Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

Mediation Ethics: An Exploration Of Four Seminal Texts, Barbara Wilson

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

The subject of mediator ethics is often conflated with discussions about standards of practice, the appropriate wording of codes of conduct, or forms of practitioner regulation. These discussions sometimes also extend to debates about practice dilemmas, such as conflicts of interest, voluntariness, confidentiality and stakeholder issues. The main purpose of this paper is instead to discuss the importance and problems of the differing ethical principles which, I argue, underlie four seminal and popular Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) books. These texts are in current circulation, although some have been republished as later editions since first appearing. They are often used-either separately …

Impartiality: Balancing Personal And Professional Integrity In Judicial Decisionmaking, Sarah M. R. Cravens

Akron Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A 2010 Update: What Every Entertainment Lawyer Needs To Know - How To Avoid Being The Target Of A Legal Malpractice Claim Or Disciplinary Action, John P. Sahl

Akron Law Faculty Publications

There is significant risk today that lawyers will become the target of a disciplinary or legal malpractice action, especially given the complexity of the law and advances in technology that reduce the amount of time that lawyers have to reflect about client matters. This risk is heightened by the increased competition in the bar to deliver legal services in a cost-effective manner, the sophistication of clients who expect competent, efficient and reasonably priced services, and the litigious nature of consumers. The risk is further exacerbated by the ever-changing methods and rules for electronic communication and the storage of information. The …

Foreword: The New Era- Quo Vadis?, John Sahl

Akron Law Faculty Publications

The Inaugural MBI Symposium’s twenty-six participants highlight many important developments and challenges caused by MJP and new technologies. Their assessments and suggestions provide a helpful roadmap for lawyers and regulators to negotiate the increasingly complex, fast-paced, and ethically risky landscape for delivering legal services. Several panelists suggested regulatory reforms that range from the creation of a regulatory framework for lawyers engaged in crossborder practice to the creation of standards for the supervision of offshore outsourced legal services268 and the mining of metadata. Some of the panelists’ suggestions and reforms are especially important given the “high [financial] stakes” involved in the …

Entertainment Law – The Specter Of Malpractice Claims And Disciplinary Actions, John P. Sahl

Akron Law Faculty Publications

This article addresses the increasing exposure of entertainment lawyers to malpractice claims and disciplinary proceedings, highlighting how the unique pressures and structures of the entertainment industry heighten legal and ethical risks. It examines recurring issues such as conflicts of interest, dual representation, lack of formal engagement agreements, and overstepping professional boundaries—problems often exacerbated by the informal, relationship-driven nature of the industry. Through analysis of relevant case law and disciplinary outcomes, the article identifies patterns of professional misconduct and assesses the adequacy of current legal ethics frameworks in addressing these challenges. It concludes by recommending practical safeguards and ethical best practices …

A New Era – Quo Vadis? Symposium Introduction: Lawyers Beyond Borders And Practicing Law In The Electronic Age, John P. Sahl

Akron Law Faculty Publications

This symposium introduction explores the evolving landscape of legal practice in an increasingly globalized and digitized world. It highlights the challenges and opportunities posed by cross-border legal services, the rise of virtual law offices, and the transformation of attorney-client relationships in the electronic age. The article sets the stage for deeper discussions on jurisdictional boundaries, unauthorized practice of law (UPL), data security, and the ethical responsibilities of lawyers operating in transnational and virtual contexts. It also examines how traditional regulatory frameworks are adapting—or failing to adapt—to the realities of borderless legal practice. By framing the legal profession's current trajectory, the …

Robinson Everett: The Citizen Lawyer Ideal Lives On, David F. Levi

Faculty Scholarship

In this tribute to Professor Robinson O. Everett, Dean David Levi questions the view that the citizen-lawyer or lawyer-statesmen models are in decline. Tracing Professor Everett’s varied career, accomplishments, and commitments to individuals and institutions; Levi contends that Everett combined the lawyer's traditional focus on the individual with an overall dedication to the larger community. Everett was not just a model citizen; he was a lawyer-citizen. Levi contends that the survival of the lawyer-citizen and lawyer-statesmen models is a matter of choice and character. Nothing in the current structure of the legal economy places these models out of reach for …

Constructing Systemic Safeguards Against Informant Perjury, Peter A. Joy

Scholarship@WashULaw

Reliance on an informant's testimony as the primary basis for charging and convicting the accused is fraught with problems. While the hypothetical explicitly addresses the ethical dilemmas defense counsel faces when her client is trading false testimony in exchange for a reduced charge and shorter sentence, the hypothetical also implicitly illustrates the inadequacies of our criminal justice system's current handling of testimony from cooperating witnesses.

The focus on the ethical, and perhaps moral, obligations of Lawyer representing a potentially perjurious Client begs larger questions. Are there safeguards the prosecutor's office could employ to ensure that the trial prosecutor, who is …

Whom Should A Catholic University Honor?: "Speaking" With Integrity, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

It has been more than two years since the announcement that our then-recently-elected President, Barack Obama, would be the featured speaker—and would receive an honorary degree—at the University of Notre Dame's graduation ceremony. No footnotes or citations are necessary for the report that the University's decision was controversial or the observation that the choice was both criticized and celebrated by students, faculty, alumni, political commentators, lay Catholics, and Church leaders.

