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Ethics

Legal Ethics Forum

Covering Legal Ethics

Post Frequency: 11.2/day

Last Entry: August 14, 2020 at 13:23:48

The Importance of an Objective Appearances Standard for Judicial Recusal

Posted on June 29, 2008
The facts of the Hood case (Texas death penalty), which has been discussed earlier, illustrates the importance of an objective and broadly-phrased appearances standard for judicial recusal. It is not unlikely that the judge in that case would be satisfied...

A Systematic Analysis of Lawyers' Ethics Based on Dignity and Autonomy

Posted on June 29, 2008
As Abbe Smith and I say in the third edition (2004) of Understanding Lawyers? Ethics: ?This book presents a systematic position on lawyers? ethics. We argue that lawyers? ethics is rooted in the Bill of Rights and in the autonomy...

Yellow-Light Words and the Teaching of Normative Method

Posted on June 27, 2008
I would like to add an acidic voice to our discussion of legal ethics, dignity, and normativity. Words like fair(ness), just(ice), dignity, autonomy, flourishing, and the like, are the yellow lights of legal ethics discourse. When you see them you...

Luban on "When a good prosecutor throws a case"

Posted on June 26, 2008
They're having an intereting thread at Balkinization, where David Luban's post praised a prosecutor who "threw" a case. In the comments, Stephen Gillers and I disagreed with Luban.

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Yoo testifies before Congress

Posted on June 26, 2008
The Balkin site is covering Yoo's testimony before Congress. Yoo's written testimony is here. UPDATE: C-Span has the testimony online, here.

Government checking law students' MySpace pages?

Posted on June 26, 2008
The recent report on political bias in hiring of law students at DOJ, mentioned below by Brad, reveals that the federal government, as an employer, was poking around in the law student applicants' MySpace pages. (See, e.g., p. 61) Commentary...

Bill to reverse McNulty Memorandum expected to pass

Posted on June 25, 2008
Story here. To some degree, the bill would ban a practice -- prosecutors conditioning leniency upon the defendant's waiver of the attorney client privilege -- that has been on the wane since the KPMG debacle, where many the government's prosecutions....

Should we even be talking about human dignity?

Posted on June 25, 2008
Reading the posts by Brad and Alice made me wonder how Luban's vision of lawyering and its relationship to human dignity responds (or would respond) to criticisms by Ruth Macklin and others that dignity is a "useless concept," and that...

More on Silver on Luban

Posted on June 24, 2008
Charles Silver?s review of David Luban?s Legal Ethics and Human Dignity needs to be understood as the latest word in a debate which began with the publication of ?What?s Not to like About Being a Lawyer?? a 1999 review essay...

Wendel on Silver on Luban

Posted on June 24, 2008
Charles Silver of the University of Texas has posted a review, on Notre Dame Philosophy Reviews, of David Luban's new book, Legal Ethics and Human Dignity. Luban's book has already attracted a great deal of attention, including a review symposium...

Welcome to Our Newest Co-Blogger -- Alice Woolley

Posted on June 24, 2008
I'd like to be the first to welcome our newest co-blogger, Prof. Alice Woolley of the University of Calgary. Alice writes on legal ethics from the perspective of the law governing lawyers, and economic, regulatory, and moral theory. She's the...

Leaving the Law

Posted on June 24, 2008
Maybe it's a symptom of our therapy-driven society, or maybe it's a symptom of how many unhappy lawyers are paralyzed by inertia, but it seems strange that we need a counseling service designed to coach lawyers on finding happiness by...

Partisanship in DOJ Hiring

Posted on June 24, 2008
I've posted previously on allegations of political bias in the Justice Department, and have argued that we have to be careful with slinging around the term "partisanship" too easily, since the President surely has some latitude, as a normative as...

Any legal ethics types in Ayrshire or London?

Posted on June 20, 2008
I'm heading there in early July, so if any legal ethics types want to talk ethics, shoot me an email. (Yeah, a busman's holiday, but I enjoy this stuff.)

The affidavits in the Charles Hood case: allegations implicating dozens of lawyers

Posted on June 20, 2008
I've been following the Charles Hood case, but hadn't been able to read the source documents. I tracked them down finally. You can find them here at the Texas Defender website. You will want to read the affidavits in the...

