Legal Profession Commons^™

Japan's New Patent Attorney Law Breaches Barrier Between The "Legal" And "Quasi-Legal" Professions: Integrity Of Japanese Patent Practice At Risk?, Lee Rousso

Washington International Law Journal

In order to increase the quantity of intellectual property related legal services made available to the public, the Japanese Diet enacted a complete revision of Japan's eighty-year-old Patent Attorney Law. Under the terms of the new law, which became effective on January 6, 2001, benrishi (patent attorneys) have authority to greatly expand their range of professional activities. The newly recognized activities encroach upon the statutory monopoly long enjoyed by Japan's bengoshi (attorneys). Furthermore, the new legislation gives the benrishi a professional domain that is inconsistent with the profession's credential requirements. This Comment argues that the revision is likely to have …

Lawyer Communications On The Internet: Beginning The Millennium With Disparate Standards, Louise L. Hill

Washington Law Review

Lawyer communications on the Internet constituting commercial speech are subject to state ethics rules governing lawyer advertising and communication. Because each state operates as a separate entity with its own rules that govern the lawyers of its jurisdiction, the profession is faced with disparate standards on a jurisdictional basis. Of the forty-three states that have adopted the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, four-fifths have standards on lawyer communications that vary from those in the Model Rules. Not only is there variation in the rules themselves, but differences exist in the specific applicability and interpretation of these rules to components of …

Why Lawyers Have Often Worn Strange Clothes, Claimed To Work For Free--And Been Hated, Hugh D. Spitzer

Articles

Why have lawyers and judges always adorned themselves in ancient regalia? Obviously, they must symbolically transform themselves from private individuals into "law speakers" for the community. They become tools of a longstanding legal system, and special clothes offer clues to others (and reminders to themselves) that they have special responsibilities, both to their clients and to the community at large. The "retro" clothes that lawyers and judges wear also remind everyone that law is old that it isn't meant to change rapidly, and that it offers stability and predictability in a changing world.

Interest Or Principles?: The Legal Challenge To Iolta In Washington State, Jay Carlson

Washington Law Review

Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts (IOLTA) programs exist in all fifty states and raise significant funding for legal services for the poor. A recent series of federal court lawsuits seeks to eliminate IOLTA programs on the grounds that they violate the Fifth and First Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Washington Legal Foundation v. Legal Foundation of Washington, currently on appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, is one such lawsuit challenging Washington State's IOLTA program. In Phillips v. Washington Legal Foundation, a similar case from Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that funds raised …

Coming Of Age: Recognizing The Importance Of Interdisciplinary Education In Law Practice, Janet Weinstein

Washington Law Review

This Article proposes that lawyers need to be creative problem solvers if they are truly to serve the needs of their clients. The ability to collaborate with professionals from other disciplines is an important aspect of creative problem solving. The Article examines the skills required for creative problem solving and law students' and attorneys' facility with these skills.The Article further discusses the barriers to providing interdisciplinary training in law schools and suggests ways to incorporate such training.

A Proposed Conflict Of Interest Rule For Attorney-Mediators, Michelle D. Gaines

Washington Law Review

Maintaining the success and fairness of mediation requires mediators to be impartial toward all parties and to protect the confidentiality of mediation sessions. Attorney-mediators encounter conflicts of interest, based on prior or subsequent representation of clients, that can disrupt impartiality or confidentiality. When attorneys practice mediation, it is unclear where they should look for guidance: attorney rules of professional conduct, mediator ethical standards, or both. Additionally, attorney-mediators encounter unique issues that ethical guidelines designed for attorneys or mediators do not address adequately. This Comment proposes a comprehensive conflict of interest rule for inclusion in the Rules of Professional Conduct that …

Exclusivity And The Japanese Bar: Ethics Or Self-Interest?, David Hood

Washington International Law Journal

The Japanese bar maintains that ethical considerations mandate a low admission rate. However, the bar's limit on the number of lawyers in Japan has socioeconomic effects that extend beyond the legal profession. Also, because there are too few Japanese lawyers, "quasi-lawyer" legal substitutes have emerged to satisfy pent-up demand for legal services. This comment suggests that the Japanese bar should expand its membership in order to address the shortage of legal services in Japan. An expanded bar could also address many of Japan's hidden socioeconomic ills.

