Syllabus - Introduction to U.S.Legal Profession Fall 2020

INTRODUCTION TO THE UNITED STATES LEGAL PROFESSION
(LLM STUDENTS ONLY

Fall 2020
212-636-7446
gconk@fordham.edu
Room 8-120


Thursdays  6:00- 7:50
Beginning August 27, 2020 
Room 1-01 


Required casebook and Rules and standards supplement:
Jefferson, Pearce, Green, et al. Professional Responsibility - A Contemporary Approach
Fourth edition(purchase gives you access to online edition)
  eBook  Register at eproducts@westacademic.com  

ISBN 978-1-64242 -285-6  

This is a new edition: old editions are not usable for this class.

RECOMMENDED: 

The Law Governing Lawyers -
Model Rules, Standards, Statutes, and State Lawyer Rules of Professional Conduct
Susan D. Martyn, et al
 ISBN 978-1-5438-2039-3

OR American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional conduct - with comments

FINAL EXAM  DECEMBER 14, 2020, 5:00 pm
MPRE type multiple-choice/true-false

 
NEW SLIDES WILL BE POSTED ON THIS BLOG AND EMAILED AT THE TIME OF EACH CLASS

Background resources

 New York State Unified Court System 
 
American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct Conduct
United States Department of Justice

 
Learning outcomes are at the beginning of each chapter of the casebook.

Meeting with me: I am available to meet with students. I make appointments on the hour and half- hour.   

Please suggest a time via email.  Wednesday  afternoons will generally be most convenient for me.   ZOOM may be our best option.

For our discussions and to answer the live questions posted in class  you need to use the relevant ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and official Comments

The relevant authorities are listed in the Topic Outline at the beginning of each Chapter of the casebook.

Although all classes will be recorded and available on Echo360 Attendance is required in order to satisfy the ABA regulations. If you cannot attend a class send me an email with brief explanation before the class.
If classes are moved online you must attend class "live", not simply view the video later.

 
Classroom participation is welcome and required:
We will use the PollEverywhere software to give each of you the opportunity to answer the MPRE-type questions in the assigned casebook reading; and to answer questions I draft for purposes of our discussions in class.  Therefore 
For registration instructions go to 
My email address is gconk@fordham.edu  At login you will find that the presenter is georgewconk331.

Note that hypertext links are in blue.


Week 1
Introduction to the Law Governing Lawyers and the Rules of Professional Conduct (RPCs)
For background purposes:  Please read the  New York Rules of Professional Conduct  OR the  American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct which can be found HERE)    (Rules only, NOT the Official Comments)
 [Ultimately as part of MPRE preparation you will need to read the ABA Rules and explanatory comments. ]

The Rules of Professional Conduct, the structure of the law governing lawyers, the U.S. legal profession, New York practice, and the role of lawyers in society.

Casebook: Jefferson, Pearce, et al. Professional Resonsibility, A Contemporary Approach

4th Edition

Land of the Free - The Killers (video)

Read Chapter 1, pages 1-19

Be prepared to discuss Questions 1-1 to 1-15.

Go to polleverywhere.com and download the app to your laptop, phone, tablet or other device.

My PollEverywhere presenter id is: 

georgewconk331

Be prepared to discuss this question:

The Killing of George Floyd
In May 2020, the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis ignited an impassioned national debate regarding the persistence of systemic racism in the administration of justice. In Maintaining Professionalism in the Age of Black Death Is . . . A Lot, Shenequa Golding describes her anguish as a black professional. She questions the assumption of “bleaching out” which is an element of both the neutral partisan role and the common understanding of professionalism. The police killing of George Floyd raises additional questions. 

African American professionals are highly alert to the existence of injustices in the U.S. criminal justice system which incarcerates minorities at a high rate; and police who often see a suspect or threat in each Black or Latin face.  But like others you are expected to put aside your feelings and focus on the task at hand - the client's or employers needs.  But you went to law school with the idea of being a fighter for justice.  Can you be both a fighter for justice and  - a "neutral partisan" - who puts aside their own views and emotions, and focuses on the needs of your clients, of your employers?

Is the existence of equal justice under law a prerequisite for the role morality of the neutral partisan, or for traditional professionalism’s notion of the lawyer committed to the public good? 

Or is equal justice only an unrealized aspiration? And does this aspiration derive from traditional professionalism, the neutral partisan role, or both?

Another Issue `Civil Gideon'
Is there a societal obligation to make lawyers available to all citizens?  
Should lawyers be obligated to work without pay in the public interest?

  Read:

Tenants' right to counsel in housing court 

 NJ Law Journal Editorial: When Judiciary Grants Right to Counsel, Other Branches Must Step Up

American Bar Association Resolution 115 - Access to legal services (2020)

Should an "illegal alien" be allowed to become a lawyer?


