Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

Unsettling Human Rights Clinical Pedagogy And Practice In Settler Colonial Contexts, Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum, Caroline Bishop Laporte

Articles

In settler colonial contexts, law and educational institutions operate as structures of oppression, extraction, erasure, disempowerment, and continuing violence against colonized peoples. Consequently, clinical legal advocacy often can reinforce coloniality--the logic that perpetuates structural violence against individuals and groups resisting colonization and struggling for survival as peoples. Critical legal theory, including Third World Approaches to International Law (“TWAIL”), has long exposed colonial laws and practices that entrench discriminatory, racialized power structures and prevent transformative international human rights advocacy. Understanding and responding to these critiques can assist in decolonizing international human rights clinical law teaching and practice but is insufficient in …

Ethics By Appointment: An Empirical Account Of Obscured Sanctioning In Mdl Cases, Roger Michalski

Faculty Articles

Ethical norms in litigation are policed through overlapping regulatory regimes. One of these regimes is internal to litigation and split into different components, including Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 11, 26(g), and 37; Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 38; 28 U.S.C. §§ 1927 and 1447(c); as well as courts’ inherent authority to sanction litigants and attorneys. In the standard narrative, these tools provide immediate corrections to unethical conduct, unlike bar sanctions or derivative malpractice actions that are delayed and uncertain. Together, these tools aim to effectuate the goal of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 1: to make sure parties cooperate …

Where Neutrality Stops And Reality Begins: Why Considering Identity Is Vital To Lead And Class Counsel Selection, Melissa Mortazavi

Faculty Articles

When courts consider a choice of class or lead counsel in multidistrict litigation ("MDL') or class action suits, they often follow the idea of a neutral partisan model. Such a model idealizes lawyer conduct as a blank conduit for client interests. In theory, lawyers should be able to bring their legal expertise absent any personal experiences, individualized identity, and morality outside of practice. But the reality is that neither lawyers nor their clients can fully divorce their identities or moral viewpoints from the legal system. This Essay argues that an identity-blind choice of class or lead counsel, grounded in a …

Eliminating Cash Bail In Washington State—Amending Criminal Rule 3.2, Simran Kaur

Seattle University Law Review

This Note discusses the following three parts. Part I provides an overview of the cash bail system, its history, and its contemporary use in Washington state. Part II presents the effects of bail on pretrial release, analyzing low-income and racial inequalities and the adverse impacts it can have on the accused. Part III focuses on solutions and alternatives to the cash bail system, using other states as case studies.

Promoting Corporate Diversity: The Uncertain Role Of Institutional Investors, Jill Fisch

Seattle University Law Review

Two developments are having an impact on corporate decisions. One is the increased engagement by institutional intermediaries and a shift in the focus of that engagement from corporate governance to environmental and social issues. The other is a heightened societal awareness of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) issues, particularly the importance of diversity in corporate leadership. This Article considers the intersection between the two. It describes how institutional investors have focused their attention on increasing diversity in corporate leadership, the potential motivations for that focus, and the impact of that focus, to date. It highlights the tensions that result from …

America’S Hidden Citizens: The Untold Stories Of The Unconscionable Deportations Of Its International Adoptees, Halley Cody

Seattle University Law Review

This Note addresses how the U.S. should rectify the harms it has perpetrated on non-citizen adoptees by amending the current deportation statutes to prevent their deportation. Part I addresses the history of adoption in the U.S. and related effects on immigration law. Part II highlights the stories of Adam Crapser and Philip Clay, who were adopted by American families who failed to naturalize them as minors, and who were subsequently deported after they sustained criminal records. Part III examines the policy goals behind deportation as a consequence of criminal convictions, as well as remedies instituted to prevent unwarranted deportation and …

Inadequate Privacy: The Necessity Of Hipaa Reform In A Post-Dobbs World, Katherine Robertson

Seattle University Law Review

Part I of this Comment will provide an overview of HIPAA and the legal impacts of Dobbs. Part II will discuss the anticipatory response to the impacts of Dobbs on PHI by addressing the response from (1) the states, (2) the Biden Administration, and (3) the medical field. Part III will discuss the loopholes that exist in HIPAA and further address the potential impacts on individuals and the medical field if reform does not occur. Finally, Part IV will argue that the reform of HIPAA is the best avenue for protecting PHI related to reproductive healthcare.

Addressing The Failures Of The U.S. Civil Legal System, Lois R. Lupica, Lauren Hudson

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Road To Recovery: Why Rhode Island Drivers Should Be Made Whole From Potholes, Jordan Z. Sasa

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Dream Big And Lay The Groundwork: How Rhode Island Can Improve Access To Civil Justice For Self- Represented Litigants, Amanda Rotimi

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Universal Forms Of Influence: Support For Women On Boards, Cindy A. Schipani, Paula J. Caproni

Seattle University Law Review

There are various efforts underway to increase gender diversity on corporate boards, including legislation in California, a recent SEC approved comply or explain rule for companies listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange, and efforts by institutional investors such as State Street and BlackRock to recognize the value diversity brings to corporate decisionmaking. Although some of these efforts are being contested in the courts, many companies have begun to comply with these initiatives.

