Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

The Motherhood Myth, Traditional Firms, And The Underrepresentation Of Women, Paula Schaefer

FIU Law Review

This Article explains that the motherhood narrative—that women are underrepresented in partnership and leadership ranks of law firms because they are their children’s primary caregivers—is a myth. After detailing how the motherhood myth has been used as an excuse for poor retention of women, the Article provides evidence of an alternative explanation: traditional firms—characterized by extreme work expectations and reliance on the unpaid labor of attorneys’ stay-at-home spouses or partners (SAHSs)—are structurally and culturally hostile to women. To thrive in a traditional firm, an attorney needs a SAHS—not just an equal parenting partner as the motherhood myth claims. Traditional firms’ …

Response: Diagonal Representation, Alma Magaña

Articles

A lot has been written about the crisis of indigent defense and the plethora of factors that have led to the crisis, like the lack of guidance on how indigent defense providers can most efficiently distribute their insufficient resources. This lack of guidance has left jurisdictions across the country to their own devices, resulting in a national landscape of very different models, each with its own variations of the same problems plaguing indigent defense.

Subordinate Prosecutors’ Independence, Bruce A. Green, Jessica A. Roth

Articles

This essay is about subordinate prosecutors’ independence to do what they think constitutes “seeking justice” when they perceive that their boss, or their boss’s boss, wants them to do something that is unjust—not illegal, but unjust. Of course, if subordinate prosecutors want to do either what they are told to do or what they infer that a higher-up wants them to do, they can do so, as long as the conduct is legal. Subordinate prosecutors might choose to disregard their own professional judgment of what justice requires because they share their boss’s objectives, because they see conforming as a route …

An Indecent Exposure Of The Rules Of Legal Ethics, Lauren E. Bartlett

All Faculty Scholarship

Thousands of attorneys experience rape and sexual assault by clients, as well as indecent exposure, public masturbation, unwanted touching, verbal threats, and stalking. These incidents are not often publicly reported, but client sexual violence against attorneys is not uncommon. The ethical rules currently fail to account for an attorney who has experienced client sexual violence, whether to allow for termination of representation or to mitigate future harm to other lawyers. While the ethical rules are usually thought of as neutral, this Article critically examines the gender stereotypes and structures of oppression corseting the rules. Relying on a fifty-state survey of …

Law, Conflict, And Hybrid Warfare: A Teaching Imperative For A Changing World, Cynthia Alkon, Andrea K. Schneider

Articles

Lawyers increasingly find themselves at the frontlines of the battlefield, just not in the traditional sense. Hybrid warfare is a conflict form that combines traditional military offensive measures with nontraditional methods, including the harnessing of legal systems to achieve strategic goals. Lawyers have always been at the frontline of typical legal risk assessment, thinking about a client's risk of liability or regulation costs generally. Now, lawyers must stand at the ready for a lot more: lawyers must be prepared for cyber-attacks, disinformation campaigns using artificial intelligence, the use of court systems to suppress reporting or shield bad actors, and so …

Legislative Speech & Decorum, Sean J. Kealy

Faculty Scholarship

Decorum requires legislators to self-limit their free speech rights as citizens; things that may be said and done in the public square would violate legislative decorum rules. In 2023, two legislatures made headlines by using decorum rules to silence young legislators with minority views. In Tennessee, the House expelled two representatives after they walked into the House well and led protestors in the galleries in several chants demanding the House take up gun control legislation. In Montana, the House excluded a representative from the House Floor after she spoke against a bill to forbid minors access to gender affirming care. …

Predicting Federal Third-Party Funding Regulation, Victoria Sahani

Faculty Scholarship

Third-party funding is a global phenomenon, although regulatory enforcement is local. Regulatory approaches vary widely from country to country and within countries, especially in federal legal systems, such as Canada, Australia, and the United States. The United States federal government is learning about third-party funding with an eye toward potential future regulation. Congress has been investigating funding, as evidenced by testimony in congressional hearings, proposed federal legislation, and a nonpartisan study on third-party funding by the Government Accountability Office. In addition, after more than a decade of observation, the United States Federal Civil Rules Advisory Committee recently formed a committee …

Expanding Access To Justice Through Regulatory Reform And Innovation: Arizona Lessons From The Past, Present, And Future, Samuel A. Thumma

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Maine's Iolta Proposal: A Source Of Supplemental Funding For Legal Services, J. Gordon Scannell Jr.

Maine Law Review

Lawyers often hold certain client funds for short periods of time. Generally, those funds must be kept separate from funds belonging to the lawyer or law firm. Occasionally the clients' funds are deposited in individual, interest bearing accounts and the interest generated is credited to the particular client, but more often the amount or length of the deposit does not warrant the opening of an individual account and the funds are aggregated in a general, noninterest bearing trust account. A number of states have implemented programs, commonly referred to as Interest on Lawyers' Trust. Accounts (IOLTA), which allow attorneys to …

Cancellation Of Removal For Inadmissible Non-Citizens, Anna Vanbuskirk

Law Student Works

Cancellation of removal is a defensive application for non-citizens in immigration removal proceedings. It is often colloquially referred to as “42B cancellation of removal” based on the form number of the associated application. This Pathfinder research guide provides an overview of cancellation of removal for inadmissible non-citizens. Those who satisfy the criteria in INA § 240A(b)(1) and successfully petition an immigration judge for 42B cancellation of removal are eligible for adjustment of status to lawful permanent residence.

