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We Could Pass A Law...What Might Happen If Contingent Legal Fees Were Banned, Samuel R. Gross Jan 1998

We Could Pass A Law...What Might Happen If Contingent Legal Fees Were Banned, Samuel R. Gross

Articles

This is an exercise in fantasy. My task is to imagine what would happen if we simply abolished the institution of the contingent fee by statute. I cannot justify that task on grounds of urgency. Contingent fees are not about to be abolished, and they probably.are not going to be seriously restricted. My hope is that the exercise will be amusing in itself, and that in the process we might learn something about contingent fees as we now use them.


The Role Of Clinical Programs In Legal Education, Suellyn Scarnecchia Jan 1998

The Role Of Clinical Programs In Legal Education, Suellyn Scarnecchia

Articles

In clinic, students get a glance at the lawyer they will be someday. They gain confidence that, indeed, they will be a "good" lawyer. They understand the context in which their classroom learning will be applied. In short, they are able to integrate their law school experience.


The Gift Of Language, Joseph Vining Jan 1998

The Gift Of Language, Joseph Vining

Articles

Style and substance cross-are genetically related as we now might want to say. Each draws on and is implied by the other. One point at which they cross is our sense of the nature of human language, what language is and can be, what it is not and can never be. The language of law is part of human language. Law is a distinctive form of thought, but it lives in human language. "Rule" might be thought synonymous with "law," but for all its talk of rules, the practice of law does not begin with a descriptive statement, or a …


Contingency Fees: Should Plaintiffs Lawyers In The Tobacco Settlement Receive Billions Of Dollars?, Charles Silver, Lester Brickman Sep 1997

Contingency Fees: Should Plaintiffs Lawyers In The Tobacco Settlement Receive Billions Of Dollars?, Charles Silver, Lester Brickman

Articles

The article debates the fairness of contingency fees for plaintiff lawyers in the $368.5 billion tobacco settlement, with one side arguing the fees are justified due to the high risks and successful outcome, while the other advocates for congressional intervention to set a uniform, sliding-scale fee structure.


Mediation: The Romantic Days Continue, Lela P. Love May 1997

Mediation: The Romantic Days Continue, Lela P. Love

Articles

No abstract provided.


Game Theory And Nonrefundable Retainers: A Response To Professors Croson And Mnookin, Lester Brickman, Lawrence A. Cunningham Jan 1997

Game Theory And Nonrefundable Retainers: A Response To Professors Croson And Mnookin, Lester Brickman, Lawrence A. Cunningham

Articles

In the inaugural issue of the Harvard Negotiation Law Review, Professors David Croson and Robert Mnookin attempt a game-theoretic defense of the nonrefundable retainer. A nonrefundable retainer is an attorney fee arrangement that requires a client to pay her lawyer a specified dollar amount in advance and entitles the lawyer to keep the fee even if he does no work. For nearly a decade, we have argued that nonrefundable retainers are unethical as a matter of professional responsibility and unenforceable as a matter of law. In the last few years, numerous courts have evaluated the enforceability of these agreements, choosing …


An Interdisciplinary Seminar In Child Abuse And Neglect With A Focus On Child Protection Practice, Suellyn Scarnecchia Jan 1997

An Interdisciplinary Seminar In Child Abuse And Neglect With A Focus On Child Protection Practice, Suellyn Scarnecchia

Articles

Given the myriad of professionals involved in protecting children from abuse and neglect, legal practice in the field of child protection requires an understanding of the various disciplines these professionals represent. Professor Scarnecchia argues that such an understanding is necessary in order for the attorney to serve as a zealous advocate for her client. In hopes of creating this understanding in students at the University of Michigan, an interdisciplinary seminar in child abuse and neglect has been created. Professor Scarnecchia details the substantive content of the seminar, discussing specific issues that arise in protecting children. She explains that by using …


Moral Discourse, Bioethics, And The Law, Carl E. Schneider Nov 1996

Moral Discourse, Bioethics, And The Law, Carl E. Schneider

Articles

Dan Callahan follows a distinguished tradition when he uses the phrase "moral discourse" to describe the law's work. The frequency with which that image is deployed suggests its resonance and even rightness: When we think about the way society considers moral issues and develops moral positions, it can be useful to imagine the law as one of many social institutions that contribute to a social discussion. Nevertheless, this image is misleading. At least for our (graying and balding) genera- tions, the law is regarded as a worthy participant in American moral discourse preeminently because of its part in the civil …


Aba Regulation Of Contingency Fees: Money Talks, Ethics Walks, Lester Brickman Oct 1996

Aba Regulation Of Contingency Fees: Money Talks, Ethics Walks, Lester Brickman

Articles

No abstract provided.


Ethical Commitments, Anthony V. Alfieri Jan 1996

Ethical Commitments, Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

No abstract provided.


