Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

Next Up: A Proposal For Values-Based Law Reform On Unilateral Withholding And Withdrawal Of Potentially Life-Sustaining Treatment, Jocelyn Downie, Lindy Willmott, Ben White

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

As the legalization of assisted dying shifts from a project for law reform to one of implementation, the gaze for Canadian end of life law and policy academics and practitioners should be turned quickly to another pressing issue – the unilateral withholding and withdrawal of potentially life-sustaining treatment. What should happen when the health care team believes that treatment should not be provided and the patient’s loved ones believe that it should? While the future of end of life law and policy no doubt includes many other issues, this is an urgent and immediate horizon issue for Canada as well …

A Test For Freedom Of Conscience Under The Canadian Charter Of Rights And Freedoms: Regulating And Litigating Conscientious Refusals In Health Care, Jocelyn Downie, Francoise Baylis

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Conscientious refusal to provide insured health care services is a significant point of controversy in Canada, especially in reproductive medicine and end-of-life care. Some provincial and territorial legislatures have developed legislation or regulations, and some professional regulatory bodies have developed policies or guidelines, to better reconcile tensions between health care professionals’ conscience and patients’ access to health care services. As other groups attempt to draft standards and as challenges to existing standards head to court, the fact that the meaning of “freedom of conscience” under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is not yet settled will become ever more …

Should Medical Assistance In Dying Be Extended To Incompetent Patients With Dementia? Research Protocol Of A Survey Among Four Groups Of Stakeholders From Quebec, Canada, Gina Bravo, Claudie Rodrigue, Vincent Thériault, Marcel Arcand, Jocelyn Downie, Marie-France Dubois, Sharon Kaasalainen, Cees M. Hertogh, Sophie Pautex, Lieve Van Den Block

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Background: Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders affect a growing number of people worldwide. Quality of life is generally good in the early stages of these diseases. However, many individuals fear living through the advanced stages. Such fears are triggering requests for medical assistance in dying (MAiD) by patients with dementia. Legislation was recently passed in Canada and the province of Quebec allowing MAiD at the explicit request of a patient who meets a set of eligibility criteria, including competence. Some commentators have argued that MAiD should be accessible to incompetent patients as well, provided appropriate safeguards are in place. Governments …

Expanding Our Reach: Direct Client Representation Vs. Policy And Advocacy Impact In A Transactional Clinic, Joseph Pileri

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The 2016 presidential election was met immediately around the country with calls to action for lawyers to provide legal representation and resources to vulnerable populations that would inevitably be affected by the incoming presidential administration. Lawyers showed up en masse, for example, at airports to offer services to travelers and families impacted by the executive order banning individuals from several predominantly Muslim countries from entering the country. Those lawyers were not alone. Calls also went out around the clinical community to use clinicians’ positions and resources in ways that further our work on behalf of communities which suddenly found themselves …

Reevaluating Attorney-Client Privilege In The Age Of Hackers, Anne E. Conroy

Brooklyn Law Review

The news story is now familiar: hackers breach a security system and post internal, confidential information online for anyone with an Internet connection to comb through. This digital version of whistleblowing, called “hacktivism,” is attractive to the media, which has leaned on broad First Amendment protections to widely cover the confidential communications revealed by hackers. These hacks also provide attorneys with enticing opportunities to look through previously confidential files. But as ethics and evidentiary rules stand, it is not clear if an attorney may view the files, let alone use them as evidence in litigation. That companies are hacked is …

A Tort In Search Of A Remedy: Prying Open The Courthouse Doors For Legal Malpractice Victims, Susan S. Fortney

Fordham Law Review

Using this broad connotation of justice, this Article questions whether many victims of legal malpractice are denied access to justice. In writing about the regulatory function of legal malpractice as a tort, Professor John Leubsdorf argues that legal malpractice relates to three important functions of the law of lawyering: “[D]elineating the duties of lawyers, creating appropriate incentives and disincentives for lawyers in their dealings with clients and others, and providing access to remedies for those injured by improper lawyer behavior.” Arguably, persons injured by lawyer misconduct are denied access to justice if our civil liability system does not provide them …