This guide navigates the researcher through an overview of the cancellation of removal criteria and how to find the relevant federal statutes, applicable …

Legal Ethics, Patrick Emery Longan

Mercer Law Review

This Survey covers the period from June 1, 2023 to May 31, 2024. The Article discusses developments with respect to lawyer discipline, bar admission and reinstatement, malpractice, ineffective assistance of counsel, disqualification of counsel, judicial misconduct and recusal, attorney’s fees and liens, contempt and other sanctions, unauthorized practice of law, suits against the State Bar of Georgia, attorney-client privilege, amendments to the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct, formal advisory opinions, and one miscellaneous matter.

Human Rights Due Diligence At The Intersection Of Corporate Compliance And Corporate Purpose, Stephen Kim Park

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

The concept of human rights due diligence (“HRDD”) is one part of a broad and diverse range of approaches to address the responsibilities of business to society. Through laws requiring that companies identify and address their adverse impacts on workers, communities, and the environment, HRDD expands the role of corporate compliance in making companies accountable for the welfare of stakeholders. This Article addresses the implications of HRDD laws on how corporations operationalize corporate purpose and examines the barriers posed by corporate compliance practices to meaningfully—rather than cosmetically—enhance responsible business conduct.

What Should Caremark Encompass?, Claire A. Hill, Zohreh Zakiani

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Under In re Caremark Int’l Inc. Derivative Litig., decided in 1996, directors are required to oversee corporate compliance and can be liable for breaching their fiduciary duties if their oversight efforts do not suffice. Since it was decided, Caremark has been very influential, notwithstanding its high bar to liability. Notably, its influence far exceeds the actual probability that directors would be found liable under the doctrine. Instead, much of Caremark’s force is “soft,” through extra-legal mechanisms such as norms and pressures from various constituencies. Caremark clearly covers oversight for violations of law or regulation. But what, beyond those two things, …

Regulating Compliance Officers, Jennifer M. Pacella

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Compliance officers are currently an unregulated body and, unlike the legal profession, are not subject to any particular set of professional guidelines that guide their behavior. The lack of a distinct compliance officer profession creates risks relating to heightened potential personal liability and the possibility of merging with another profession that is not exactly compatible with the compliance function. To mitigate these risks, this Article proposes the creation of a professional regulatory system for compliance officers that is industry-specific and self-regulated and discusses the various benefits that would stem from such a system.

International Compliance Codes: Reflections On Their Significance, James Fanto

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

This Article explores the significance of international compliance codes. After describing compliance and reviewing compliance program activities and structures that have become the standard compliance mode, it looks at major U.S. and international compliance codes that helped establish and reinforce that model. It then explores reasons for the successful international diffusion of compliance, as evidenced by the international compliance codes. It particularly highlights that the compliance codes have followed a well-trodden path of international codes of business practices, which is to present them as a kind of neutral business technology. It discusses the main reason for this presentation, academic criticism …

Emerging Compliance In The Generative Decentralized Era, Nizan Geslevich Packin

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Is it the end of compliance as we know it? Emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (“AI”), including Generative AI (“GenAI”), and blockchain are reshaping regulatory compliance in the Web 3.0 era. As machine-generated data becomes the norm, traditional models reliant on human oversight are becoming obsolete, necessitating swift adaptation from regulators and industry stakeholders. Historically, compliance was designed to be managed by humans due to the need for critical thinking, ethical considerations, and nuanced decision-making. Yet, in today’s era, this approach is no longer viable. Addressing this need, Regulatory Technology (“RegTech”) has played a key role in modernizing compliance …

Was 2024 A Good Year For You? Let’S Review Your Yardsticks…, Seow Hon Tan, Su Ching Lim

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This op-ed encourages all to reflect on their year and examine whether they have lived meaningfully according to their yardstick of meaning, the legacy they want to leave behind, and whether their talents and credentials are empowering and enabling, rather than restricting them. It is written as part of a research project examining success and flourishing in Singapore.

Transplantation And Immortality: A Selective History Of Boston University’S Center For Health Law, Ethics & Human Rights, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

The celebration of the anniversary of the Center for Health Law, Ethics & Human Rights (the “Center”) provides an opportunity to reflect on what defines the field of health law, as well as its conjoined twins of bioethics and human rights. The related fields are vast, and the subjects they encompass are ever-expanding. It is probably impossible to lay out a summary that does justice to their expansive, interdisciplinary scope. Instead, my discussion of the Center examines a subject that barely existed when the Center was formed in 19581 and that continues to make headlines more than sixty–six years later …

Paying For Performance? Attorneys' Fees In Fraud Class Actions, Stephen J. Choi, Jessica M. Erickson, Adam C. Pritchard

Articles

This paper studies whether plaintiffs' lawyers matter in securities class actions. We use inverse propensity score weighting (IPW) to compare the results in cases led by top-tier firms against those brought by lower-tier firms. This technique addresses case selection effects by using all of the cases led by a top-tier firm and then weighting the cases led by lower-tier firms based on how similar these cases are to the cases led by top-tier firms. We do find that top-tier lawyers obtain better outcomes for shareholders in a subset of securities class actions, specifically the cases against the larger (although not …

Law School News: Rwu Receives $750,000 Gift From Hassenfeld Family Foundation To Strengthen Law School's Regional Impact And Reputation 11-13-2024, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.