Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

“Hard Strikes And Foul Blows”: Berger V. United States 75 Years After, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

My essay examines one of the most iconic decision of the Supreme Court seventy five years later. Berger v. United States is the most eloquent and authoritative description of the prosecutor's duty "not that it shall win a case but that justice shall be done." My essay looks at why the Court decided to take up the case then, and why it has become so prominent in criminal law and ethics.

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 a growing consensus, however, that children in dependency cases should have lawyers who are as active and as involved in their cases as are lawyers for any other party in any other litigation. Yet there continues to be confusion and debate over the role and duties of the lawyer, particularly as to what voice the child should have in determining the direction and goals of the litigation. Policy makers have differed as to whether the child's lawyer should …

Transnational Legal Practice 2009, Carole Silver, Laurel S. Terry, Ellyn S. Rosen

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article identifies some of the most important U.S. and international developments in transnational legal practice and provides citations for further research. The article begins by briefly reviewing the impact of the recession on legal services. The second section focuses on international developments. It identifies some of the ongoing efforts to implement the 2007 U.K. Legal Services Act, including the issuance of the influential Hunt and Smedley reports. It also provides information about law reform initiatives in France, Scotland and Korea. This section of the article also provides information about Canadian and Australian developments regarding admission of foreign applicants and …

Beyond Cardboard Clients In Legal Ethics, Kate Kruse

Faculty Scholarship

This Article argues that the construction of cardboard clients in legal ethics has disserved legal ethics by obscuring what is arguably a more central problem of legal professionalism: the problem of legal objectification. The problem of legal objectification is the tendency of lawyers to "issue-spot" their clients as they would the facts on a blue-book exam, overemphasizing the clients' legal interests and minimizing or ignoring the other cares, commitments, relationships, reputations and values that constitute the objectives clients bring to legal representation. This Article proposes an alternative ideal of legal professionalism for "three-dimensional clients" based on helping clients articulate and …

An Introduction To The Financial Action Task Force And Its 2008 Lawyer Guidance, Laurel S. Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is a thirty-eight-member intergovernmental organization whose mission is to fight money laundering and terrorism financing; the U.S. is a founding member of the FATF. The FATF is best known for its 40 Recommendations, many of which are directed towards various kinds of “gatekeepers” who are in a position to facilitate or inhibit money laundering and terrorism financing. (These were previously known as the 40+9 Recommendations). Lawyers are among those to whom the FATF’s recommendations apply. This article provides the introduction for the Journal of the Professional Lawyer’s Symposium about the application of the FATF …

Plagiarism: The Legal Landscape, Robert Berry

Librarian Publications

In Chapter 10, Robert Berry discusses legal issues regarding plagiarism and academic cases of intellectual dishonesty.

From the Introduction: Colleges and universities with plagiarism policies that are fundamentally fair—and that are applied consistently—enjoy three significant advantages over those that do not. First, these schools enjoy greater legitimacy in the eyes of the people who must live with their decisions. They exercise genuine moral authority in their decision making, which is much more consistent with the goals of education, and they avoid the exercise of raw power that often accompanies ad hoc decision making. Second, educational institutions with fair policies are …

Institutional Advocacy, Constitutional Obligations, And Professional Responsibilities: Arguments For Government Lawyering Without Glasses, John C. Dehn

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Director Liability For Corporate Crimes: Lawyers As Safe Haven?, John A. Humbach

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The fines and penalties assessed against corporations are running into the billions of dollars each year. Part of the reason is that the managers and employees of entrepreneurial organizations have inherent incentives to engage in conduct that exposes the entity to fines and penalties. This article considers the legal bases for shifting these law-enforcement losses back to directors who are actively involved in creating them, either because they approved or they deliberately ignored the corporation’s legal or regulatory violations (Part II). It then examines bases for shifting these losses back to directors even when their involvement in the non-compliance is …

Through Gritted Teeth And Clenched Jaw: Court-Initiated Sanctions In Bankruptcy Opinions, Nancy B. Rapoport

Scholarly Works

This article discusses what types of behavior can trigger a bankruptcy court's initiation of sanctions against an attorney.

Rethinking Professional Fees In Chapter 11 Cases, Nancy B. Rapoport

Scholarly Works

This article discusses the many ways in which professional fees can spiral out of control in chapter 11 bankruptcy cases and evaluates the possible ways to monitor and control those fees.

Debtor Counsel's Fiduciary Duty: Is There A Duty To Rat In Chapter 11?, Nancy B. Rapoport, C. R. Bowles

Scholarly Works

This article discusses what duties counsel to the debtor-in-possession owe (and to whom they owe these duties) when the debtor-in-possession wants to do something illegal or just plain dumb.