This Article is organized as follows. Part I provides an overview of several efforts to increase gender diversity on boards along with numerous research studies showcasing the benefits …

“Statistics Are Human Beings With The Tears Wiped Away”: Utilizing Data To Develop Strategies To Reduce The Number Of Native Americans Who Go Missing, Lori Mcpherson, Sarah Blazucki

Seattle University Law Review

On New Year’s Eve night, 2019, sixteen-year-old Selena Shelley Faye Not Afraid attended a party in Billings, Montana, about fifty miles west of her home in Hardin, Montana, near the Crow Reservation. A junior at the local high school, she was active in her community. The party carried over until the next day, and she caught a ride back toward home with friends in a van the following afternoon. When the van stopped at an interstate rest stop, Selena got out but never made it back to the van. The friends reported her missing to the police and indicated they …

The Conference Of Religiously Affiliated Law Schools Foreword, Samuel J. Levine

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Can A Christian Be A Lawyer Or Can Both God And Jackson Browne Be Right, Randy Lee

Touro Law Review

Jesus’s final command at His final meal before His death was to “love one another.” No less than Jackson Browne insisted that the ultimate absurdity in an absurd world is a “lawyer in love.” Thus, Jesus has commanded that even lawyers must love, but Jackson Browne has emphatically stressed that lawyers are incapable of love. Given the apparent conflict for lawyers between these two observations of Jesus and Jackson Browne, one might wonder whether one can be a Christian and a lawyer both. Can both God and Jackson Browne be right? Of course, the government could seemingly make the answer …

Reflections On The Creation Of The Jewish Law Institute At Touro, Randy Lee

Touro Law Review

Having interpreted the topic of our panel liberally, what I want to talk about today is why Sam Levine, director of Touro’s Jewish Law Institute, is here at the conference, or, to put it differently—why does Touro Law School have a Jewish law institute?”

Reaching Out Through The Universal: The Powerful And Positive Role Of A Jesuit Catholic Law School On The Secular Line, Judith A. Mcmorrow

Touro Law Review

There are multiple ways in which Catholic law schools can provide an education that supports and reflects a Catholic vision. Some schools align more closely to an orthodox view in which text and doctrine are the starting lens. Catholic law schools closer to the secular end of the spectrum play a powerful role by actively building bridges with the secular world. These schools, either implicitly or explicitly, start with values framed in more universal terms -- a moral or ethical worldview that can implement the common good in the secular world. A Catholic law school that emphasizes the universal generally …

Rage Against The Machine: Who Is Responsible For Regulating Generative Artificial Intelligence In Domestic And Cross-Border Litigation?, S. I. Strong

Faculty Articles

In 2023, ChatGPT—an early form of generative artificial intelligence (AI) capable of creating entirely new content—took the world by storm. The first shock came when ChatGPT demonstrated its ability to pass the U.S. bar exam. Soon thereafter, the world learned that ChatGPT was being used by both lawyers and judges in actual litigation.

Some within the legal community find the use of generative AI in civil and criminal litigation entirely unproblematic. Others find generative AI troubling as a matter of due process and procedural fairness due to its propensity not only to misinterpret legitimate legal authorities but to create fictitious …

Ethical Lawyering: The Role Of Honor, Conscience, And Codes (Reviewing Michael S. Ariens, The Lawyer’S Conscience: A History Of American Lawyer Ethics), Vincent R. Johnson

Faculty Articles

Michael Ariens’ new book, The Lawyer’s Conscience: A History of American Lawyer Ethics, is a monumental work, rooted in his decades of excellent scholarship in the fields of attorney professional responsibility and legal history. The Lawyer’s Conscience captures the great sweep and key features of the roughly 250-year period in American legal ethics running from colonial times to the present day. Richly detailed and vividly presented, the story takes the reader on a grand tour of the landmark events and changing ideas that have defined the aspirations, responsibilities, and accountability of members of the American legal profession.

Trauma-Informed Legal Advocacy, Laken Albrink

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

A trauma-informed approach in legal practice can reduce the re-traumatization of victims, provide recognition of the role trauma plays in the attorney-client relationship, and provide legal professionals with the opportunity to increase connections to their clients and improve advocacy.1 Part Two of this article defines trauma and adverse childhood experiences and the impact they have on clients. It then explores indicators of trauma and how they may present case barriers if the attorney is not trauma informed. Part Three explores ways attorneys can tailor their practice of law to be trauma-informed with clients, support staff, and other professionals. It demonstrates …

Who Watches The Watchmen? Using The Law Governing Lawyers To Identify The Applicant Duty Gap And Hold Bar Examiner Gatekeepers Accountable, Ashley M. London

Law Faculty Publications

The legal profession holds lawyers to high standards in their personal and professional lives and expects aspiring members to follow the ethical rules with scrupulous precision and candor. Yet the profession, and those monitoring admission to the profession, afford no protections or recourse to this class of young professionals during that critical period between graduation and successful bar passage.

Without reform, this previously unacknowledged duty gap will continue to demoralize and potentially harm future lawyers and reflect negatively on the profession as a whole. Supervising bodies, discussed within, treat applicants as if they have already committed an ethical breach. Indeed, …