Legal Profession Commons^™

A Day In The Life Of S. Breckinridge Tushingham, Erik M. Jensen

Faculty Publications

This series of three articles (that's why it's a trilogy, duh-h-h) chronicles the legal-academic career of one S. Breckinridge Tushingham ("Breck" for short). As the trilogy unfolds, Breck works his way up (or maybe it's down) from his first academic position to an established professorship to dean of the South Soybean (Soso) State University law school. In the process of recording his professional history, and thus memorializing it for the ages, Breck provides (probably defamatory) insights into the American legal academy.

Note, The Standard Of Proof Of Causation In Legal Malpractice Cases, Erik M. Jensen

Faculty Publications

This note argues that the use of a but for standard of causation in legal malpractice cases - i.e., that the plaintiff must show that but for the malpractice he or she would have prevailed in the underlying action - is too stringent, making recovery unreasonably difficult. The note therefore argues for implementation of a lost substantial possibility of recovery standard. This is just a student note, and an old one at that, but a lot of courts and commentators have cited it. In any event, modesty and self-restraint seem to play little role when authors are deciding what to …

Advancing Public Interest Practitioner Research Skills In Legal Education, Randy J. Diamond

Faculty Publications

The information revolution has dramatically altered the legal research landscape, expanding the bounds of legal authority. Practitioner research requires more than traditional legal research. It also encompasses factual investigation, non-legal information, interdisciplinary and audience research. Many new lawyers are ill-prepared to research novel and unusual situations, to cope with unwritten laws and local customs, and to meet shifting authority expectations.

Politically Motivated Bar Discipline, James E. Moliterno

Faculty Publications

Bar discipline and admission denial have a century~long history of misuse in times of national crisis and upheaval. The terror war is such a time, and the threat of bar discipline has once again become an overreaction to justifiable fear and turmoil. Political misuse of bar machinery is characterized by its setting in the midst of turmoil, by its target, and by its lack of merit. The current instance of politically motivated bar discipline bears the marks of its historical antecedents.

Relations Between Lawyer And Client In Damages: Model, Typical, Or Dysfunctional?, Rodney J. Uphoff

Faculty Publications

This essay begins, therefore, by briefly examining the question of what constitutes good lawyering. The essay acknowledges the difficulty of defining precisely what is good lawyering. In fact, scholars, judges, and lawyers often disagree markedly when they characterize lawyer behavior using the term. Not surprising, then, even though academic commentators routinely trumpet the importance of establishing a meaningful attorney-client relationship as an important aspect of good lawyering, not all in the legal profession embrace that view.8Indeed, the debate about the importance of a good lawyer-client relationship largely reflects contrasting attitudes within the legal profession about the client's role in the …

Sec Enforcement Of Attorney Up-The-Ladder Reporting Rules: An Analysis Of Institutional Contraints, Norms, And Biases, Michael A. Perino

Faculty Publications

In their paper and in their earlier comments to the SEC on the proposed attorney reporting rules, Professors Cramton, Cohen and Koniak do an excellent job recounting the genesis of the attorney reporting requirements in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, describing the SEC's proposed and final rules and critiquing the rule's triggering mechanism and now apparently shelved noisy withdrawal requirement. Their case study of the recent Spiegel, Inc. independent examiner's report is a particularly useful vehicle for examining the practical implications of the SEC's policy and drafting choices. Although I was a member of a committee that submitted comments opposed to noisy …

Book Review Of Gender On Trial: Sexual Stereotypes And Work/Life Balance In The Legal Workplace, Nicole Buonocore Porter

Faculty Publications

Holly English's book, Gender on Trial: Sexual Stereotypes and Work/Life Balance in the Legal Workplace, offers a very interesting, albeit mostly anecdotal, look at the many real or perceived sexual stereotypes in the legal workplace. Her book is the result of interviews with 180 lawyers (fifty of them men) over a two-year period in all regions of the country. Her main purpose of the book was to "explore the fact that persistent gender stereotypes present a continuing obstacle that obstructs the availability of broad opinions and choices for men and women lawyers." Through eight substantive chapters, she seeks to explore …

Incremental Bar Admission: Lessons From The Medical Profession, Jayne W. Barnard, Mark Greenspan

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

In Memoriam — Howard B. Eisenberg, Craig Allen Nard

Faculty Publications

This is a tribute to Howard B. Eisenberg.