A Tort In Search Of A Remedy: Prying Open The Courthouse Doors For Legal Malpractice Victims, Susan S. Fortney

Fordham Law Review

Using this broad connotation of justice, this Article questions whether many victims of legal malpractice are denied access to justice. In writing about the regulatory function of legal malpractice as a tort, Professor John Leubsdorf argues that legal malpractice relates to three important functions of the law of lawyering: “[D]elineating the duties of lawyers, creating appropriate incentives and disincentives for lawyers in their dealings with clients and others, and providing access to remedies for those injured by improper lawyer behavior.” Arguably, persons injured by lawyer misconduct are denied access to justice if our civil liability system does not provide them …

Seen And Heard: A Defense Of Judicial Speech, Dmitry Bam

Faculty Publications

Judicial ethics largely prohibits judges from engaging in political activities, including endorsing or opposing candidates for public office. These restrictions on judicial politicking, intended to preserve both the reality and the appearance of judicial integrity, independence, and impartiality, have been in place for decades. Although the Code of Conduct for United States Judges does not apply to the Supreme Court, Supreme Court Justices have long followed the norm that they do not take sides, at least publicly, in partisan political elections. And while elected state judges have some leeway to engage in limited political activities associated with their own candidacy," …

Sally Yates, Ronald Dworkin, And The Best View Of The Law, W. Bradley Wendel

Michigan Law Review Online

What interests me, as a scholar of legal ethics and jurisprudence, is whether Yates got it right when she said the responsibility of a lawyer for the government is to seek justice and stand for what is right, and that the position of the Department of Justice should be informed by the lawyer’s best view of the law. Yates’s claim that legal advice should be informed by the best view of the law sounds very much like the position of Ronald Dworkin. Dworkin argued that a judge should determine the legal rights and duties of the litigants by constructing the …

The Economic Justice Imperative For Transactional Law Clinics, Lynnise E. Pantin

Faculty Scholarship

The economic, political, and social volatility of the sixties and seventies, out of which clinical legal education was born, has certain mythical qualities for most law students, and perhaps some law professors. America still bears the scars of the economic policies of those previous eras, such as redlining, blockbusting, poverty and urban decay. While the realities of the era may seem out of reach for many of our students, those arising out of that era have contributed to the wealth gap in this country, which has worsened over the last twenty years. Now more than ever, society needs social justice …

Restating International Torts: Problems Of Process And Substance In The Ali's Third Restatement Of Torts, Nancy J. Moore

Faculty Scholarship

The American Law Institute’s Third Restatement of Torts was initially conceived as a series of separate projects, each with its own reporters. From 1998 through 2010, the ALI completed and published three different segments: Products Liability, Apportionment of Liability, and Liability for Physical and Emotional Harm. Initially, the ALI did not intend to restate the intentional torts, believing that the Second Restatement’s treatment of these torts was clear and largely authoritative. It was ultimately persuaded that there were numerous unresolved issues that needed to be addressed. As a result, it authorized a new project on Intentional Torts---a project that is …

The Death Of Private Practice: How The Rising Cost Of Healthcare Is Destroying Physician Autonomy, Oliver Owaid

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Over the past two decades, the number of physicians in private practice has dropped dramatically. This trend is the result of the financial pressure imposed by the federal government in response to the skyrocketing cost of healthcare. Physicians, frustrated by stagnant reimbursement rates in conjunction with increased administrative costs and overhead, are choosing hospital staff employment in favor of private practice. This trend is to the detriment of the physician, the taxpayers, and, most importantly, the patients. Patients treated in hospital outpatient settings have worse outcomes than those treated in private practice. In addition, hospital procedures cost both the government …

Accountability In Corporate Governance In China And The Impact Of Guanxi As A Double-Edged Sword, Andrew Keay, Jingchen Zhao

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Accountability is an essential aspect of corporate governance and it has been argued that the “wenze” system of accountability in China comes very close to the accountability systems developed in Anglo-American corporate governance. This Article examines the role of cultural factors, namely guanxi and its derivatives, in corporate governance in China to determine what effect, if any, these cultural factors have on the operation and development of the “wenze” system in large listed companies. The Article specifically considers whether the cultural elements affect accountability, and if so, how and to what extent. It also explores whether these cultural factors are …

A Judge's Duty To Do Justice: Ensuring The Accused's Right To The Effective Assistance Of Counsel, Peter A. Joy

Scholarship@WashULaw

Every judge has a duty to do justice, which is found not only the oath the judge takes, but also in the Code of Judicial Conduct. The American Bar Association (ABA) Criminal Justice Standards Regarding the Special Functions of the Trial Judge provides more specific guidance including the responsibility to safeguard the rights of the accused and the public’s interest in the fair administration of criminal justice.

