Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

Juking Access To Justice To Deregulate The Legal Market, Milan Markovic

Faculty Scholarship

Study after study has concluded that the United States suffers from a lack of access to justice because most legal issues are addressed without attorney involvement. To better serve Americans who cannot currently afford legal assistance, scholars have argued that corporations should be permitted to offer legal services. England and Australia already allow corporations to own law firms and deliver legal services.

Whatever the merits of corporate delivery of legal services, its impact on access to justice has been overstated. The cost of legal services plays a minor role in decisions to not obtain legal assistance. Moreover, many legal services …

The House Edge: On Gambling And Professional Discipline, Stacey A. Tovino

Scholarly Works

On March 26, 2014, the Iowa Supreme Court revoked the license to practice law of Cedar Rapids attorney Susan Hense. Admitted to the Iowa Bar in 1996, Hense subsequently misappropriated $837,000 in client trust funds to feed her addiction to casino gambling. This Article assesses how attorneys like Hense who are addicted to gambling are treated in professional disciplinary actions, including license suspension, revocation, and reinstatement proceedings. Themes that emerge include public misunderstanding of gambling disorder, stigma against individuals with gambling disorder, statutory recognition of substance addictions but not behavioral addictions, and mandatory attendance at religion based fellowship meetings as …

Personal Jurisdiction In Legal Malpractice Litigation, Cassandra Burke Robertson

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

Lawyers are increasingly engaging in multi-jurisdictional practice—and their representation is increasingly giving rise to cross­-jurisdictional malpractice actions. Over the years, courts have issued divergent and contradictory opinions about whether out-of-state attorneys representing clients only on out-of-state matters can constitutionally be subject to personal jurisdiction in the client’s home state. The Supreme Court’s recent opinions in Daimler v. Bauman and Walden v. Fiore do little to settle this question and, in fact, may raise more questions than they answer. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court’s new personal jurisdiction jurisprudence offers an opportunity for courts to adopt a more cohesive analysis of personal jurisdiction …

The Texas Lawyer's Creed: Exploring Its Origin And Impact Over The Last Quarter Century, Alicia M. Grant

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

This Comment examines different practical applications of the Creed and addresses the courts’ use of the Creed as a guide for desired ethical conduct. Additionally, this Comment includes an appendix of cases in which courts have cited the Creed and incorporates a survey of prominent individuals in the legal profession, including individuals who were instrumental in drafting or adopting the Creed.

Part III provides a historical background, detailing the increased incivility within the legal profession and the need for the profession to confront internally the incivility. Understanding the environment that gave birth to the Creed and the profession’s drive to …

Use Of Expunged Records In Attorney-Disciplinary Proceedings, Roland D. Ramos

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

The Texas Supreme Court’s decision in In re State Bar of Texas should be modified. In In re State Bar of Texas, the Court allowed the use of a criminal defendant’s expunged records in a subsequent disciplinary proceeding against his attorney. Allowing the use of expunged records for any purpose violates Texas law. For example, under the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, it is an offense to knowingly release or use expunged records for any reason, unless a court’s final expunction order permits the expunged records to be retained for future use or if a defendant waives his or …

Reasons For Counseling Reasonableness In Deploying Covenants-Not-To-Compete In Technology Firms, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz

Articles

Some states ban the enforcement of employee covenants-not-to-compete (“non-competes”) but most enforce them to the extent they are reasonable. As such, “reasonableness” provides the touchstone for enforceability analysis. The academic literature commenting on the reasonableness of non-competes is large and growing. Scholars usually direct their comments to judges, legislators, and other scholars.

Rarely do they address practicing lawyers. That omission is particularly unfortunate because practicing lawyers, more than judges, legislators, and scholars, can affect whether non-competes work both fairly and effectively. This Article fills that void by providing reasons, directed to practicing lawyers, for deploying non-competes in a reasonable manner. …

Gender Bias In The Courtroom: Challenges Confronting Women Litigators And Trial Attorneys, Connie Lee

Student Articles and Papers

This paper examines the gender biases that women trial attorneys and litigators confront in the legal profession. Specifically, this paper analyzes how such biases undermine our legal system by attacking principles of fairness and equity and, consequently, jeopardizing the client's opportunity to be heard and access fair court proceedings.

Commentaries On The Model Rules Of Professional Conduct, Thomas Andrews, Karen Boxx

Books

This Fifth Edition of the ACTEC Commentaries continues the tradition of providing guidance on the Model Rules of Professional Conduct particular to estate and trust practitioners. The Fifth Edition update to the Commentaries takes account of amendments to the Model Rules adopted since the 2005 Fourth Edition, including those proposed by the American Bar Association Commission on Ethics 20/20 as adopted by the ABA in 2012 and 2013. It is current through August 31, 2015 as there have been no amendments to the Model Rules since 2013.

In addition to these updates, we have added Commentary and Annotations to four …

George Zimmerman, Jerry Sandusky, And The Ethics Of Counsel’S Use Of The Media, Wesley M. Oliver, Rebecca L. Silinski

Oklahoma Law Review

The media is both a tool and a temptress for the modern lawyer. With interest in trials increasing, particularly criminal trials, lawyers are frequently invited to become part of the media’s coverage. The media provides lawyers an opportunity to tell their clients’ stories, but it also brings a type of fame to the attorney, which may bias the lawyer’s view of the wisdom of the coverage. The American Bar Association’s (ABA) Model Rules of Professional Conduct (Model Rules) have long recognized that a lawyer’s interest in the literary and media rights to the client’s story potentially compromises the client’s representation. …

The Prosecutor's Duty To "Imperfect" Rape Victims, Tamara Rice Lave

Articles

No abstract provided.