Attorney-Client Privilege Versus The Pto's Duty Of Candor: Resolving The Clash In Simultaneous Patent Representations, Todd M. Becker

Washington Law Review

Patent attorneys play dual roles: they are simultaneously attorneys and patent practitioners. Their dual role causes problems when the rules that govern one role conflict with the rules that govern the other. One such problem is illustrated in Molins PLC v. Textron, Inc., where a patent attorney simultaneously representing two clients was caught between the Patent & Trademark Office's duty of candor and the attorney's duty of confidentiality imposed by the rules of professional responsibility. The Molins decision presents a problem because it creates uncertainty about whether confidentiality can be maintained by using the attorney-client privilege to defeat the …

Taxing Contingency Fee Attorneys As Investors: Recognizing The Modern Reality, Robert M. Amkraut

Washington Law Review

In the 1995 case of Boccardo v. Commissioner, the Ninth Circuit changed the tax treatment of advances made by attorneys working on contingency fee arrangements. The court held that, in a specific type of contingency fee arrangement, costs paid by an attorney are deductible as ordinary and necessary business expenses. This decision not only challenges assumptions underlying decades of case law and centuries of legal ethical tradition, but it also undermines the tax accounting principle of matching expenses with related income. This Note summarizes the traditional rationales for prohibiting attorneys from deducting such costs and analyzes the Boccardo decision. …

Attorney Malpractice Liability To Non-Clients In Washington: Is The New Modified Multi-Factor Balancing Test An Improvement?, Sheryl L.R. Miller

Washington Law Review

Most jurisdictions recognize a cause of action for legal malpractice against a non-client only where the attorney-client relationship is formed to benefit a third-party nonclient. This rule generally operates to preclude an attorney's potential liability to a client's adversary. Washington departed from the majority in 1992 in Bohn v. Cody, where the Washington Supreme Court found that an attorney did owe a duty to his client's adversary. Two years later, in Trask v. Butler, the supreme court modified Bohn's test for determining attorney malpractice liability to third parties to conform Washington's law with the majority of jurisdictions. …

Managing Your Library: With Or Without A Librarian, Peggy Roebuck Jarrett

Librarians' Chapters in Books

• Managing Your Library: With or Without a Librarian
• Hiring a Librarian
• Managing Your Library: A Selected Bibliography
• Selection of Materials
• Library Support Services in King County
• Document Delivery Services
• Legal Publishers and Distributors: A Selected List
• Publishers of Washington Legal Periodicals

Speaking Truth To Power: The Jurisprudence Of Julia Cooper Mack, Walter J. Walsh

Articles

In 1975, upon her appointment to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, Julia Cooper Mack broke the double barrier of race and gender by becoming the first woman of color ever appointed to any American court of last resort. Over the last two decades, Judge Mack has authored hundreds of opinions articulating a powerful critical jurisprudence previously unheard on the highest level of our judiciary. In the pages that follow, several scholars join the Editors of the Howard Law Journal in suggesting that Judge Mack's life and work warrant careful scrutiny. This symposium explores the roots, development, and substance …

Four Views Of Japanese Attorneys, Daniel H. Foote

Articles

The four articles translated below appeared in a special collection entitled: Bengoshi--san Monosatari-or, A Tale of Lawyers. This collection was No. 198 in the Bessatsu Takarajma series, a series that contains such other tides as: How to Develop Brain Power (Noryoku toreningu no gijutsu, No. 41), The Court Game (Salban gemu, No. 169), and The Dark Side of Real Estate (Fudosan no ura, No. 177). As these titles ·reflect, publications in the series are aimed at the mass market. not the world of academics. A further caveat is thatr as with the majority …

