Professional Responsibility

Catalog description

This course introduces students to the law governing the conduct of lawyer in the United States. The course is designed around the premise that the subject of professional responsibility is the single most relevant to students' future careers as members of the bar. These issues come up on a constant basis and it is critical that lawyers be alert to spotting them when they arise and be educated in the methods of resolving them. As such, the course will address many of the most commonly recurring issues that arise, such as confidentiality, conflicts of interest, candor to the courts; candor to others, the role of the attorney as counselor, the structure of the attorney-client relationship, issues around billing, the tension between "cause lawyering" and individual representation, and lawyers' duty to serve the underrepresented. International graduate students will bring their own experiences, and help compare these rules with standards applicable to legal behavior in different jurisdictions. The course will instill familiarity with many of the subjects tested on in the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination--which is required for licensure by virtually every U.S. jurisdiction. Students will work periodically in small groups to discuss hypothetical problems during class sessions. Most sessions will begin with a brief quiz on material covered during the previous session. Each student must also submit a brief reflection paper on five occasions during the course. There is no final examination. The instructor retains the right to take class participation and attendance into account in the final assessment. This course is taught on an accelerated basis with one or two introductory sessions during Orientation, and sessions on most days during the three weeks between Orientation and the beginning of the Autumn Quarter classes. Limited to LLMs, JSMs and exchange…