I contend that a trial judge needs to be committed to a duty to do justice by ensuring the accused’s right to effective assistance of counsel, especially in light of the excessive caseloads …

Chief Justice William Howard Taft's Conception Of Judicial Integrity: The Legal History Of Tumey V. Ohio, Joshua E. Kastenberg

Faculty Scholarship

In 1927, Chief Justice William Howard Taft led a unanimous Court to determine that, at minimum, the right to an impartial and independent judiciary meant that the judge had to lack a personal interest in the outcome of the trial. While the decision, Tumey v. Ohio, was based on a judge’s pecuniary interest, it was also part of Taft’s efforts to ensure that the nation’s judges, from the municipal courts to the Supreme Court had the public’s confidence in their integrity. Tumey, therefore, is not simply a decision on pecuniary interests. It can, and should, be applied to …

The Post-Production Costs Issue In Texas And Louisiana: Implications For The Fate Of Implied Covenants And Pro-Lessor Clauses In The Shale Era Oil And Gas Lease., Laura H. Burney

St. Mary's Law Journal

This Article discusses the implications of Heritage Resources, Hyder, and several Louisiana cases on the “post-production costs” issue in gas royalty clauses, as well as the fate of implied covenants in the shale era. To better understand that issue, this Article first provides a background on the interaction of express lease clauses and the doctrine of implied covenants. This discussion reveals that implied covenants are relegated to a minor role in light of extensive express clauses in Shale Era leases because courts frequently view express or “plain” terms as barring implied covenants. The problem, however, as commentators have noted—particularly regarding …

The Executive Right To Lease After Kcm Financial Llc V. Bradshaw And A Louisiana Solution To A Texas Problem., Christopher S. Kulander

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.

Model Rule 5.7 And Lawyers In Government Jobs - How Can They Ever Be Non-Lawyers, Hugh D. Spitzer

Articles

This article focuses on the application of the Rules of Professional Conduct to licensed attorneys who serve in non-lawyer jobs in government. There is a fair amount of literature about members of the bar who serve as staff counsel in legislatures or executive agencies. There is also literature on Rule 5.7 of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct (“Responsibilities Regarding Law-related Services”) in the context of practicing lawyers who participate in ancillary “non-lawyering” business activities. Model Rule 5.7 deals with “services that might reasonably be performed” or “are related to the provision of legal services” but which are permitted …

Heads You Win, Tails I Lose: The Dilemma Mandatory Reporting Poses For Teachers, Meredith Falkiner, Donald Thomson, Belinda Guadagno, Andrew Day

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Australian teachers are mandated to report instances of child maltreatment should they suspect a child is being maltreated. Some teachers are reluctant to make a report based on suspicion alone. This review examines the barriers that may prevent teachers from reporting. It is suggested that to overcome these barriers and form a reasonable belief that a child is being maltreated, teachers may attempt to seek out proof by questioning the suspected victim. Inappropriate questioning can have detrimental consequences such as wrongful reporting when maltreatment is not occurring, or worse, no report made when a child is being maltreated. Based on …

'No Money Down' Bankruptcy, Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Katherine Porter, Deborah Thorne

Scholarly Works

This Article reports on a breakdown in access to justice in bankruptcy, a system from which one million Americans will seek help this year. A crucial decision for these consumers will be whether to file a chapter 7 or chapter 13 bankruptcy. Nearly every aspect of their bankruptcies — both the benefits and the burdens of debt relief — will be different in chapter 7 versus chapter 13. Almost all consumers will hire a bankruptcy attorney. Because they must pay their attorneys, many consumers will file chapter 13 to finance their access to the law, rather than because they prefer …