Enforcing Lawyers' Covenants Not To Compete, Glenn S. Draper

Washington Law Review

Courts uphold most post-employment covenants not to compete if they meet a three part reasonableness test that balances the interests of the employer, the employee, and the public. Lawyers' covenants not to compete, however, are treated differently. Courts hold lawyers' agreements that prohibit competition with their former firms per se invalid, in order to preserve clients' unrestricted freedom to choose their attorneys. Courts have split on whether to apply the per se rule to invalidate lawyers' agreements that discourage rather than prohibit post-employment competition. The California Supreme Court's recent decision in Howard v. Babcock, applying the familiar reasonableness test to …

In-House Counsel's Wrongful Discharge Action Under The Public Policy Exception And Retaliatory Discharge Doctrine, Raymis H.C. Kim

Washington Law Review

Most courts hold that in-house counsel have no cause of action under public policy or retaliatory discharge exceptions to the at-will employment rule. This is true even when they are discharged in contravention of a clearly mandated public policy. These courts have rationalized that such recognition would be contrary to the at-will nature of attorney-client employment and would have an adverse effect on the attorney-client relationship. This Comment proposes that courts should extend the public policy exception and retaliatory discharge doctrine to in-house counsel to protect the public from illegal corporate acts and provide relief to in-house counsel.

Leaving Your Speech Rights At The Bar—Gentile V. State Bar, 111 S. Ct. 2720 (1991), Lester Porter Jr.

Washington Law Review

In Gentile v. State Bar the Supreme Court voided an attorney disciplinary rule regulating trial publicity for vagueness. The Court, however, upheld the substantive standard employed by the rule to identify dangerous speech. This standard restricts more attorney comments to the media than the Court has allowed for the press or public. This Note argues that the standard upheld in Gentile fails First Amendment scrutiny and proposes a response for states reviewing their professional disciplinary rules in light of Gentile. Adoption of this proposal will mitigate the danger of prejudicial trial publicity while recognizing the benefits of attorney publicity.

Defense Counsel As Prosecution Witness: A Combined Doctrine To Govern Attorney Disclosure, David B. Merchant

Washington Law Review

Prosecutors have increasingly used grand juries to compel defense attorneys to disclose client administrative data such as clients' names, fee amounts, or third-party fee payments. A majority of the federal circuit courts protect administrative information only if disclosure would reveal the substance of previous attorney-client conversations. In contrast, a minority of the circuits protect such information when disclosure would incriminate a client in the case at bar. This Comment argues that neither of the current doctrines accomplishes the goals of the attorney-client privilege. Instead, a doctrine that combines the majority and minority views would more effectively promote the policies underlying …

Nonlawyers In The Business Of Law: Does The One Who Has The Gold Really Make The Rules?, Thomas R. Andrews

Articles

For at least sixty years nonlawyers have been prohibited from offering their nonlegal talents in a business combination with lawyers practicing law. Moreover, when the ABA's new model rules were adopted in 1983, the ABA considered carefully but rejected a proposal that would have lifted the traditional ban on nonlawyer ownership of a law business. Nonetheless, the point of each article was that the relevant restrictions in the ethical rules are on their way out.

Commentators have given considerable attention to the unauthorized practice of law by nonlawyers, and to the offering of legal services by nonprofit institutions. The focus …

Attorney's Fee Contingency Enhancements: Toward A Complete Incentive To Litigate Under Federal Fee-Shifting Statutes—Pennsylvania V. Delaware Valley Citizens' Council For Clean Air, 107 S. Ct. 3078 (1987), Arthur J. Lachman

Washington Law Review

Federal fee-shifting statutes generally allow trial courts to award "reasonable" attorney's fees to prevailing parties in order to promote private enforcement of Congressional statutory directives. The starting point for the computation of fee awards under the fee-shifting statutes is the "lodestar" amount. The "lodestar" amount is defined as the reasonable number of hours spent by the attorney on the case multiplied by a reasonable hourly rate. Trial courts, in their discretion, have then enhanced the lodestar amount based on a variety of factors, including the quality of representation, delay in receiving payment, and contingency. Contingency is defined as the risk …