Comment: Multi-Disciplinary Practice And Conflict Of Interest, Kevin C. Mcmunigal

Faculty Publications

My comments as part of this panel focus on the attitude of proponents of multi-disciplinary practice toward conflict of interest. Before turning to that topic, I would like to offer a general observation about the debate on multi-disciplinary practice as well as a suggestion for improving the quality of that debate.

Renewable Bar Admission: A Template For Making "Professionalism" Real, Jayne W. Barnard

Faculty Publications

The citizens of this country should expect no less than the highest degree of professionalism when they have entrusted administration of the rule of law-one of the fundamental tenets upon which our society is based-to the legal profession. Re-examination was not originally required of medical specialists, but [the American Board of Medical Specialties] quickly recognized that a lifetime certification, even with required continuing education provided little incentive for doctors to keep up with new medical knowledge and techniques. Similarly, continuing [legal] education requirements alone are not sufficient to assure the integration of new law and procedure into a lawyer's practice. …

Who Should Control The Decision To Call A Witness: Respecting A Criminal Defendant's Tactical Choices, Rodney J. Uphoff

Faculty Publications

A law student approached me not long ago to discuss a problem he had encountered while helping to prepare a criminal case for retrial. The defendant's first trial ended with a hung jury. The defendant, Steven Brown, now faced a second trial on the same misdemeanor charge of assaulting a police officer. Although the defendant still wanted to go to trial, Brown told defense counsel that he did not want his elderly father to have to testify again. From defense counsel's standpoint, the father's testimony was critical because he was the only witness corroborating the defendant's version of the event. …

American Lawyers And International Competence, Charlotte Ku, Christopher J. Borgen

Faculty Publications

Just over ten years ago, Germans tore down a wall that divided their country and the whole of Europe. Stepping through the hole in the Berlin Wall, they took the first steps towards the reunification of West and East Germany and the end of the Cold War. Today another wall is being torn down—that between purely domestic law and international law. Companies are engaged in international trade at ever increasing rates. Environmental degradation has proved to be a global problem that cannot be solved with uncoordinated local measures. Individuals worldwide are pressing their governments for the recognition of a common …

Allocation Of Decisionmaking Between Defense Counsel And Criminal Defendant: An Empirical Study Of Attorney-Client Decisionmaking, Rodney J. Uphoff

Faculty Publications

In Commonwealth v. Woodward, the highly publicized murder trial of an au pair accused of killing an infant in her care, the defense team faced a strategic decision commonly encountered at trial: whether to request or to object to lesser included jury instructions. Put simply, the Woodward defense team had to decide whether to ask for an instruction that would permit the jury to return a manslaughter verdict, or to object to such an instruction, leaving the jury only the choice either to acquit the defendant or to convict her of second degree murder as charged in the indictment. Undoubtedly …

Responding To The Value Imperative: Learning To Create Value In The Resolution Of Disputes, Kenneth Margolis

Faculty Publications

This article discusses another topic for clinical teachers to consider adding to their teaching agendas. In this paper, I identify the "value imperative" implicit in the attorney-client relationship and suggest that a perception by the client of high value in the relationship is necessary for its success. Briefly, I describe value in legal services as the client's perception of the ratio of benefits received from legal representation to the sacrifices necessary to obtain those benefits. The more the ratio favors benefits over sacrifices, the greater the value perceived by the client. I present a model describing value in legal services …

The Legal Profession And Its Future: Recapturing The Ideal Of The Statesman-Lawyer, Timothy J. Sullivan

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Tax Notes By Any Other Name Would Smell Sweeter, Erik M. Jensen

Faculty Publications

Those of us with academic careers at stake must take the bull by the horns, damn the torpedoes, and gather no moss. Let's get the Tax Notes name changed.

