Legal Profession Commons^™

The Pursuit Of Happiness, Michael Traynor

Vanderbilt Law Review

Ills that beset our profession are addressed by Professor Patrick Schiltz in the alert he sounds in his lead article, On Being a Happy, Healthy, and Ethical Member of an Unhappy, Unhealthy, and Unethical Profession,' and his earlier article, Legal Ethics in Decline: The Elite Law Firm, the Elite Law School, and the Moral Foundation of the Novice Attorney. His articles call for attention and introspection by law students and others in the profession.

The editors invited me to comment because of the transitions I have experienced since graduating from law school in 1960. I agreed, not realizing the extent …

(Er)Race-Ing An Ethic Of Justice, Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

No abstract provided.

Renewed Introspection And The Legal Profession, Eugene R. Gaetke

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

As the twentieth century draws to a close, the legal profession again immersed in a process of self-assessment, reflection, and reform. Operating on several fronts, various constituent elements of the bar have recently completed or have underway significant projects relating to the law of lawyering.

Two efforts stand out in particular. For more than a decade, the American Law Institute has labored in the production of a new Restatement of the Law Governing Lawyers, and the organization stands now on the brink of that monumental work's publication. Equally significant, the American Bar Association has again undertaken a comprehensive review of …

The Law And Ethics Of Civil Depositions , A. Darby Dickerson

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Law Survey: Professional Responsibility, William H. Fortune

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article is a survey of recent Kentucky ethics cases and Kentucky Bar Association ethics opinions. The cases and opinions selected are those of general application but special interest.

Publicity In High Profile Criminal Cases, H. Patrick Furman

Publications

No abstract provided.

Introductory Note: Symposium On Lawyering And Personal Values – Responding To The Problems Of Ethical Schizophrenia, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

In recent years, legal practitioners and scholars alike have identified a growing crisis in the legal profession. Increasingly, lawyers feel dissatisfied with the roles they are expected to play and the conduct demanded of them. In particular, many lawyers see a widening gap between their personal values and those employed in legal practice. In response to the dichotomy between personal and professional values, some lawyers attempt to develop a corresponding dichotomy in their personalities, separating the “professional self” from the “personal self.” Such a response, however, may lead to a kind of “ethical schizophrenia,” a condition in which an individual …

Can A Lawyer Ever Do Right?, Owen M. Fiss

Cardozo Law Review

Jacques Maury and Maurice Gargon were good people, but not good enough. They resisted the harshness of the racial laws of Vichy France but not as fully as they should have. Falling victim to the proclivity of all lawyers, they became ensnared within the technical trappings of the law. They helped individual clients who suffered under the Vichy laws, but are faulted by Richard Weisberg for failing to challenge those laws at a foundational level. Professor Weisberg described the result as grotesque.

Legal Ethics And Fugitive Slaves: The Anthony Burns Case, Judge Loring, And Abolitionist Attorneys, Paul Finkelman

Cardozo Law Review

Judges and lawyers seek to enforce and uphold the "law" while also proclaiming an interest in an abstraction we call "justice." As we know, there is often a tension between the two. Consequently, serving the law often means not serving justice. Similarly, often a tension exists between a lawyer's duty both to seek a legal remedy to a problem and to act in the best interests of a client. Activist lawyers can have an agenda that is at odds with members of the class they claim to serve. These two problems are complicated by a third. Lawyers and judges have …

Reap What You Sow, Gordon J. Beggs

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Unfortunately, with the adoption and revision of formal ethics codes, moral teaching has virtually disappeared from American legal ethics. Law professors, generally, do not consider it their responsibility to teach morality, and our profession today lacks a common moral standard. The Judeo-Christian principles expressed in Proverbs, however, provide a timely challenge to lawyers by advocating values that include justice, purity, mercy, honesty and civility.

How The Butler Was Made To Do It: The Perverted Professionalism Of The Remains Of The Day, Rob Atkinson

St. Thomas Law Review

No abstract provided.

