Professional Responsibility

Catalog description

This course focuses on the regulation of lawyers. Although we will study other law, the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct will be the primary focus of the course. The class will be taught primarily through the hypotheticals found in the casebook. The class discussions will focus on what the ABA Model Rules require, state variations that are common, and other sources of law that regulate lawyers' behavior. The class discussions will explore whether students agree with the policy choices reflected in ABA Model Rules, how the rules might apply in particular fact settings, the pressures that might cause a lawyer to ignore regulatory rules, and the steps that a lawyer might take to better serve his or her clients and to minimize the chance of a regulatory violation.