Indiana v. Edwards: Faretta mostly survives; states can appoint counsel over objections of criminal defendant with mental illness

Posted on June 19, 2008
In Indiana v. Edward, opinion here, the right of a mentally ill criminal defendant to control his own defense was subordinated to the need for a fair trial. If the defendant is competent enough to stand trial (a standard easily...

Truly, truly: "It would be borderline scandalous"

Posted on June 19, 2008
The AP ran a story on the expanding number of US law school, even though those schools might be an economic disaster for many of their students. I will now quote not the AP reporter's words but rather the words...

Normative Methods for Lawyers

Posted on June 19, 2008
Andy's criticism of the criminal justice system reminds me of a wonderful recent paper by Harvard law prof Joseph Singer, Normative Methods for Lawyers. I'm going to assign portions of the paper to my first-year students because it so clearly...

The Hood Case: Unsurprisingly Disturbing

Posted on June 18, 2008
Mr. Hood?s execution did not take place last night, but not because the Texas courts recognized the seriousness of Mr. Hood?s judicial ethics argument. Rather, the prison had the legal authority to execute Mr. Hood only until midnight, and the...

Updates on the Hood Death Penalty Case

Posted on June 17, 2008
Following up on Monroe's post below, Mr. Hood was scheduled to be executed this evening. In light of the legal ethics issues that his lawyers raised and about which Monroe so eloquently and persuasively opined, there is currently a temporary...

Urgent - Death Penalty Case

Posted on June 15, 2008
The following is the substance of an opinion I am giving in the case of Charles Dean Hood, who is scheduled to be executed in Texas on Tuesday. (Citations appear in the attached copy.) If you are willing to sign...

The Center for the Study of the Legal Profession at Georgetown University Law Center is seeking an Executive Director

Posted on June 13, 2008
They're doing some fascinating stuff there. Here's the job description, with more after the jump. The Center for the Study of the Legal Profession at Georgetown University Law Center is seeking an Executive Director who will work closely with faculty...

What's wrong with appearance-based recusal?

Posted on June 13, 2008
I have not thought about this issue nearly as deeply as Sarah has, but nevertheless I find puzzling the challenge to the appearance-based standard for judicial recusal. Doesn't appearance matter a lot, not just as a proxy for actual bias,...

On the Problem of Appearances

Posted on June 12, 2008
What a week to start blogging. I recently wrote this article arguing against the use of appearance-based standards in the recusal context, and now this story from the L.A. Times about Judge Kozinski?s personal website and whether he should recuse...

Colorado Chimes In On Metadata

Posted on June 11, 2008
Add Colorado to the growing list of states that have addressed whether lawyers can review an opponent's electronic metadata. The Colorado Bar's ethics opinion, which was issued on May 17, 2008 (thanks to the ABA/BNA Lawyers' Manual on Professional Conduct...

Gillian Hadfield: "Legal Barriers to Innovation: The Growing Economic Cost of Professional Control over Corporate Legal Markets"

Posted on June 11, 2008
Here's a new paper from Gillian Hadfield (USC) arguing that regulation of the legal profession has inhibited innovation. The changes occurring in the UK and Australia, which are addressed in Hadfield's article, may eventually reach the US. Abstract: U...

What it takes to be a solo

Posted on June 10, 2008
Bill Henderson shares some thoughts. The points he makes are great risk management advice. Especially the part about not taking on some clients.

Another Warm Welcome -- Professor Robert Vischer

Posted on June 10, 2008
This is a great day here at Legal Ethics Forum. In addition to Sarah Cravens, we are delighted to welcome St. Thomas School of Law Professor Rob Vischer as a co-blogger . As Rob notes below, he is already a...

Benevolent Despots and Law Firm Life

Posted on June 10, 2008
Thanks to Andy for inviting me to join the merry band at LEF. I've been a regular blogger over at Mirror of Justice for several years, so forgive me if I lapse into discussions of Catholic legal theory from time...

E-Discovery Lessons for Lawyers: Qualcomm as a Case Study

Posted on June 10, 2008
Here is a useful and quite detailed overview of the Qualcomm case from Law.com. The article reviews what happened and what lessons lawyers can learn about the handling of of e-discovery. There are some particularly useful tidbits for junior lawyers...

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