Legal Profession Commons^™

Intercultural Effectivenss, Mary A. Lynch, Robin Boyle, Rhonda Magee, Antoinette Sedillo López

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

The legal profession has recognized the need for cross-culturally competent lawyers. The American Bar Association, state and local bar associations, and other professional development experts have called for lawyers to develop cultural competencies. While the terminology used is not consistent, at its core, this call expresses a commitment to legal education that embraces the strengths of diverse student bodies and client populations. Legal education should more effectively help students examine how legal structures can ignore, silence, and devalue alternative perspectives and diverse identities.

BEST PRACTICES FOR LEGAL EDUCATION suggested that legal education should include training about cross-cultural competence, cited …

Attorney Competence In An Age Of Plea Bargaining And Econometrics, Jeffrey Bellin

Faculty Publications

This Essay explores the concept of attorney competence in a criminal justice system dominated by plea bargaining. It focuses, in particular, on the results of a widely-reported empirical study of Philadelphia murder cases that found “vast” differences in legal outcomes based on the type of defense attorney assigned to the case. The first part of the Essay explores the implications of these empirical findings, which appear to stem from a counter-intuitive form of professional competence, persistence in convincing one’s client to plead guilty. The findings are particularly intriguing in light of the Supreme Court’s recent expansion of ineffective assistance of …

From "War On Poverty" To Pro Bono: Access To Justice Remains Elusive For Too Many, Including Our Veterans, Patricia E. Roberts

Faculty Publications

Fifty years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the War on Poverty. The Legal Services Program of 1965, along with the Legal Services Corporation formed in 1974, considerably increased civil legal aid to America’s poor. Yet today, there is only one legal aid attorney for every 6,415 people living in poverty. Veterans, comprising 4.6%of those living in poverty, often suffer additional obstacles and extensive legal needs, including assistance in obtaining benefits to which they are entitled. While encouraging additional pro bono service among attorneys incrementally increases the availability of legal services to the poor, law school clinics across the country …

Escaping From Lawyers' Prison Of Fear, John Lande

Faculty Publications

Lawyers regularly experience numerous fears endemic to their work. This is not surprising considering that lawyers generally operate in environments that frequently stimulate many fears. Lawyers’ fears can lead them to enhance their performance due to increased preparation and effective “thinking on their feet.” Fear is problematic when it is out of proportion to actual threats, is expressed inappropriately, or is chronically unaddressed effectively. It can lead to sub-optimal and counterproductive performance through paralysis, ritualized behavior, or inappropriate aggression. Some lawyers’ fears unnecessarily prevent them from performing well, producing good results for clients, earning more income, and experiencing greater satisfaction …

Rural Incentive Programs For Legal And Medical Professionals: A Comparative, Hannah Haksgaard

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The True Value Of A Law Degree, Or, Why Did Thurgood Marshall Go To Law School?, R. Lawrence Dessem, Gregory M. Stein

Faculty Publications

There has been vigorous debate in recent months over whether a law degree is a worthwhile investment. Much of this discussion has focused on whether the economic costs of obtaining a degree pay off over a lawyer’s career. This conversation has largely overlooked the many non-economic benefits of a law degree. In this essay, we seek to re-introduce several non-economic factors back into this important dialogue. We suggest that prospective law school applicants would be wise to consider these non-economic factors in addition to economic ones.

Reforming Legal Education To Prepare Law Students Optimally For Real-World Practice, John M. Lande

Faculty Publications

This article synthesizes major points in the October 2012 symposium of the University of Missouri School of Law Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution, entitled "Overcoming Barriers in Preparing Law Students for Real-World Practice." There is a growing consensus that American law schools need to do a better job of preparing students to practice law. Teaching students to think like a lawyer is still necessary but it is not sufficient for students to act like a lawyer soon after they graduate.

Tribute To Professor Calvin William Sharpe, Robert N. Strassfeld

Faculty Publications

The editors of the Case Western Reserve Law Review respectfully dedicate this issue to Professor Calvin William Sharpe.

One can only stand in awe when reflecting on the extraordinary professional accomplishments of Professor Calvin William Sharpe. It is rare in the legal academy to find a professor whose academic range is so broad and whose level of quality is so consistently high. That range and quality are evident regardless of whether one looks at Professor Sharpe's teaching, scholarship, or professional service.

