Ethics

[Here's a proposed session for the Fourth International Legal Ethics Conference.  If others would like to propose sessions and use the blog to locate potential collaborators, please send a blurb like this to wbw@cornell.edu]

The idea that a lawyer owes a duty of loyalty to her client, with the correlative obligation to avoid conflicts of interest with that client, is foundational to the ethical identity of every lawyer.  However, in the last decade, in Canada at least, the Supreme Court, the Canadian Bar Association and the Federation of Law Societies have struggled to give concrete form to this ideal.  The reasons for this are varied:  the emergence of the business model of legal practice; the diversification of the legal profession; confusion as to the meaning of ?client?; the differing obligations of lawyers and law firms etc.

This panel seeks to bring together scholars from various jurisdictions to discuss recent developments relating to the duty of loyalty/conflicts of interest.  Methodological diversity is also welcomed including inter alia, historical, doctrinal, theoretical, and empirical studies.  It is hoped that the comparative nature of the Panel will identify some thematic commonalities and differences and suggest some future challenges. It is expected that this panel will lead to publication of a special issue of a leading journal.

Please send abstracts of proposed papers by September 1^st, 2009 to:

Richard Devlin

Professor of Law and University Research Professor

Dalhousie Law School

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Canada

Richard.devlin@dal.ca