In a USA Today opinion piece published a few days before the graduation ceremony, I suggested that the "angst at Notre Dame" was "not about what should be said at …

Lawyers In Character And Lawyers In Role, Katherine R. Kruse

Nevada Law Journal

This essay explores the possibilities that Leonard Riskin's call for the development of the trait of mindfulness offers for the discussion of lawyers' roles and lawyers' characters in legal ethics. First, the article explains three ways that the problems associated with legal professionalism have been framed within legal ethics, and critique the underlying assumptions that animate the dominant framing of the problems of professionalism in legal ethics. Next, it expounds the work of the two most prominent legal ethicists who have proposed the development of distinctively lawyerly character traits: Anthony Kronman's call for the revival of a “lawyer-statesman” ideal in …

What Does It Mean To Do The Right Thing?, Ran Kuttner

Nevada Law Journal

This Article will explore how the practice of mindfulness and the cultivation of wisdom as understood in the Buddhist philosophy can help develop a mindset that will assist lawyers and conflict resolution specialists to make conscious ethical decisions and to do the “right thing” in different situations. It will draw a distinction between the two central terms, “mindfulness” and “wisdom,” clarify the philosophical underpinnings of “wisdom,” introduce foundational concepts in Buddhist philosophy, and suggest that in order to cultivate the aforementioned mindset, it is important to go beyond “mindfulness” and meet the challenges that the cultivation of “wisdom” pose. Part …

Not-So-Secret Ethics Committee Business, Kim Gifkins

ECU Research Week

Discover how ethics applications are reviewed.

Capteton V. A.T. Massey Coal Co.: The Texas Implications., Catherine Stone, Wendy Martinez

St. Mary's Law Journal

In Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co., the United States Supreme Court addressed whether the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution was violated by the denial of a motion to recuse. The motion sought to recuse a Supreme Court of Appeals Justice from West Virginia. The justice received an extraordinary campaign contribution from the chief officer of a corporate party to a case pending before the court. Several Texas courts addressed whether recusal was necessary based on campaign contributions prior to the decision in Caperton. Texas courts have universally held that recusal was not required. The United States …

The Torture Lawyers, Jens David Ohlin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

One of the longest shadows cast by the Bush Administration’s War on Terror involves the fate of the torture lawyers who authored or signed memoranda regarding torture or enhanced interrogation techniques against detainees. Should they face professional sanction or even prosecution for their involvement? The following Article suggests that their fate implicates some of the deepest questions of criminal law theory and that resolution of the debate requires a fundamental reorientation of the most important areas of justifications and excuses. First, the debate about torture has been overly focused on justifications for torture. This can be explained in part by …

David Luban, Review Of Daniel Markovits, A Modern Legal Ethics: Adversary Advocacy In A Democratic Age, David Luban

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Daniel Markovits offers a novel defense of the traditional partisan advocate’s role, based on the demands of personal integrity. Although he insists that the adversary system requires lawyers to lie and cheat (regardless of the particular ethics rules in place), it is possible to redescribe these lawyerly vices as the virtue of fidelity to a client, expressed through what John Keats called “negative capability”—a suppression of the self in order to allow someone else’s story to shine forth. These are first-personal moral ideals, and Markovits argues against the primacy of second- and third-personal moral ideals (such as Kantianism and utilitarianism) …

Colorado Legal Ethics: Guide To Resources, Robert M. Linz

Publications

No abstract provided.

What's Love Got To Do With It?: Contemporary Lessons On Lawyerly Advocacy From The Preacher Martin Luther King, Jr., Deborah J. Cantrell

Publications

Lawyers have long been inspired by the advocacy work of Martin Luther King, Jr. From his work on the Montgomery bus boycott, to lunch counter sit-ins, to his March on Washington, Dr. King demonstrated skilled advocacy that resulted in important legal advancements. While lawyers give primacy to Dr. King as an advocate, Dr. King gave primacy to his work as a preacher. This article challenges the legal profession to consider the ways in which Dr. King, the preacher, may be as inspirational and instructive as Dr. King, the civil rights icon. Just as Dr. King's religious values were not abstracted …

Matthew S. Weinert On Hegel’S Laws: The Legitimacy Of A Modern Legal Order. By William E. Conklin. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008. 381pp., Matthew S. Weinert

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Hegel’s Laws: The Legitimacy of a Modern Legal Order. By William E. Conklin. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008. 381pp.

Mapping The World: Facts And Meaning In Adjudication And Mediation, Robert Rubinson

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores what is and what is not in adjudication and mediation, thus illuminating the profound differences between these two processes. The Article does this work in four parts. First, it offers an analysis of cognitive mapmaking and its inevitability in constructing meaning. It then explores how adjudication defines meaning in a particular way. This Article then conducts a comparable analysis of mediation. Finally, it focuses on the bridging function attorneys play between the worlds of mediation and adjudication.

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 …