Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

Law's Penal-Professional World Order, Pilar Margarita Hernández Escontrías

Fordham Law Review

The attorney discipline regime has been propagandized as a necessary mechanism to police poor attorney conduct to protect the public. According to this myth, professional associations investigate attorney misconduct and impose sanctions, thus protecting the “noble profession” from attorneys who would tarnish its reputation. Violations of ethics rules lead to investigation, prosecution, and punishment by the state bar. In structure and language, state bars and judicial officers replicate the state in their use of disciplinary frameworks and regimes.

The self-regulating bar is a form of punitive governance used by the state to control entry into and expulsion from the profession. …

Training To The Tech: Fostering The Ethical Adaptation To And Adoption Of Emerging Technologies In The Practice Of Law, Raymond H, Brescia

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Socializing The Rule 2.1 Lawyer-Advisor, Casey E. Faucon

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Winging It: Convergence, Convivencia, And Belonging Of Latina Lawyers, Verónica C. Gonzales

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Chicana Professionalism: Embracing Greñas, Glitter & Boots, Luz E. Herrera

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Building A Professionally Socialized Immigration Bar: A Comparative Case Study, Jayanth K. Krishnan, Kunle Ajagbe

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

“No Further Discussion Necessary”: Compliance As Professionalism In Legal Education, Sarah J. Schendel

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Chicana Professionalism: Embracing Greñas, Glitter & Boots, Luz E. Herrera

Faculty Scholarship

The current political moment, where immigrant identity is scapegoated and academic freedom is threatened, requires an affirmation of personal identity, a recognition of personal struggle, and a celebration of resilience. This Essay embraces the ideas that professional identity development is temporal and that the current conceptualization of professionalism requires embarking on a reflection journey that addresses the dissonance between personal conscience and professional duty.   Part I briefly revisits the work of Professor Margaret E. Montoya, one of the first Chicana law professors that describes the formation of her professional identity as a law student. It explores the status of Latinas …

Rewired: Reconceptualizing Legal Services For The Ai Age, Lev E. Breydo

Faculty Publications

The legal profession is at a crossroads, caught between intensifying fears of AI-driven displacement and a generational opportunity for transformation. This Article provides a practical framework for navigating the shifting terrain.

Situating legal innovation within a multi-century arc of technological change, the Article draws on management and strategy scholarship to develop two core organizing models: the Legal Services Value Chain and the Innovation Frontier. The value chain disaggregates the lifecycle of a legal matter into five distinct nodes of activity, providing a map for subsequent analyses

Building on that foundation, the Innovation Frontier traces LegalTech’s evolution from 2000s-vintage e-discovery to …

Answering Your Most-Asked Dental Benefit Questions, William Sullivan Jd, James Budd Mpp

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

This column examines the increasing federal scrutiny of non-compete agreements by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). It notes that both the Trump and Biden administrations have prioritized curtailing the misuse of these agreements, particularly in healthcare. The article provides practical steps for employers to audit existing agreements for reasonableness and individualization. It encourages exploring alternatives such as non-solicitation and confidentiality clauses and stresses the importance of documenting the legitimate business interests that justify any remaining non-compete requirements to withstand future regulatory scrutiny.

Dr. Deb Peters: Opening Doors As The Ada’S New Speaker, Debra Peters, Christopher J. Smiley

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

This interview profiles Dr. Deb Peters, the first female speaker of the ADA House of Delegates. Dr. Peters shares her vision for making the ADA more accessible, transparent, and responsive to its members. She discusses her leadership philosophy, emphasizing listening and mentorship, and explains how effective governance can lead to significant real-world impacts, such as the removal of taxes on dental prosthetics. Dr. Peters also outlines her goals for modernizing the House of Delegates process, including the creation of a "Resolution Dashboard" to help members track policy progress.

Hiding Elephants In Mouseholes: Judicial (Mis)Application Of The Federal Arbitration Act To Attorney-Client Arbitration Agreements, Gregory L. Smith

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article criticizes cases and commentary that assume, without argument, that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) and its decidedly pro-arbitration jurisprudence apply to determine the enforceability of private attorney-client arbitration agreements, thus preempting state bar rules governing disclosures that lawyers must otherwise provide to clients when proposing private, binding arbitration in place of bar-sponsored arbitration regimes. The author argues that applying the FAA and its jurisprudence to attorney-client arbitration agreements raises significant constitutional issues regarding the states’ recognized authority to regulate the legal profession—an issue that courts and commentators have simply ignored.