Proverbial Practice: Legal Ethics From Old Testament Wisdom, Gordon J. Beggs

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The Old Testament book of Proverbs supplied foundational moral values for our nation's legal ethics. With the adoption and revision of formal codes, moral teaching has virtually disappeared from legal ethics. This essay suggests that the wisdom of Proverbs offers a timely challenge to the character of the legal profession by advocating values which include justice, purity, mercy, humility, honesty, candor, truthful testimony, and civility.

The Criminal Defense Attorney, Ethics And Maintaining Client Confidentiality: A Proposal To Amend Rule 1.6 Of The Model Rules Of Professional Conduct, David Rosenthal

St. Thomas Law Review

This Essay asserts that the Model Rules do not sufficiently address the unique problems that criminal defense attorneys face, especially in this scenario. Although the authoritative measure of the Model Rules is found within the text of each individual rule, any "bright-line" solution to the problem is obscured when the Preamble and Scope are read in conjunction with the text of Model Rule 1.6. To resolve this dilemma, this Essay proposes an amendment to Model Rule 1.6 that seeks to effectively address the relevant concerns of the presented scenario. According to the proposed amendment, the attorney's solution is mandated by …

Ethical Considerations In Medicaid Estate Planning: An Analysis Of The Aba Model Rules Of Professional Conduct, Eleanor Crosby Lanier, Ira M. Leff

Scholarly Works

The purpose of this article is to provide a starting point for discussion of ethical issues related to the practice of Medicaid estate planning. The authors explore the history of attorney involvement in planning and financing long-term care. They also analyze how the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct address the ethical dilemmas that arise in practice, using a case study to illustrate some of these issues. The individual authors' perspectives on this practice differ with respect to certain issues. One is a former Legal Services lawyer, and the other has a private practice which focuses on Medicaid estate planning.

The Lawyer's Duty Of Public Service: More Than Charity?, Tigran W. Eldred, Thomas Schoenherr

Faculty Scholarship

The question of whether lawyers have an ethical duty to perform public service-and, in particular, whether the obligation requires that a percentage of time be devoted to providing free legal services to the poor'-has a disjointed and uneven history. Leaders of the bar, espousing various and often conflicting views of morality, compassion, noblesse oblige, and individual autonomy, have contributed to this state of affairs, creating a complicated web of vague ideals that today jeopardizes the legal profession's sense of its own public obligations. On the one hand, the legal profession remains dedicated to the traditional view that public service …

Jacob Burns, Simon J. Liebowitz

Cardozo Law Review

The demise of Mr. Jacob Bums is a great loss not only to his family but to his many friends. Folks who met him in the course of his manifold humanitarian activities were deeply impressed by his sincerity, kindness, and love for humanity. As a practicing lawyer his great ability served his clients well. Providing pro bono legal services to the poor was a way of life to him.

An Introduction To The European Community's Legal Ethics Code - Part Ii: Applying The Ccbe Code Of Conduct, Laurel Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

This article, which is Part 2 in a series, examines the CCBE Code of Conduct and continues where the prior article left off. See An Introduction to the European Community's Legal Ethics Code Part I: An Analysis of the CCBE Code of Conduct, 7 Georgetown J. of Legal Ethics 1 (1993). "CCBE" is the acronym used to describe the Council of the Bars and Law Societies of the European Community; the CCBE has been recognized as the official representative of the legal profession with the European Community. In 1988, the CCBE adopted a code of conduct that was intended to …

A Stalwart At The Bar, Arthur Norman Field

Cardozo Law Review

The New York legal community that Jack Bums found upon his admission to the Bar in 1932 was not given to welcoming all comers. It was changing rapidly. To many leaders of the Bar the change was not a positive one.

Pro Bono Legal Work: For The Good Of Not Only The Public, But Also The Lawyer And The Legal Profession, Nadine Strossen

Michigan Law Review

I agree with Judge Edwards that "the lawyer has an ethical obligation to practice public interest law - to represent some poor clients; to advance some causes that he or she believes to be just." I also concur in Judge Edwards' opinion that "[a] person who deploys his or her doctrinal skill without concern for the public interest is merely a good legal technician - not a good lawyer."

