Professional Responsibility: A Contemporary Approach

Renee Knake Jefferson, University of Houston Law Center

Russell G. Pearce, Fordham University School of Law

Bruce A. Green, Fordham University School of Law

Peter A. Joy, Washington University School of Law

Sung Hui Kim, University of California-L.A. School of Law

M. Ellen Murphy, Wake Forest University School of Law

Laurel S. Terry, Dickinson Penn State-Carlisle

Lonnie T. Brown Jr., University of Tennessee College of Law

Swethaa S. Ballakrishnen, University of CA-Irvine School of Law

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Table of Contents

Teacher's Manual

Companion Site

Chapter 1

• Added readings on using frameworks of equity, diversity and inclusion to consider the demographics of the legal profession.
• Edited added about 10% extra text.

Chapter 2

• Narrative material in sections II(B) and (C) in the unit on “Defining the Practice of Law” have been updated to reflect recent developments, including the New York Upsolve case, the Florida TIKD case, and regulatory initiatives in California, Utah, and Arizona.
• Section II(D) on unauthorized practice of law by lawyers includes new material that discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on UPL and MJP rules and discussions.
• In Section III(A), on the topic of “creating the lawyer-client relationship, deletes In re Westinghouse and substitutes a 2018 case called In re Robbins, which applies the Restatement Section 14 factors. This section also includes new material examining the lawyer-client creation issue from a systemic perspective.
• Section III(B) on the duty to accept cases substitutes the Cunningham case for Nathanson and the Tennessee ethics opinion.
• The narrative material in Section III(C) on the duty to reject cases has been updated to reflect the adoption of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 and the Dec. 2021 adoption of the national Strategy on Countering Corruption, which calls for changes in lawyer regulation.
• Narrative material was added to Section V(A) on competence and discipline; the new material summarizes the results of the State Bar of California’s 2019 study to “assess the impact of race/ethnicity on attorney discipline and determine whether there was disparate treatment of attorneys of color” and discusses the follow-up action.
• In Section V(C) on ineffective assistance of counsel, the U.S. Supreme Court’s Rompilla (2005) case was deleted and was replaced which a quote from that case and new material from a 2020 Stanford Law Review article that summarizes the Supreme Court’s ineffective assistance of counsel jurisprudence.
• The older Ziegelheim (Sec. V(B)) and Gilmore (Sec. VI(A)) cases were deleted to make room for new material.

Chapter 3

• Added of the advent of some jurisdictions eliminating, or at least relaxing, traditional prohibitions on sharing of legal fees between lawyers and nonlawyers.
• Added coverage of social/racial justice issues, in particular the focus of law firms on this topic after George Floyd.
• Added a discussion of amended Model Rule 1.8(e) (Aug. 2020) and revised accompanying Question 3-11.

Chapter 4

• Substantially revised introductory material.
• Added new material on the basics of work-product protection.
• Added a section on work-product privilege and exceptions to work-product privilege.
• Revised several multiple choice questions and added a new one.
• Edited Upjohn case and removed United States v. Hatcher to allow for new material.
• Replaced Hatcher with a short textual passage explaining the expectation of confidentiality.

Chapter 5

• Deleted one of the two cases (Murray v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co.) in the initial section on whether there is an attorney-client relationship (which is covered in Chapter 2).
• Replaced the Westinghouse case with a newer case, Paul v. Judicial Watch, Inc. in the former client conflicts section.
• Added a North Carolina ethics opinion on vicarious qualification to replace the contradictory LaSalle and Kassis cases.
• Condensed the conflicts of interest in criminal cases to provide a more concise summary.

Chapter 6

• Several multiple-choice questions throughout Chapter 6 were modified for clarity, and a new multiple-choice question relating to Model Rule 3.1 was added in Unit I, Duties to the Court and Other Tribunals.
• In Unit I, Duties to the Court and Other Tribunals, new material relating to improper racialized arguments and improper peremptory challenges were added as part of the casebook’s special focus on racial justice.
• In Unit I, Duties to the Court and Other Tribunals, new material relating to witness preparation was added.
• In Unit III, Duties regarding the Law and the Legal Profession, the materials relating to backdating stock options, including the excerpt of Securities and Exchange Commission v. Nancy R. Heinen, were deleted and replaced with a more straightforward malpractice case that discusses Model Rule 1.13, Hays v. Page Perry, LLC.

Chapter 7

• Added a new subsection on racial justice for prosecutorial discretion as well as for judges.
• Added a question and discussion regarding Rule 3.8(e), which limits prosecutors’ ability to subpoena lawyers for information about their clients.
• Added discussion of widespread failure of federal judges to recuse themselves in cases in which they had a financial interest in 2021.
• Added of controversy surrounding Justice Clarence Thomas’s failure to recuse in a case related to the January 6, 2021 events at the Capitol because of his wife’s involvement.

Chapter 8

• Edited materials throughout the chapter to shorten by 30%.
• Reorganized structure of chapter to highlight new and emerging debates about lawyer roles.
• Added excerpts of new articles on lawyering that focus on subversive and movement lawyering as well as conflicts in lawyering for interconnected raced and queered identities.

Chapter 9

• Added new Food for Thought prompt regarding the impact of COVID-19 and bar exam requirements.
• Added new excerpt from Bennett Capers’ The Law School as a White Space.
• Added new discussion of the ethical obligations when lawyers engage in innovation.

Learn more about this series.