Estimating The Cost Of Civil Litigation, Paula Hannaford-Agor, Nicole L. Waters

Faculty Publications

To obtain reliable estimates of litigation costs, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) has developed an alternative method of cost estimation: the Civil Litigation Cost Model (CLCM). The NCSC model relies on the amount of time expended by attorneys in various litigation tasks in a variety of civil cases filed in state courts. This event-based approach to estimating litigation costs is an adaptation of the methods employed by the NCSC for court workload studies. Because these tasks take place sequentially in civil litigation, the use of this approach permits the NCSC to estimate litigation costs for cases that resolve …

The Law School Critique In Historical Perspective, A. Benjamin Spencer

Faculty Publications

Contemporary critiques of legal education abound. This arises from what can be described as a perfect storm: the confluence of softness in the legal employment market, the skyrocketing costs of law school, and the unwillingness of clients and law firms to continue subsidizing the further training of lawyers who failed to learn how to practice in law school. As legal jobs become increasingly scarce and salaries stagnate, the value proposition of law school is rightly being questioned from all directions. Although numerous valid criticisms have been put forth, some seem to be untethered from a full appreciation for how the …

Organizational Alliances By U.S. Schools, Elizabeth Chambliss

Faculty Publications

U.S. law schools increasingly are forming organizational alliances with other training providers in the interests of market expansion and/or consolidation. At the top of the market, U.S. law schools are seeking to brand their positions within the global economy by forming alliances with elite foreign law schools, business schools, and corporate law firms and clients. Schools outside of this market are moving to establish alternative niches through alliances with solo and small firm practitioners, CLE providers, and other organizations serving low-and middle-income clients, as well as through the development of accelerated and/or specialty degrees. Schools at all levels are increasingly …

Wilbur C. Leatherberry: A Cwru Lifer, Jonathan L. Entin

Faculty Publications

Tribute to Wilbur Leatherberry.

Laura Chisolm: An Advocate And Ally, B. Jessie Hill

Faculty Publications

I worked with Laura Chisolm primarily in my capacity as Associate Director of the Center for Social Justice, of which she was the founding Director. Yet--as is probably true of many of my colleagues at the law school--I came to know and admire her most as a fellow faculty member, friend, and mentor. I will never forget the many kindnesses from Laura--not least of all the baby gift she sent me after my older daughter was born. It was a beautiful, fuzzy, hand-knit sweater that kept both my older daughter and my younger daughter warm for, literally, years. Where on …

Laura Chisolm: Colleague, Peer, Friend, Jonathan L. Entin

Faculty Publications

Tribute to Laura Chisolm

Plagiarism In Lawyers' Advocacy: Imposing Discipline For Conduct Prejudicial To The Administration Of Justice, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

In a recent high-profile prosecution, the federal district court criticized defense counsel for filing a post-trial brief that copied passages from previously published material without attribution. The court followed other recent decisions that, since about 2000, have chastised lawyers for briefs marked by plagiarism. Some lawyers had copied passages from earlier judicial opinions that rest in the public domain, and some lawyers (as in the recent prosecution) had copied passages from private sources that are subject to the copyright laws. In either event, courts have labeled lawyers’ plagiarism “reprehensible,” “intolerable,” “completely unacceptable,” and “unprofessional.”

Whose Ethics? The Benchmark Problem In Legal Ethics Research, Elizabeth Chambliss

Faculty Publications

How should we interpret differences between junior and senior lawyers’ perceptions of ethicality in the workplace? One theory holds that junior lawyers are more reliable informants; that their perceptions are not yet corrupted by self-interest and the demands of practice and therefore will tend to be closer to universal or ordinary morality. This is the predominant theory in the academic literature on large law firms, which tends to portray large law firms as being in perpetual moral decline. To some extent, this corruption narrative informs all critical legal ethics research.

An alternative theory holds that junior lawyers are inexperienced and/or …

Planning For The Next Century Or The Next Week, Whichever Comes First, Erik M. Jensen

Faculty Publications

I look at long term planning in law schools.

Wilbur Leatherberry: Our Center Of Gravity, Peter M. Gerhart

Faculty Publications

Some lead with words; some with actions. Some lead with anger; some with authority. Some lead with attitude. Those who lead with attitude are precious few, made more precious because they are so few. Bill Leatherberry leads with attitude. He projects a quiet and reasoned confidence. He is unflappable and imperturbable. He projects calm and control, evidence of a sure faith that things will work out.

Supervisory Responsibility For The Office Of Legal Counsel, Avidan Y. Cover

Faculty Publications

In the wake of the notorious Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) torture memoranda, various reforms have been proposed to prevent future erroneous and poorly reasoned legal opinions on matters of the utmost national importance. The need for reform is all the more pressing in a post-9/11 world in which the Executive Branch will continue to arrogate, often in secret, various national security-related powers. None of the proposals, however, addresses the supervisory role that Justice Department and other Executive Branch lawyers play in the formation of OLC opinions.