Rather than further develop Judge Edwards' theme that lawyers have a professional responsibility to do pro bono work, I will offer another rationale for such work, grounded in professional and individual …

An Introduction To The European Community's Legal Ethics Code - Part I: An Analysis Of The Ccbe Code Of Conduct, Laurel Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

This article, which is Part 1 of two articles, examines the CCBE Code of Conduct. CCBE is the acronym used to describe the Council of the Bars and Law Societies of the European Community; the CCBE has been recognized as the official representative of the legal profession with the European Community. In 1988, the CCBE adopted a code of conduct that was intended to apply to situations in which lawyers from one CCBE Member of Observer State were involved with lawyers from another CCBE State. This article summarizes the development of the CCBE Code of Conduct, explains who it applies …

The Ethics Of Criminal Defense, William H. Simon

Michigan Law Review

A large literature has emerged in recent years challenging the standard conception of adversary advocacy that justifies the lawyer in doing anything arguably legal to advance the client's ends. This literature has proposed variations on an ethic that would increase the lawyer's responsibilities to third parties, the public, and substantive ideals of legal merit and justice.

With striking consistency, this literature exempts criminal defense from its critique and concedes that the standard adversary ethic may be viable there. This paper criticizes that concession. I argue that the reasons most commonly given to distinguish the criminal from the civil do not …

Pregnancy And Aids, Martha A. Field

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Conducting Informal Discovery Of A Party's Former Employees: Legal And Ethical Concerns And Constraints, Susan J. Becker

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Personal Values And Professional Ethics, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr.

Cleveland State Law Review

My purpose on this occasion is to urge reexamination of personal values as a fundamental resource of professional ethics. The essential point is that rules of ethics, such as those embodied in the profession's ethical codes, are insufficient guides to making the choices of action that a professional must make in practice. I will suggest that the same is true of professional tradition and conventional ways of practice. This is not to say that rules of ethics and traditions are irrelevant. Rules of professional ethics frame the ethical problems that are encountered in a lawyer's life throughout practice. Moreover, professional …

Crossing The Bridge To Secular Law: Three Models Of Incorporation, Jeffrey I. Roth

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Equal Protection

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Self-Regulation Of Judicial Misconduct Could Be Mis-Regulation, Anthony D'Amato

Michigan Law Review

Judge Harry T. Edwards has written a lucid and seemingly logical plea for the judiciary to be granted exclusive self-regulation over all matters of judicial misconduct that fall short of crimes or impeachable offenses. His essay demonstrates the seriousness with which he regards misconduct that would bring shame to the federal judiciary. He believes that the judiciary as a whole is the best institution to ascertain and take measures against individual aberrant judges who are guilty of various forms of misconduct, and I have no doubt of the sincerity of his belief. Yet when we look at claims for self-regulation …

Kentucky's New Rules Of Professional Conduct For Lawyers, Eugene R. Gaetke

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

On July 12, 1989, the Kentucky Supreme Court adopted its own version of the American Bar Association's 1983 Model Rules of Professional Conduct as the body of disciplinary law applicable to lawyers practicing in the state. These new rules constitute a major improvement in the state's law of legal ethics. Their adoption should be considered a victory for Kentucky lawyers and, more importantly, a victory for the people of the state, the ultimate beneficiaries of the regulation of the legal profession.

As with most victories, the adoption of the new rules was not unequivocally positive. Kentucky's version of the Model …

Lawyers As Officers Of The Court, Eugene R. Gaetke

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Lawyers like to refer to themselves as officers of the court. Careful analysis of the role of the lawyer within the adversarial legal system reveals the characterization to be vacuous and unduly self-laudatory. It confuses lawyers and misleads the public. The profession, therefore, should either stop using the officer of the court characterization or give meaning to it. This Article proposes certain modifications of the existing rules of professional responsibility that would bring lawyers' actual obligations more in line with those suggested by the label of officer of the court.

Should A Christian Lawyer Serve The Guilty?, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

People who teach or practice law are in some ways like public executioners or the Air Force officers who watch over the buttons that will send nuclear missiles into action: Other people, ordinary people, want to know what we do to overcome what seem to ordinary people to be moral obstacles to doing what we do.

What ordinary people say to lawyers, and what my students say when they first come to law school, when they are still more ordinary people than they are law students, is this: How can lawyers lend their skills and talents to the representation of …