Probable Cause Revisited, William Ortman

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Representing Children And Youth, Donald N. Duquette, Ann M. Haralambie

Book Chapters

The role of the child's attorney is unique in American jurisprudence and not yet clearly defined by law or tradition. There is an emerging consensus, however, that children in dependency cases should have lawyers and those lawyers should be as active and as involved in their cases as are lawyers for any other party in any other litigation. Although state law and policy makers differ as to what voice the child should have in determining the direction and goals of the litigation, that is, whether the child's lawyer should represent the best interests of the child as determined by the …

Brady Misconduct Remedies: Prior Jeopardy And Ethical Discipline Of Prosecutors, J. Thomas Sullivan

Law Faculty Scholarship

In an Arkansas capital murder prosecution that resulted in conviction and sentences of death based on the killing of a family offour, defense counsel learned after the conviction had been reversed that a key prosecution witness, the defendant's son, who testified against his father, implicating him in the murders at trial, had also given prosecutors a statement in which he claimed responsibility for the crimes and exculpated his father. Defense counsel moved to dismiss the prosecution on the ground of prosecutorial misconduct, then raised a prior jeopardy claim in an effort to bar retrial by taking an interlocutory appeal to …

Panel Introduction

American University Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Helping Profession : Can Pro Bono Lawyers Make Sick Children Well?, Lorne Sossin

Articles & Book Chapters

"Can pro bono lawyers make sick children well? Surprisingly, the answer might be yes. Or at least pro bono lawyers can improve patients’ experiences and health outcomes for families caught up in the hospital system. ... a pioneering initiative in Boston to locate legal clinics in hospitals. Word of this experiment reached Pro Bono Law Ontario (PBLO), an organization active in referring hospital cases to lawyers willing to take on pro bono cases. The benefits of coordinating such cases through a hospital-based pro bono clinic were clear, and the Family Legal Health Program, renamed PBLO at SickKids, was born."

Assignments With Intrinsic Lessons On Professionalism (Or, Teaching Students To Act Like Adults Without Sounding Like A Parent), Beth H. Wilensky

Articles

There is little question that law schools ought to teach their students professionalism – indeed, they are required to do so to maintain accreditation. And there is little question that the required legal writing and research course is one of the places it ought to be taught. But teaching students to adopt the norms of professional behavior — both in law school and after graduation — is a challenge to law faculties, and particularly to the experiential learning faculty who frequently are on the front lines of teaching professionalism. While there are many ways to teach students what professional and …

Culture As A Structural Problem In Indigent Defense, Eve Brensike Primus

Articles

In Part I, I will describe the ways in which today's right-to-counsel challenges are similar to and different from those that faced the writers of the 1961 symposium. I will also explain in more detail why the structural conditions of criminal defense work to create (and, to some extent, always have created) a cultural problem in indigent defense delivery systems across the country. In Part II, I will discuss why I believe that we are, once again, facing a moment for potential reform, albeit reform that is different in scope and kind from that which was possible in the 1960s. …

Bend Or Break: Enhancing The Responsibilities Of Law Societies To Promote Access To Justice, Richard Devlin Frsc

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

There now appears to be a consensus in Canada that we have a serious access to justice problem. Chief Justices have been vocal. The Governor-General has made an intervention. Legal newspapers and websites have weekly, if not daily, stories on access to justice concerns. There have been several thorough reports which both detail the problems and propose possible paths forward. And one CEO of a national law firm has lamented that “access to justice is the legal profession’s equivalent of global warming.”

However, in my opinion, despite all this alarm, attention, and progress, two key components tend to be missing …

The Ethical Identity Of Sexual Assault Lawyers, Elaine Craig

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Despite progressive law reforms, sexual assault complainants continue to experience the criminal justice response to the violations that they have suffered as unsatisfactory, if not traumatic. One emerging response to this dilemma involves greater consideration of the ethical boundaries imposed on lawyers that practice sexual assault law. What is the relationship between a criminal lawyer’s ethical duties and the reforms to the law of sexual assault in Canada? How do lawyers themselves understand the ethical limits imposed on their conduct of a sexual assault case? How do lawyers that practice in this area of law comprehend their role in the …

Medical Certificates Of Death: First Principles And Established Practices Provide Answers To New Questions, Jocelyn Downie, Kacie Oliver

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Voluntary euthanasia became legal in Quebec in December 2015,1 although the legislation is currently the subject of litigation. In addition, physician-assisted death will become legal across Canada in February 2016, barring an extension on the deadline being given by the Supreme Court of Canada. There are many questions about how physician-assisted death should be regulated. One as-yet-unanswered question is “Should physician-assisted death be recorded anywhere on the medical certificate of death?” If so, a second question follows: “How should it be recorded — as manner and/or cause?” and if the latter, “Which category of cause: immediate, antecedent or underlying?”

To …