Contingency Fee Abuses, Ethical Mandates, And The Disciplinary System: The Case Against Case-By-Case Enforcement, Lester Brickman Jan 1996

Contingency Fee Abuses, Ethical Mandates, And The Disciplinary System: The Case Against Case-By-Case Enforcement, Lester Brickman

Articles

Contingency fee abuses are attracting increased public attention. Particular interest is focused on the enormous contingency fees generated by mass tort litigation; in some cases, lawyers are collecting multi-million dollar fees essentially for performing paralegal work. In addition, the relationship between the availability of enormous contingency fees and the amassing of thousands of claims of injury in order to dramatically shift the litigation dynamic in favor of plaintiffs is becoming increasingly apparent. For example, the possibility that major ongoing massive litigations, such as those involving silicone breast implants and the as yet nascent litigation involving the contraceptive Norplant, have much …


The Rhythms Of Hope And Disappointment In The Language Of Judging (St. John's University School Of Law: Rededication Symposia), James Boyd White Jan 1996

The Rhythms Of Hope And Disappointment In The Language Of Judging (St. John's University School Of Law: Rededication Symposia), James Boyd White

Articles

I want to talk today about a certain aspect or dimension of the language of judging. From one point of view the quality I mean can be seen as a kind of idealism inherent in legal lan­guage; from another, as a kind of fundamental hypocrisy; from still another, as a simultaneously tragic and comic element in le­gal life.


Why Hard Cases Make Good (Clinical) Law, Paul D. Reingold Jan 1996

Why Hard Cases Make Good (Clinical) Law, Paul D. Reingold

Articles

In 1992, when the University of California's Hastings College of Law decided to offer a live-client clinic for the first time, its newly hired director had to make several decisions about what form the program should take.1 The first question for the director was whether the clinic should be a single-issue specialty clinic or a general clinic that would represent clients across several areas of the law. The second question, and the one that will be the focus of this essay, was whether the program should restrict its caseload to "easy" routine cases or also accept non-routine, less controllable litigation. …


Meaning In The Life Of The Lawyer, James Boyd White Jan 1996

Meaning In The Life Of The Lawyer, James Boyd White

Articles

First let me say what a pleasure it is to be here on such an occasion. Dean Kronman is an old and valued friend, and I am very glad to be able to visit your school, of which I have heard many good things. In the remarks that follow I shall respond to Dean Kronman's eloquent and elegiac account of "civility" in our culture, and in the law, not so much by marking agreement or disagreement as by offering a few loosely connected reflections on the topics he raises.


Speaking Truth To Power: The Jurisprudence Of Julia Cooper Mack, Walter J. Walsh Jan 1996

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 …


Nonrefundable Retainers: A Response To Critics Of The Absolute Ban, Lester Brickman, Lawrence A. Cunningham Oct 1995

Nonrefundable Retainers: A Response To Critics Of The Absolute Ban, Lester Brickman, Lawrence A. Cunningham

Articles

In the short span of time since the New York Court of Appeals banned nonrefundable retainers, numerous other courts have joined in prohibiting this widespread practice of lawyers charging a fee for services in advance and keeping the fee even if the services are not performed. The alacrity with which the New York rule is being embraced may reflect increased judicial recognition of the effect of egregious fee practices on the image of the bar and the role such practices play in the declining esteem in which the legal profession is held. Not only has there been a sharp decline …


Denaturalizing The Lawyer-Statesman (Book Review), Anthony V. Alfieri Jan 1995

Denaturalizing The Lawyer-Statesman (Book Review), Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

No abstract provided.


Defending Racial Violence, Anthony V. Alfieri Jan 1995

Defending Racial Violence, Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

No abstract provided.


Four Views Of Japanese Attorneys, Daniel H. Foote Jan 1995

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 …


The Challenge Of Asian Law, Whitmore Gray Jan 1995

The Challenge Of Asian Law, Whitmore Gray

Articles

Several years ago, when U.S. trade across the Pacific finally surpassed that across the Atlantic, a small group of U.S. lawyers were already responding to the challenge of representing clients in transactions in Asia. While few had had the opportunity to take courses dealing with Asian law during their law school years, many entered the field because of undergraduate language and area studies courses. A few had taught courses dealing with Asia before beginning their law studies.


Apple Of Gold: Constitutionalism In Israel And The United States, Michel Rosenfeld Oct 1994

Apple Of Gold: Constitutionalism In Israel And The United States, Michel Rosenfeld

Articles

No abstract provided.


Practicing Community (Book Review), Anthony V. Alfieri Jan 1994

Practicing Community (Book Review), Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

No abstract provided.


Authority, Credibility, And Pre-Understanding: A Defense Of Outsider Narratives In Legal Scholarship, Marc A. Fajer Jan 1994

Authority, Credibility, And Pre-Understanding: A Defense Of Outsider Narratives In Legal Scholarship, Marc A. Fajer

Articles

No abstract provided.