Is The Attorney-Client Privilege Under Attack?, Nancy B. Rapoport, Jennifer Gross

Scholarly Works

This short article discusses the Textron case and attorney-client privilege in foreign jurisdictions.

How To Avoid The Constraints Of Rule 10b-5(B): A First Circuit Guide For Underwriters, Eric H. Franklin

Scholarly Works

If an underwriter knows that a prospectus contains a material misrepresentation, may that underwriter use the prospectus to sell securities, or would that expose the underwriter to liability under Rule 10b-5(b)? The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit's surprising and rather disconcerting answer was delivered on March 10, 2010, in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Tambone. In Tambone, the First Circuit held that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could not hold underwriters liable for such misrepresentations if they did not draft the prospectus. Ostensibly, this holding is nothing more than a judicial check on the SEC's …

The Company Of Scoundrels, Ronald J. Bacigal

Washington and Lee Law Review

My initial reaction to Brett Shockley's Note, Protecting Due Process from the PROTECT Act: The Problems with Increasing Periods of Supervised Release for Sexual Offenders, was to admire his courage. Not many people would undertake a discussion of possible injustice to child pornographers, who surely rank with terrorists and drug dealers as the most reviled and least sympathetic claimants for fair treatment. Shockley puts aside the moral condemnation these people deserve, and focuses on the morality of Procedure-the rule of Law if you will-divorced from the worthiness, or lack thereof, of particular defendants. As students of criminal Procedure come to …

Being Virtuous And Prosperous: Sri’S Conflicting Goals, Benjamin J. Richardson, Wes Cragg

Articles & Book Chapters

Can SRI be a means to make investors both virtuous and prosperous? This paper argues that there can be significant tensions between these goals, and that SRI (and indeed all investment) should not allow the pursuit of maximizing investment returns to prevail over an ethical agenda of promoting social and economic justice and environmental protection. The discourse on SRI has changed dramatically in recent years to the point where its capacity to promote social emancipation, sustainable development and other ethical goals is in jeopardy. Historically, SRI was a boutique sector of the market dominated by religious-based investors who sought to …

The Supreme Court's Increased Attention To The Law Of Lawyering: Mere Coincidence Or Something More? , Renee Newman Knake

American University Law Review

The United States Supreme Court considered seventeen cases raising issues related to the role of attorneys and the practice of law during the 2009 Term. This body of cases represents a substantial departure from dockets in recent history, where typically the Court took up less than a handful of cases involving regulation of the legal profession. While some might consider the increased number of cases addressing the law of lawyering a mere coincidence, this article contends that something more is occurring. The Court’s decision to devote so much of its limited time to these matters is noteworthy not only for …

Mapping The Issues: Public Health, Law And Ethics, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The field of public health is typically regarded as a positivistic pursuit and, undoubtedly, our understanding of the etiology and response to disease is heavily influenced by scientific inquiry. Public health policies, however, are shaped not only by science but also by ethical values, legal norms, and political oversight. Public Health Law and Ethics: A Reader (expanded and updated 2nd ed., 2010) probes and seeks to illuminate this complex interplay, through a careful selection of government reports, scholarly articles, and court cases together with discussion and analysis of critical problems at the interface of law, ethics, and public health. The …

Their Love Is Here To Stay: Why The Supreme Court Cannot Turn Back The Hands Of Time, Marsha B. Freeman

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

An Introduction To The Financial Action Task Force And Its 2008 Lawyer Guidance, Laurel S. Terry

Faculty Scholarship

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is a thirty-eight-member intergovernmental organization whose mission is to fight money laundering and terrorism financing; the U.S. is a founding member of the FATF. The FATF is best known for its 40 Recommendations, many of which are directed towards various kinds of “gatekeepers” who are in a position to facilitate or inhibit money laundering and terrorism financing. (These were previously known as the 40+9 Recommendations). Lawyers are among those to whom the FATF’s recommendations apply. This article provides the introduction for the Journal of the Professional Lawyer’s Symposium about the application of the FATF …

The Lesson Of The Irish Family Pub: The Elder Clinic Path To A More Thoughtful Practice, Katherine C. Pearson

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, the Director of the Elder Law Clinic at Pennsylvania State University provides insight into the development of Elder Law as a unique discipline by tracking the history and challenges faced by her program as it approaches ten years of operation. A core focus of the Elder Law clinic, beyond practical experience, is to expose its students to the ethical issues confronted in Elder Law practice. Students in the clinic combine classroom discussions with practical experience representing clients, thereby becoming better prepared for their professional futures, while also gaining appreciation for the special concerns of the elderly client. …