The Legal Profession: Ethics in Contemporary Practice

This title is a part of our CasebookPlus™ offering as ISBN 9798887869124. Learn more at Faculty-CasebookPlus.com.

With clear and concise explanations of all basic concepts in the law of lawyering and all topics tested on the MPRE, this accessible book allows professors to satisfy the ABA professional responsibility requirement with a course that students find highly engaging and useful. It is an excellent fit with the ABA’s new accreditation standard requiring law schools to provide opportunities to develop a professional identity. Unlike most professional responsibility textbooks on the market, this book links ethics issues to portraits of the practice contexts in which they typically arise for real lawyers, helping students appreciate their relevance in contemporary practice. It also introduces students to the rich empirical literature on the profession, teaching them about the profession’s overall composition and organization as well as huge variation in the practice settings, types of work, and daily experiences of American lawyers and their clients. It describes powerful economic and cultural forces that are reshaping the legal profession, and it explores current controversies relating to access to justice, globalization, technology, diversity, legal education, and bar admission and discipline. It invites students to reflect on their place in the profession and how they will navigate the turbulent landscape to chart successful, rewarding and responsible careers in almost any type of practice today’s law graduates might enter. Most chapters also contain problems that can be used in class discussion or as written exercises.

The Third Edition is updated to include new problems, materials, and questions drawn from recent events highlighting professional ethics issues currently in the news. The chapter on criminal prosecution includes a new section on self-described progressive prosecutors. The chapter on government lawyers explores the role of lawyers in challenges to the 2020 election. The chapters on private practice in solo and small firm settings have been completely revised to capture the range and variety of urban, suburban, and rural practice. The chapter on judges discusses controversies surrounding the Supreme Court and proposals for an enforceable ethics code for the justices. Other chapters include new materials on virtual practice and “nonlawyer” participation in the delivery of legal services. The Third Edition also presents the most recent scholarship and commentary on new challenges for the legal profession posed by technology (including AI), litigation finance, and globalization.

This is the only PR book on the market that provides sufficient explanation of basic legal concepts and the operation of the legal system to make it suitable for first-year students, but it also works very well for second- and third-year courses.

Imprint: West Academic Publishing
Series: American Casebook Series
Publication Date: 09/18/2024
Related Subject(s): Professional Identity Formation