Search

TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I. AN OVERVIEW OF BIRTH SURROGACY A. DEFINITIONS B. THE SURROGACY PROCESS C. SURROGACY LAW II. CASE ILLUSTRATION: STIVER V. PARKER III. LEGAL ETHICS OF BIRTH [...], The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provide a guidepost on how attorneys should behave in relation to their clients, the court, and the law. Among other things, attorneys must be competent, diligent, loyal, and avoid conflicts of interest. Family law--where attorneys must often deal with closely-related parties on matters of extreme personal significance--can be an ethical minefield. This is especially true in surrogacy law, an often-unregulated subfield that, at its best, helps create families--and at worst, leads to unethical treatment against pregnant persons. This article considers common ethical questions that arise in surrogacy law, viewed through the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Interviews from practicing surrogacy lawyers from three states help illustrate the challenges inherent to the field.

INTRODUCTION Planetary protection impacts every human being on the planet. Yet, this practice is often left out of conversations regarding the development of commercial space regulations. While government-affiliated missions operate [...]

INTRODUCTION Shortly after being declared the loser of the 2020 Presidential election, Donald Trump submitted a series of challenges to the certification of votes and transition of power. (1) Litigators [...]

INTRODUCTION American democracy is at a crossroads. (1) According to some historians, the 2020 election and its aftermath have demonstrated that the Republican Party is "clearly an authoritarian party," no [...]

INTRODUCTION A superficial search of the term "lawyers as protestors" suggests that lawyers serve a limited role in protest movements. In this limited view, lawyers may serve as counselors to [...]

INTRODUCTION In the two months after losing the 2020 presidential election, then- President Donald Trump and his Republican allies raised a staggering $255.4 million for their "Official Election Defense Fund." [...]

INTRODUCTION The legal profession has long debated whether lawyers should be allowed to engage in dual service, or represent corporations and also serve on their boards of directors. (1) In [...]

TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I. THE RULES, LEGAL ETHICS AND ETHICS: UNPACKING A TERMINOLOGICAL MESS II. WHO IS SERVED BY THE RULES? THE ABA'S TRADITIONAL ANSWERS, CRITICISMS, AND THE BEST [...], The rules of professional conduct are the backbone of legal ethics. The primary objective of legal ethics, and thus of the rules, is protecting clients, the legal system, the public, and justice. Increasingly, however, the rules fail at protecting the public and advancing justice. The problem does not lie with a particular rule. Rather, the rules are based on antiquated assumptions, which no longer reflect some of the fundamental needs of clients and the public nor the practice realities of lawyers. To fulfill their objective, the rules must address the contemporary needs of clients and the public: they must help address the problem of insufficient access to lawyers for those who cannot afford to pay for legal services, and they must meaningfully address widespread forms of inequality, including gender and racial injustices. The Article explains and rejects the legal profession's traditional defense of the rules pursuant to which lawyers are three-legged stools who effectively balance the interests of clients, the legal system, and the public. Instead, the Article advances the best possible defense of the rules, an account in which lawyers serve the public by serving clients and advancing the Rule of Law but shows that this account is unsustainable given contemporary practice realities. Prevalent insufficient access to lawyers, changing power dynamics between clients, lawyers, and non-lawyers, and persistent injustices mean that lawyers can no longer credibly claim to indirectly serve the public by serving paying clients. Rather, the rules should be revised to mandate that lawyers increase access to legal services and pursue justice directly. The Article concludes by developing an access and justice-driven agenda for reforming the rules.

TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I. WHAT DO WE MEAN BY "GUTS"? II. OUR DEBT TO MONROE FREEDMAN AND DEBORAH RHODE III. USE OF THE MODEL RULES OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT AND [...], Recent efforts to hold lawyers accountable for their actions--including lawyers who sought to overturn the 2020 Presidential election based on false evidence, and New York City prosecutors who have committed serious misconduct--failed to draw a significant number of legal ethics scholars. The authors of this Essay are troubled by this. We understand why practicing lawyers might be reluctant to join such an effort; calling out other lawyers in positions of power can be bad for clients. But it is less understandable when it comes to law professors who, except for those who teach in law clinics or otherwise engage in law practice, have no clients. Legal ethics scholars write and teach--often from a secure academic position--about the importance of legal ethics. The authors have been involved in both efforts. In this Essay, we examine why so many of our academic colleagues begged off, and why they are reluctant to use their privileged perch to speak out generally. We then argue for greater engagement in real world legal ethics, no matter how controversial. This Essay proceeds as follows: Part I explains what we mean by having "guts. " Part II acknowledges our debt to Monroe Freedman and Deborah Rhode, two scholars who were fully engaged in legal ethics in the real world. Part III discusses why filing disciplinary complaints under the Model Rules of Professional Conduct is a sound approach to holding lawyers accountable, even lawyers engaged in politics. Part IV recounts the prosecutorial misconduct project to which it was difficult to recruit legal ethics scholars. Part V identifies some factors we believe underlie our colleagues' reluctance to become engaged in these sorts of efforts. Part VI suggests a path forward.

TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I. A LAWYER'S COMPETING CONSTITUENCIES. A. A LAWYER'S HIGHEST DUTY IS TO CLIENTS, EXCEPT WHEN IT ISN'T B. THE UNCONFLICTED ETHICS OF OTHER PROFESSIONALS C. THE [...], This Article proposes a new and comprehensive framework for understanding the professional standards that govern lawyers: that each rule of professional conduct has one, and only one, primary beneficiary. Moreover, the beneficiary of every rule falls into one of three categories: a lawyer's client, third parties, or the lawyer personally. Viewing the rules of professional conduct through a beneficiary prism illuminates when a lawyer's duty to a client can be--or must be--subordinated to other interests. Understanding who is supposed to benefit from a given rule is an essential tool in properly interpreting any professional standard. It is also indispensable in determining whether that rule fulfills its purpose in practice, or should be modified or eliminated. Applying a beneficiary framework reveals that some key professional standards--the rules on conflicts of interest, professional independence, and the unauthorized practice of law--do not actually benefit their intended beneficiaries and should be rethought.

TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I. EXTENSIONS GRANTED AND DENIED II. THE RULES OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY A. COMPETENCE B. DILIGENCE C. EXPEDITING LITIGATION D. PROMPTNESS III. DUE DATES IN LAW SCHOOL [...], "Our job is to prepare them for the real world. " This statement is not an unusual, nor an unreasonable, justification for pedagogical decisions throughout legal education. The dual role of law school as both an intellectually challenging academic endeavor and a training ground for the profession places it at an intersection ripe for "real world" considerations. As one example, many professors argue that inflexible deadlines (and dire consequences should they fail to be met) are necessary preparation for legal practice. However, as many experienced attorneys will report, extensions are hardly uncommon in the practice of law. This Article argues that the ability to not only ask for an extension, but also to avoid procrastination, anticipate when an extension will be needed, and communicate professionally in that request, are skills that law schools must teach. The necessity of these skills, and their place in the law school curriculum, is a matter of professionalism, equity, and practicality. Bringing together educational pedagogy, the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, and actual cases of attorney discipline, this Article makes the case for extensions in law school-- and in the "real world."

TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I. NARRATIVE AND LEGAL ETHICS A. CLOWNING, LAWYERING, AND CREATING A WORLD B. IMPULSE SIX AND HYPER-ZEAL C. AUDIENCE AND NORMS D. ABSURDITY AND CLOWN LOGIC [...], Good attorneys are clowns. Or, at least, they should be. In this Article, I compare clowning and legal ethics. In so doing, I review elements of the ethics of clowning and the clown rules, and the lessons those provide to attorneys. I also consider aspects of clowning, such as world-creation, norm-inversion, clown logic, and the mythical matrix, all of which are instructive for the legal profession. Each of these elements contributes to an understanding of lawyering as a clown-like narrative project. This project provides a better lens for ethical analysis and reflection than past attempts at analogizing the lawyer's role. I therefore conclude that clowning offers the best comparison for Law as narrative, rather than acting or writing. Lessons from clowning provide attorneys with a provocative example by which they may address various issues in legal ethics, as well as engage more intimately with semiotics in practice.

THE ABA ADOPTED the Model Rules of Professional Conduct in 1983. Nearly four decades later, the Model Rules remain essentially unchanged, with virtually no acknowledgment of how technology has impacted [...]

IF THE MULTISTATE PROFESSIONAL Responsibility Exam included questions regarding attorney advertising in 1991, I have no recollection of it. It certainly was not a topic discussed in law school back [...]

AS THE WORLD ENTERS the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is helpful to reflect upon how the legal professions ethics rules will operate in a world far different [...]

INTRODUCTION The American Bar Association's (ABA) Model Rules of Professional Conduct (hereinafter the Model Rules) is supposed to be a guiding light for all practicing attorneys, and in many ways [...]

Simply mention the word "innovation" to lawyers and watch their different reactions. To some lawyers, innovation means that their colleagues will use their creativity unscrupulously, violate the presumably sacrosanct Model [...]

A. INTRODUCTION Third party opinion practice raises numerous ethical issues. (1) One particularly difficult area relates to a lawyer declining to give a requested legal opinion, withdrawing from representation in [...]

AN ATTORNEY may have been practicing 30 years or just hung out a shingle--it does not matter which--when a new client or a new matter walks in the door, there [...]