Responding To Gender Bias In The Courts: Progress Without Accountability, Suellyn Scarnecchia Jan 1994

Responding To Gender Bias In The Courts: Progress Without Accountability, Suellyn Scarnecchia

Articles

On December 19, 1989, we received the final report of the Michigan Supreme Court Task Force on Gender Issues (task force report). The task force made 91 recommendations, plus an additional 18 joint recommendations with the Task Force on Racial/Ethnic Issues in the Courts. The Michigan Supreme Court, the State Bar of Michigan and other individuals and organizations have made much progress in responding to the recommendations, with one glaring omission-Although jointly recommended by both task forces as "essential to the realization of the goals envisioned in the goals envisioned in the reports," the Supreme Court has failed to appoint …


Nonrefundable Retainers Revisited, Lester Brickman, Lawrence A. Cunningham Nov 1993

Nonrefundable Retainers Revisited, Lester Brickman, Lawrence A. Cunningham

Articles

Amidst widespread public attention to fee abuses, a court recently held for the first time that nonrefundable retainers violate professional ethics. The court in In re Cooperman essentially adopted the argument of Professors Brickman and Cunningham that nonrefundable retainers are against public policy because they impair a client's right to discharge his attorney at any time without penalty. Because declaring such agreements unethical is tantamount, in the eyes of the practicing bar, to declaring them void, In re Cooperman has sparked a national outcry from those who profit from enforcing nonrefundable retainers. In this Article, Professors Brickman and Cunningham analyze …


In Pursuit Of The Counter-Text: The Turn To The Jewish Legal Model In Contemporary American Legal Theory, Suzanne Last Stone Feb 1993

In Pursuit Of The Counter-Text: The Turn To The Jewish Legal Model In Contemporary American Legal Theory, Suzanne Last Stone

Articles

Beginning with Professor Robert Cover's Nomos and Narrative, contemporary American legal scholars have increasingly turned, implicitly or more directly, to the Jewish legal tradition as an example of a legal system in which law is defined not by reference to the authority and power of the State, but rather by the commitment of a legal community to voluntarily-accepted legal obligations. These scholars depict the Jewish legal system as having successfully confronted - and resolved - several central dilemmas currently facing American law by maintaining a coherent legal system while accepting behavioral and interpretive pluralism. In this Article, Professor Stone shows …


Harry Edward's Nostalgia, Paul D. Reingold Jan 1993

Harry Edward's Nostalgia, Paul D. Reingold

Articles

Until fairly recently, the work of people who thought and wrote about the law in its broadest cultural sense, and the work of those who thought and wrote about the law as it was practiced, did not intersect very much. The broad cultural issues tended to be the province of philosophers or political theorists or other academic social critics, while traditional legal scholarship - as it appeared in law school journals - remained firmly rooted in lawyers' questions. This is not to suggest that legal academics wrote nothing but practice manuals, but it is true that until the last twenty …


Letter To Judge Harry Edwards, James J. White Jan 1993

Letter To Judge Harry Edwards, James J. White

Articles

Dear Harry: I write to second your statements concerning the disjunction between legal education and the legal profession and also to quibble with you. By examining the faculty, the curriculum, and the research agenda at Michigan, your school and mine, I hope to illustrate the ways in which you are right and to suggest other ways in which you and your clerk informants may be too pessimistic.


The Scholar As Advocate, Rebecca S. Eisenberg Jan 1993

The Scholar As Advocate, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Articles

Academic freedom in this country has been so closely identified with faculty autonomy that the two terms are often used interchangeably, especially by faculty members who are resisting restraints on their freedom to do as they please. While there may be some dispute as to whether or how far academic freedom protects the autonomy of universities or of students, the autonomy of faculty members seems to lie close to the core of the traditional American conception of academic freedom. As elaborated by the American Association of University Professors, this conception of academic freedom calls for protecting individual faculty members from …


The Use Of Advance Fee Attorney Retainer Agreements In Bankruptcy: Another Special Law For Lawyers?, Lester Brickman, Jonathan Klein Jul 1992

The Use Of Advance Fee Attorney Retainer Agreements In Bankruptcy: Another Special Law For Lawyers?, Lester Brickman, Jonathan Klein

Articles

From the time that the first lawyers set foot in what is now the United States, society has engaged in efforts to regulate lawyers' fees, including fees received from clients in bankruptcy proceedings. Lawyers, in turn, have been engaged in continuing efforts to: secure their self-interests, aggrandize their role in society, be free of societally imposed constraints on their fees and activities, and carve out an ever larger area of exclusive domain. Although lawyers have not fared as well in their recent efforts to extend the scope of their monopoly by the use of statutes that prohibit the unauthorized practice …