technology, Laurel Terry, Steve Mark, Tahlia Gordon

Faculty Scholarly Works

Globalization and technology have changed the practice of law in dramatic ways. This is true not only in the United States, but around the world. In this article, author Laurel Terry, along with Australian regulators Steve Mark and Tahlia Gordon, documented some of these global trends in lawyer regulation. Their article concluded that regulators face issues in common regarding “who” is regulated, “what” or whom is regulated, “when” regulation occurs, “where” regulation occurs, “how” it occurs, and “why” regulation occurs. This article uses this who-what-when-where-why-and-how framework to discuss events around the world. These developments include the 2007 UK Legal Services …

Transnational Legal Practice 2009, Laurel S. Terry, Carole Silver, Ellyn S. Rosen

Faculty Scholarly Works

This article identifies some of the most important U.S. and international developments in transnational legal practice and provides citations for further research. The article begins by briefly reviewing the impact of the recession on legal services. The second section focuses on international developments. It identifies some of the ongoing efforts to implement the 2007 U.K. Legal Services Act, including the issuance of the influential Hunt and Smedley reports. It also provides information about law reform initiatives in France, Scotland and Korea. This section of the article also provides information about Canadian and Australian developments regarding admission of foreign applicants and …

From Gats To Apec: The Impact Of Trade Agreements On Legal Services, Laurel S. Terry

Faculty Scholarship

This article provides a comprehensive overview of the treatment of legal services in the United States’ international trade agreements. Although many individuals are now familiar with the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), far fewer realize that legal services are included in at least fifteen international trade agreements to which the United States is a party. This article begins by identifying those trade agreements and other developments including the 2009 Legal Services Initiative of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). The article continues by explaining the structure of the GATS and comparing its provisions to the provisions found in …

Transnational Legal Practice [In 2006-07], Laurel Terry, Carole Silver, Ellyn Rosen, Carol A. Needham, Robert E. Lutz, Peter D. Ehrenhaft

Faculty Scholarly Works

This article reviews developments in transnational legal practice during 2006 and 2007, including international developments, U.S. developments and regional developments in Australia and Europe. The primary focus of the international developments section is the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). This article discusses GATS Track 1 Activities related to legal services, including the Legal Services Collective Requests and issues related to GATS Track 2 and the potential development of GATS disciplines. This section also surveys GATS-related initiatives of the American Bar Association and the International Bar Association and U.S. implementation of foreign lawyer multi-jurisdictional practice rules. In other …

The Future Regulation Of The Legal Profession: The Impact Of Treating The Legal Profession As Service Providers, Laurel Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

In the past fifty years, one has heard debates about whether law is a business, a profession, or both, what these terms mean and whether it matters. Regardless of what one thinks about these debates, there is a new paradigm that must be added to the mix, which is the paradigm of lawyers as "service providers." In the "service providers" paradigm, the legal profession is not viewed as a separate, unique profession entitled to its own individual regulations, but is included in a broader group of "service providers," all of whom can be regulated together. This new paradigm represents a …

A How To Guide For Incorporating Global And Comparative Perspectives Into The Required Professional Responsibility Course, Laurel S. Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

This article was written for an AALS symposium on "Teaching Legal Ethics" and discusses how to incorporate global and comparative perspectives into the required Professional Responsibility course. The scope of the paper is much broader, however. The first half of the paper explains why global and comparative perspectives are relevant to contemporary law practice. This section explains why global perspectives are relevants to clients and lawyers and explains why lawyer regulators now use a more global approach to regulation than previously. The second half illustrates how one can introduce global and comparative perspectives into a professional responsibility course without taking …

The Bologna Process And Its Implications For U.S. Legal Education, Laurel S. Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

Virtually all European countries are in the midst of a massive multi-year project intended to dramatically restructure higher education in Europe. This project, which is known as the Bologna Process or Sorbonne-Bologna, began less than ten years ago when four European Union (EU) countries signed a relatively vague agreement. The Bologna Process has now grown to forty-six countries, including all of the EU Member States and nineteen non-EU countries. The Bologna Process participants have agreed to form the European Higher Education Area or EHEA by 2010; among other goals, the EHEA is intended to help Europe better compete in the …