This Article argues that the failure to hold more senior government …

Helping Lawyers Help Clients, John M. Lande

Faculty Publications

Counseling clients about dispute resolution options is easier said than done. This article suggests a strategy to help lawyers counsel clients in choosing dispute resolution options. Perhaps the most promising approach involves using dispute systems design (DSD) procedures to establish better ways of training lawyers to counsel clients.

Confidentiality And Claims Of Ineffective Assistance, Peter A. Joy, Kevin C. Mcmunigal

Faculty Publications

This column discusses what a defense lawyer should do when called upon to reveal client information in response to an ineffective assistance of counsel claim.

Investigative Deceit, Kevin C. Mcmunigal

Faculty Publications

Is it ever ethical for a lawyer to ask or assist another person to lie on behalf of a client? Despite ethical rules categorically banning both personal and vicarious deceit, prosecutors routinely supervise police officers and informants who use deceit in investigating drug and sex offenses, organized crime, and terrorism. May defense lawyers make use of investigative deceit in criminal investigations? In this Essay, the Author examines this issue, the ethical rules bearing on it, and the recent trend in a number of jurisdictions allowing the use of investigative deceit by the defense. Drawing on his participation in a series …

A Tribute To Professor Arthur Austin, Leon Gabinet

Faculty Publications

Tribute to Author Austin

The Problems Of Plagiarism As An Ethics Offense, Peter A. Joy, Kevin C. Mcmunigal

Faculty Publications

This column questions the practices of labeling attorney copying, even without acknowledgement, as plagiarism, and treating it as a per se ethics violation. Instead, the column argues that analysis of copying in the litigation context should focus directly on the quality of the filing at issue and the competence and diligence of the lawyer who prepared it.

A Collaborative Model Of Offshore Legal Outsourcing, Cassandra Burke Robertson

Faculty Publications

International outsourcing has come to the legal profession. The ABA and other bar associations have given it their stamp of approval, and an ailing economy has pushed both clients and firms to consider sending more legal work abroad. This article integrates research from the fields of organizational behavior, social psychology, and economic theory to analyze the effectiveness of the legal outsourcing relationship. It identifies organizational pressures in the practice of law that affect how legal work is performed in a transnational context, and it examines how individuals on both sides of the outsourcing process influence the success or failure of …

Contingent Rewards For Prosecutors?, Peter A. Joy, Kevin C. Mcmunigal

Faculty Publications

This column explores whether contingent reward plans for prosecutors are ethical. After weighing arguments in favor and against such plans, the column concludes that rewards for prosecutors contingent on trial convictions are unsound.

Getting Good Results For Clients By Building Good Working Relationships With 'Opposing Counsel', John M. Lande

Faculty Publications

Lawyers’ relationships with their “opposing counsel” make a big difference in how well they handle their cases. “Opposing counsel” often do oppose each other, sometimes quite vigorously, though they also regularly cooperate with each other. In the normal course of litigation, lawyers need to cooperate on many procedural matters. In some cases, they also cooperate to achieve their respective clients’ substantive interests. If the lawyers have a bad relationship, the case is likely to be miserable for everyone involved. If they have a good relationship, they are more likely to agree on procedural matters, exchange information informally, take reasonable negotiation …

A Discourse On The Aba's Criminal Justice Standards: Prosecution And Defense Functions: The Physical Evidence Dilemma: Does Aba Standard 4-4.6 Offer Appropriate Guidance?, Rodney J. Uphoff

Faculty Publications

Since 1966, when criminal defense lawyer Richard Ryder was disciplined for retaining physical evidence that connected his client to a bank robbery, lawyers and courts have struggled with the ethical dilemma of how defense lawyers should deal with physical evidence that potentially incriminates one of their clients. When a lawyer takes possession of an evidentiary item, must she always turn it over to the authorities, as required by most courts that have addressed this dilemma? Or, can defense counsel return the evidence to the source from whom counsel received it as recommended by Standard 4-4.6 of the ABA Criminal Justice …

Arthur D. Austin, Erik M. Jensen

Faculty Publications

“Arthur D. Austin,” 62 Case Western Reserve Law Review 3 (211), “Henry King,” 6 Case Western Reserve Law Review 63 (21), “Professor Morris Shanker,” 61 Case Western Reserve Law Review 13 (21). These are tributes to three professors who had an enormous impact on the Case Western Reserve University School of Law and on the larger society: Arthur Austin, distinguished antitrust scholar, observer of the legal-academic scene, and Faulkner fanatic; Henry King, who combined expertise in business law with a passion for international law and human rights (honed during his time as a Nuremberg prosecutor); and Morry Shanker, a preeminent …

Imputed Liability For Supervising Prosecutors: Applying The Military Doctrine Of Command Responsibility To Reduce Prosecutorial Misconduct, Geoffrey S. Corn, Adam M. Gershowitz

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.