Attorney's Fee Contingency Enhancements: Toward A Complete Incentive To Litigate Under Federal Fee-Shifting Statutes—Pennsylvania V. Delaware Valley Citizens' Council For Clean Air, 107 S. Ct. 3078 (1987), Arthur J. Lachman

Washington Law Review

Federal fee-shifting statutes generally allow trial courts to award "reasonable" attorney's fees to prevailing parties in order to promote private enforcement of Congressional statutory directives. The starting point for the computation of fee awards under the fee-shifting statutes is the "lodestar" amount. The "lodestar" amount is defined as the reasonable number of hours spent by the attorney on the case multiplied by a reasonable hourly rate. Trial courts, in their discretion, have then enhanced the lodestar amount based on a variety of factors, including the quality of representation, delay in receiving payment, and contingency. Contingency is defined as the risk …

The Award Of Attorney's Fees To Prevailing Defendants Under The Washington Long Arm Statute, Valner L. Johnson

Washington Law Review

Numerous state and federal statutes award winning litigants attorney's fees from losing litigants. The Washington long arm statute, section 4.28.185(5) of the Revised Code of Washington, allows prevailing nonresident defendants to recover their attorney's fees from losing resident plaintiffs. The statute provides that when defendants are personally served outside the state on causes of action enumerated in the statute, the court may require a plaintiff to pay the defendant's reasonable attorney's fees. This Comment argues that the judicial implementation of this provision inappropriately inflicts injury upon Washington plaintiffs while often failing to protect nonresident defendants.

The Award Of Attorney's Fees To Prevailing Defendants Under The Washington Long Arm Statute, Valner L. Johnson

Washington Law Review

Numerous state and federal statutes award winning litigants attorney's fees from losing litigants. The Washington long arm statute, section 4.28.185(5) of the Revised Code of Washington, allows prevailing nonresident defendants to recover their attorney's fees from losing resident plaintiffs. The statute provides that when defendants are personally served outside the state on causes of action enumerated in the statute, the court may require a plaintiff to pay the defendant's reasonable attorney's fees. This Comment argues that the judicial implementation of this provision inappropriately inflicts injury upon Washington plaintiffs while often failing to protect nonresident defendants.

Federal Courts And Attorney Disqualification Motions: A Realistic Approach To Conflicts Of Interest, Linda Ann Winslow

Washington Law Review

The motion to disqualify an adversary's attorney has become the newest weapon in a litigator's motion arsenal. Disqualification motions alleging conflicts of interest can result in a great advantage to the movant by denying the opposition their choice of counsel, or by delaying the proceedings for several weeks or months. The attractiveness of the attorney disqualification motion as a strategic weapon is enhanced by the failure of the courts to impose sanctions against attorneys who bring frivolous disqualification motions. This Comment examines the treatment in federal courts of motions made to disqualify an adversary attorney and the relevant rules of …

The Supreme Court's Interpretation Of Section 1988 And Awards Of Attorney's Fees For Work Performed In Administrative Proceedings: A Proposal For A Result-Oriented Approach—North Carolina Department Of Transportation V. Crest Street Community Council, Inc., 107 S. Ct. 336 (1986), Richard Gans

Washington Law Review

In 1976, Congress enacted the Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Awards Act, amending 42 U.S.C. § 1988. Section 1988 authorizes courts to award attorney's fees to claimants who prevail in actions or proceedings to enforce civil rights under any of the laws enumerated in the Section. In North Carolina Department of Transportation v. Crest Street Community Council, Inc., the United States Supreme Court for the first time addressed the issue of whether a party may seek attorney's fees in a court action apart from the action or proceeding in which the party seeks to enforce civil rights. Justice O'Connor, writing for …

Rico And The Forfeiture Of Attorneys' Fees: Removing The Adversary From The Adversarial System?, Tim Tracy

Washington Law Review

Analysis of the courts' application of RICO's amended forfeiture provisions to attorneys' fees entails consideration of the language of the statute, congressional intent, and the requirements of the fifth and sixth amendments. That analysis leads to a conclusion that neither legislative history nor statutory language requires the inclusion or exclusion of attorneys' fees from RICO forfeiture. Likewise, the right to counsel provided by the sixth amendment, upon which some courts have relied, does not adequately resolve the issue. Instead, fifth amendment due process analysis provides the requisite constitutional framework to resolve the fee forfeiture issue. Fifth amendment considerations compel recognition …