Week 2

Slides - Chapter 2, part 1

Ch. 2 - Basic elements of Law Practice
Establishing the lawyer-client relationship, unauthorized practice, competence, terminating the relationship

Read Pages 19 - 61
Learning outcomes
 

Relevant Rules and Comments
Working with non-lawyers and ancillary services
5.3.5.4, 5.5, 5.7
Unauthorized practice by lawyers
5.5, 8.5

Defining law practice; Creating the Lawyer-Client Relationship
 
Creating the lawyer-client relationship


Read `black letter' Rule § 14 - Restatement 3rd The Law Governing Lawyers

RPCs 1.13 (a), (f-g), 6.2

Supervisory responsibility
RPC 5.1
RPC 5.2
RPC 5.3

Discipline
RPC 8.3 Reporting Professional Misconduct
RPC 8.4 Misconduct
RPC 8.5 Disciplinary authority and choice of law

 

Week 3 (Chapter 2 continued)

Read pages 61-109
Ch 2 Basic Elements of Law Practice
Creating and ending the relationship of attorney and client
The duty of competence
SLIDES Ch. 2 Creating the relationship part 2
SLIDES Ch. 2, part 2A Terminating the relationship


 Read
RPCs 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4

Malpractice Liability 
slides - Malpractice
slides - professional liability insurance



RPCs 1.18, , 1.8 (h), 1.2 (c) 
Lawyers Civil Liability Restatement LGL § 48, et seq.

 

Week 4 
Read pp. 109-133
Ineffective assistance of counsel and allocation of decision-making between lawyer and client
slides - Ineffective assistance of counsel

Read:
RPCs 1.2, 1.3, 3.2
Restatement 3rd LGL §§ 20, 21, 22, 24 ("black letter" rules and comments)
Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S.  45 (1932) - background 

Principles governing the attorney client relationship
Allocating decision-making between lawyer and client
Read pp. 117-133
 slides - allocation of decision-making between lawyer and client
 
Week 5

Chapter 3 The Business, technology and marketing of legal services
The good old days?
Learning Outcomes, Topic outline and Relevant rules
Read pp.  145 - 189; 189-199; 213-215
slides  - Chapter 3 - business and advertising
slides - Ch. 3 A reasonable fee and contingent fees
RPC 1.5  Fees
RPC 7.1, 7.2, 7.3  Communications regarding a lawyer's service and solicitation
 
 What is a reasonable fee?
Lyle Denniston/SCOTUSBlog The Lodestar analysis (2010)
 
 

Week 6 
Chapter 4 Attorney client privilege and the duty of confidentiality
SLIDES Confidentiality - Attorney Client Privilege/Work Product part 1
Learning outcomes p.231
Read pp. 231-269
RPCs 1.6, 1.13, 
Confidentiality under RPC 1.6
General obligations, exceptions


Week 7 
(Chapter 4 continued)
SLIDES Confidentiality and exceptions - Part 2
Exceptions to the duty of confidentiality Waiver of attorney client privilege
Basics of the duty of confidentiality
Read pp.  270 - 286
pp. 286-309

****
Week 8

Chapter 5 Conflicts of interest
Learning outcomes p. 311
Read: pp. 313-349
RPCs 1.0 definitions, 1.7, 1.8(g)
Simultaneous representation standards - direct adversity, materially limited, reasonable belief,
competent and diligent representation, informed consent, waiver, aggregate settlements, literary and media rights


Week 9 (Chapter 5 continued)

Conflicts between client’s interests and lawyer’s personal interests; lawyer advocate as witness; representation adverse to former client; Lawyer as third party neutral; vicarious disqualification of firm under RPC 1.10 “typhoid Mary, screening; conflicts in criminal
cases
SLIDES - Conflicts - part 2
SLIDES - Migrating lawyers
Read: pp. 349-380
RPCs 1.7, 1.8 (g), 1.8 (a), 1.8 (d), 1.8 (j), 3.7, 1.10


Week 10
Chapter 7 Special Ethical Rules for Prosecutors and Judges
SLIDES - Prosecutors duties and discretion

Whom does a prosecutor represent?
What challenges are posed by the Black Lives matter movement?
Should elected prosecutors accept campaign donations from policemen's unions? 
Read: Letter from progressive District Attorneys to California State Bar: questions posed for discussion by the State Bar for its August 11 hearing.

Read: 28 U.S.C. 528 Disqualification of Officers and Employees of the U.S. Department of Justice

Read: pp 473-511 
Prosecutorial discretion, Discovery

Week 11
Claims of innocence/post judgment relief
Compensation for the wrongly convicted.
Read: pp. 513-518

Read: U.S. Code and New Jersey Statutes, Remedies for wrongful conviction


View/Peruse: The Innocence Project
Brooklyn District Attorney: Conviction Review Unit

Podcast: Eric Gonzalez, District Attorney - Brooklyn (Kings County), New York 

Week 12
Ethical Standards for Judges
Read: pp 518-551



Read: Disqualification of Judges: 28 U.S.C. 455


Week 13 (online)
Do Lawyers have Special Responsibilities?
Read: pp 679-701



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