Professional Responsibility for LLMs

Catalog description

This course explores ethical issues relating to the legal profession. It has two aims-one immediate, the other more lofty. The immediate aim is to help prepare students for the MPRE. The loftier aim, by contrast, is to investigate the ways in which one's professional responsibilities might conflict with one's personal obligations or self-interest, and to consider the societal implications of the regulatory regime governing lawyers. What should a lawyer do when her professional duties conflict with her financial interests or obligations to friends or family? How does the legal profession's monopoly on the right to give legal advice shape the justice system? We will investigate such questions by reading relevant legal materials as well as work by legal academics. Students will take several smaller exams to test their mastery of central ethical rules governing the conduct of lawyers, and complete short writing assignments on topics discussed in class.