Washington Lawyers Under The Purview Of The State Consumer Protection Act—The "Entrepreneurial Aspects" Solution—Short V. Demopolis, 103 Wn. 2d 52, 691 P.2d 163 (1984), Jeffrey M. Koontz

Washington Law Review

In Short v. Demopolis the Washington Supreme Court held that certain "entrepreneurial aspects" of the practice of law constitute "trade or commerce" for purposes of RCW 19.86, Washington's consumer protection and antitrust law. This holding brings members of the legal community under antitrust and consumer protection scrutiny as embodied in the Consumer Protection Act (CPA). The Demopolis decision, however, only applies to the "entrepreneurial aspects" of the practice of law. Although many courts and commentators have struggled with the question of whether professionals should be given preferential treatment, the Washington court is the first to specifically exclude legal malpractice from …

Washington Lawyers Under The Purview Of The State Consumer Protection Act—The "Entrepreneurial Aspects" Solution—Short V. Demopolis, 103 Wn. 2d 52, 691 P.2d 163 (1984), Jeffrey M. Koontz

Washington Law Review

In Short v. Demopolis the Washington Supreme Court held that certain "entrepreneurial aspects" of the practice of law constitute "trade or commerce" for purposes of RCW 19.86, Washington's consumer protection and antitrust law. This holding brings members of the legal community under antitrust and consumer protection scrutiny as embodied in the Consumer Protection Act (CPA). The Demopolis decision, however, only applies to the "entrepreneurial aspects" of the practice of law. Although many courts and commentators have struggled with the question of whether professionals should be given preferential treatment, the Washington court is the first to specifically exclude legal malpractice from …

Practice Of Law: Real Estate Brokers Authorized To Complete Transaction Forms—Cultum V. Heritage House Realtors, Inc., 103 Wn. 2d 623, 694 P.2d 630 (1985), Mark Reeve

Washington Law Review

In Cultum v. Heritage House Realtors, Inc., the Washington Supreme Court carved out a limited exception to the statutory prohibition against the unauthorized practice of law. This new exception represents a proper balancing of the interests of real estate brokers, lawyers and the public. However, flaws in the majority's reasoning may lead to confusion in the future application of the ruling unless greater attention is paid to the underlying rationale of the decision and the arguments made by the concurrence.

Implementing The Incentive Purpose Of The Private Attorney General Exception—Miotke V. City Of Spokane, 101 Wn. 2d 307, 678 P.2d 803 (1984), Jim Oesterle

Washington Law Review

This Note proposes both selective criteria and a procedure designed to implement the unique purpose of the private attorney general exception. The Note first describes the development of the private attorney general exception in both federal and state courts, and then traces the development of equitable exceptions in Washington. The analysis begins by identifying and comparing the purposes of the private attorney general, common fund, and substantial benefit exceptions, and critiques the ability of the Miotke standard to implement the purpose of the private attorney general exception. The analysis then proposes more discriminating criteria and a procedural approach that effectively …

Unauthorized Practice Of Law—Limited Practice Of Law For Real Estate Closing Officers?—Hagan & Van Kamp, P.S. V. Kassler Escrow, Inc., 96 Wn. 2d 443, 635 P.2d 730 (1981), Jayanne A. Hino

Washington Law Review

In 1979, the Washington legislature enacted RCW chapter 19.62, which authorized certain laypersons to prepare documents and instruments relating to real estate transactions. The statute was passed in response to the Washington Supreme Court's decision in Washington State Bar Association v. Great Western Union Federal Savings and Loan Association. In Great Western, the court held that laypersons who received compensation for the preparation of legal documents were engaged in the unauthorized practice of law. The legislature's response, authorizing the activities prohibited in Great Western, raised questions regarding the scope of legislative and judicial power to define and regulate the practice …