Outbound Investment Restrictions And International Law’S Challenge, Harlan Grant Cohen

Seattle University Law Review

The Outbound Investment Rule, restricting U.S. investment in certain Chinese advanced technology sectors, has largely been portrayed as an incremental measure, a modest extension to fill loopholes in the existing investment screening regime. But while perhaps the logical next step in the securitization of the economy, the Outbound Investment Rule actually reflects a momentous shift in the relationship between governments and business, one playing out in the United States and around the world and worth attention. Unlike traditional investment screening, the Outbound Investment Rule operates like a sanctions regime, designed not to protect the U.S. economy, but to hamper the …

Navigating Compliance In A Geopolitical Era: The Case Of Chinese Multinationals In The United States, Ji Li

Seattle University Law Review

This Article examines how Chinese multinational companies (MNCs) approach compliance in the United States amid deepening geo-political rivalry and intensified regulatory scrutiny. Drawing on original survey data, this Article maps variations in compliance structures, staffing, and governance mechanisms across Chinese firms and identifies key determinants such as industry-specific regulatory intensity, listing status, and organizational imprinting from headquarters. The analysis employs a dual institutional framework to explain how compliance systems emerge from the interplay between host-state regulatory demands and home-state institutional legacies, producing hybrid structures that blend local adaptation with headquarters-driven replication. Findings reveal that while certain compliance features—such as committee …

The Field Of International Business Transactions Law, Kathleen Claussen

Seattle University Law Review

This Article studies the evolution of the scholarly subfield referred to as the law of “international business transactions” (IBT). It reviews data on academic articles, courses, textbooks and other signifiers of the growth of this research area. Beginning around 1960, scholars began to use the term “international business transactions” and by the 1980s, several law schools were offering a course by that title. A handful of dedicated textbooks soon followed. These data reflect a gradual increase in research on the topic of IBT, particularly in the United States, but also considerable diversity of subject matters covered by those works. The …

Resilient Dispute Resolution Systems For International Energy Conflicts, Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez

Seattle University Law Review

Energy-related conflicts are on the rise, spanning diverse issues such as the impacts of rare mineral mining on local communities, the impacts of sanctions on energy investments due to the Russia-Ukraine war, and the impacts of expanded subsidies on the electric vehicle and solar panel industries. Increasingly, companies, communities, and governments are clashing over the challenges of pursuing disparate and sometimes competing energy policies. This Article argues that dispute resolution mechanisms in the energy investment sector must be fundamentally rethought. Traditional semi-adjudicatory models, which focus on winners and losers, fail to accommodate the complex and multifaceted nature of contemporary energy …

Restricting Data Flows Is A Sign Of Weakness, Nikolas Guggenberger

Seattle University Law Review

There has been a seismic shift in American attitudes toward the free flow of data across borders.  In less than a decade, the United States has transitioned from condemning barriers to digital trade to constructing a digital fortress of its own. It passed legislation requiring TikTok’s parent company to divest its U.S. operations or face a nationwide ban affecting 170 million U.S. users, citing national security concerns about its ties to China and the potential for data surveillance and content manipulation. Upon legal challenge by TikTok on First Amendment grounds, the Supreme Court affirmed the ban’s constitutionality. Recent federal legislation …

Product Nationality And Corporate Identity, Trang (Mae) Nguyen

Seattle University Law Review

Global supply chains have long depended on a deceptively technical device: the attribution of a “nationality” to goods. A trade law principle, rules of origin assign products an “economic passport” that governs how they are treated at the border, including what markets they may enter and which tariff rates apply. In recent years, however, product nationality has taken on a new and far more ambitious role. As U.S. trade policy increasingly intersects with national security and human rights policy, policymakers rely on nationality-based measures to police supply chain linkages, curb geopolitical issues, and discipline firms for their links to forced …

Global Supply Chain Resilience In Emerging Technologies: A Case Study Of Bitcoin Mining, Kishanthi Parella, Carla L. Reyes

Seattle University Law Review

The United States has put into motion bold plans in critical and emerging technologies to bolster its national and economic security.  For example, the federal government created a national bitcoin strategic reserve and a stockpile of other cryptocurrency; while several states have committed to or are considering similar goals.  However, the security of these reserves is dependent on two types of supply chains within the Bitcoin mining industry: analogue supply chains, relating to the physical components needed for Bitcoin mining, and data supply chains, relating to the complex and layered logistical network of actors that create input into the software …

Third-Party Funding: Balancing Transparency, National Security, And Access To Justice, Victoria Shannon Sahani

Seattle University Law Review

Many lawmakers who have recently become aware of the multi-billion-dollar global third-party funding industry are raising new national security concerns that further complicate preexisting, longstanding debates about transparency, disclosure, access to justice, and the best way to regulate third-party funding. In response, this Article briefly asserts three main points relating to the question of how best to regulate third-party funding. First, this Article explains the third-party funding industry, including its global regulatory landscape and how it serves three distinct populations: consumers, businesses, and law firms. Second, this Article explains that third-party funding is one tool that can help expand access …