A Post-Conference Reflection On Separate Ethical Aspirations For Adr's Not-So-Separate Practitioners, John Q. Barrett

Faculty Publications

At "The Lawyer's Duties and Responsibilities in Dispute Resolution" Symposium at South Texas College of Law, Oct. 25, 1996, a central topic of discussion was ADR's ethical separateness. There was a shared sense that ADR providers and practitioners confront a range of ethical issues that differ from those that confront non-ADR lawyers. On this view, because rules of professional responsibility are geared toward more adversarial forms of legal practice, they at best provide no answers and may provide wrong answers to ethical questions that arise in ADR. One solution would be to create new, separate, "role-specific" ethics rules for ADR …

Book Review Of In The Opinion Of The Court, Laura A. Heymann

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Symposium Precis, Thomas E. Baker

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Suing The Firm, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

Lawyers who once would rather take grievances against their firms to the grave are now taking them to court. Is it the death of professionalism or the dawning of accountability?

The Ties That Bind: An Interdisciplinary Analysis Of Gender, Ethnicity, And The Practice Of Law, Rosemary C. Salomone

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Over the past decade, fueled in part by Carol Gilligan's controversial book, In a Different Voice, both feminists and scholars of color have critically examined the law from the "outsiders'" perspective. Stretching methodological bounds, this interrelated body of scholarship has utilized narrative form to question the gender and racial implications of social practices and legal rules and to demonstrate the useful purpose that stories serve as a means of including marginalized groups in law's evolution and reform. Women scholars of color have carved out a particular role in this debate, criticizing feminism's categorical conceptualization of "woman." They have advanced …

The Case Of A Lifetime, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

There is great difficulty in defining pro bono lawyering. The classic model is the practitioner who devotes time to representing a client in a civil or criminal matter. But some consider other legal relationships pro bono as well, such as service on the boards of directors of nonprofit organizations, legal work at reduced fees, and activities that improve the law and legal profession. In the case of organizations such as the ACLU and the NAACP LDF, pro bono means a mixture of much of the above, as public interest law firms work hand in hand with private lawyers and firms …

Electronic Conferences: The Report Of An Experiment, I. Trotter Hardy

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Attitudinal Barriers To Hiring Attorneys With Disabilities, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Turning Online Time Into Quality Time: Searching Ohio Case Law On Lexis And Westlaw, Randy J. Diamond

Faculty Publications

This article discusses some of the lesser known complexities of LEXIS and WESTLAW and the necessity for evaluating these systems critically. Sample searches highlight the major differences between WESTLAW's and LEXIS's search protocols. Comparable features of each system are examined to show how users can improve the quality of their search results and to warn of unintended consequences when users misapply them. Strategies for formulating searches that retrieve relevant cases and prevent the exclusion of potentially relevant cases are considered, along with the economics of online searching. Although the searches presented are limited to Ohio case law, they are adaptable …

The Legal Profession, Legal Education, And Change, Robert H. Jerry Ii

Faculty Publications

The accounts of how the legal profession has changed in recent years are as abundant as the changes themselves. The common message is clear: the magnitude of change is immense, and the pace is unprecedented.

The Costs Of Settlement: The Impact Of Scarcity Of Adjudication On Litigating Lawyers, Kevin C. Mcmunigal

Faculty Publications

This Article, by comparison, focuses on the implications of lack of trial experience for litigating lawyers. Does lack of trial experience affect the way lawyers function in litigation? Does it influence their performance as advocates? As negotiators settling cases? Does it affect adherence to existing ethical standards such as those regarding competence and conflict of interest? Can one expect lawyers to understand, respect, and adhere to the values of an ethical and legal system premised, as ours is, upon a process of adjudication lawyers seldom, if ever, experience? Do the answers to these questions yield any insight for guiding reform …

When Lawyer And Client Meet: Observations Of Interviewing And Counseling Behavior In The Consumer Bankruptcy Law Office, Gary Neustadter

Faculty Publications

What happens when lawyer and client first meet? How do they talk, how do they listen, what do they say, and what do they do? The answers to these questions are generated, and then lost, in thousands of law offices daily. There is thus a treasure of information, but it is mostly hidden from our view by legal barriers that protect privacy and confidentiality and by other barriers, economic, psychological, and logistical, that inhibit or preclude third party observation of lawyer-client contact. This Article reports an exploratory journey in search of that treasure, a journey into six law offices in …

Residency Requirements For Attorneys: Home Is Where The License Is?, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.