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, Penn State Dickinson-Carlisle

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

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

Veronica Root Martinez, Duke University School of Law

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Chapter 1

• Updated the demographics of the legal profession with new data from NALP and the ABA National Lawyer Population Survey 2024.
• Trimmed some of the reading excerpts from previous edition (by about 5%) and updated the multiple choice questions to reflect this.
• Updated the practice pointer box to reflect a range of possible impacts that ethics opinions might have across jurisdictions.

Chapter 2

• Revised to take into account emerging technologies and how that impacts the practice of law.
• Expanded discussion of innovative methods used by states to respond to access to justice concerns.
• Incorporated revisions to Model Rule 1.16.
• Streamlined portions of the chapter.

Chapter 3

• Updated the list of jurisdictions that have adopted advertising and solicitation Rules of Professional Conduct that are closely aligned with the ABA’s 2018 amendments to those rules.
• Added an article excerpt that addresses the potential effect of Artificial Intelligence (GAI) on the billable hour.
• Added abbreviated discussions of Perdue v. Kenny A. Ex rel. Winn and Evans v. Jeff D. in place of the opinions themselves.

Chapter 4

• Added a discussion of the potential threats to client confidentiality when using GAI.
• Added a discussion of potential client confidentiality issues when posting and responding to questions on a listserv.
• Added a discussion of a recent ABA Formal Ethics Opinion recognizing an implicit exception to client confidentiality when a client commits a crime against the lawyer or when “someone associated with the lawyer or related to the lawyer is the victim of the client’s crime and the lawyer is a witness to that crime.”
• Revised some of the multiple choice questions.
• Strengthened the discussion of the majority and minority views of some aspects of attorney-client privilege.

Chapter 5

• Deleted Rohm and Haas Co. v. Dow Chemical Co., which was a review of whether there is an attorney-client relationship (this is covered in Chapter 2).
• Reordered “Current Client Conflicts of Interest Under Rule 1.7” to position “Materially Limited Under Rule 1.7(a)(2)” before “Direct Adversity Under Rule 1.7(a)(1),” positioning Sanford v. Commonwealth v. Virginia earlier in the chapter and as the first case in the chapter.
• Added a Lawyer Mutual of North Carolina article on “Elements of an Informed Consent Agreement.”
• Deleted Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton v. J-M Manufacturing Co., which covered advanced waivers of conflicts of interest.
• Added a Bench & Bar of Minnesota article on “Business Transactions with Clients.”
• Removed the “Lawyer as Witness” section, which is now in Chapter 6.
• Deleted Paul v. Judicial Watch and replaced with Zerfer v. Mauer LLP v. City of Greenwood in “Former Client Conflicts of Interest.”
• Added a section on Playbook Conflicts of Interest, including Khani v. Ford Motor Company.
• Switched the order of the Vicarious Disqualification and Government Lawyer Conflicts of Interest sections, so that Vicarious Disqualification under Rules 1.10 and 1.18 precede Government Lawyer Conflicts of Interest.
• Added a section on Vicarious Disqualification Under Rule 1.18.
• Added a California Lawyers Association Ethics Committee Formal Opinion “Elements of an Effective Ethical Screen.”
• Edited and streamlined multiple choice questions to improve quality and increase questions asking about likelihood of disqualification.

Chapter 6

• Added a new section entitled “Ethical Issues in Cannabis Lawyering.”
• Strengthened a “Global Perspectives” box on witness preparation by referring to the United Kingdom rules on witness coaching.
• Updated citations in a “For More Information” box relating to the First Amendment and professional regulation of attorney speech.
• Revised a multiple choice question for clarity.

Chapter 7

• Added a brief discussion of Justice Samuel Alito’s Wall Street Journal op-ed defending himself against criticism regarding his relationship with a wealthy political donor.
• Added a brief discussion regarding then President-elect Donald Trump’s phone call to Justice Alito shortly before the Supreme Court’s rendering of a decision concerning Trump’s effort to have his sentencing blocked in his New York “hush money” trial.
• Added a brief discussion of the Ethics Code that the Supreme Court adopted in 2023.
• Added discussion regarding judicial criticism and the duty of lawyers to counter unjust attacks on judges, given the restrictions on members of the judiciary’s ability to personally defend themselves.

Chapter 8

• Edited the introduction to make the stakes of the chapter and the role of the neutral partisan more clear.
• Added more transition paragraphs between the different sections to help the flow of the chapter between excerpts flow more organically.
• Included some discussion on the impact this might have on DEI programs and students and staff that might be associated with these programs in this current climate.
• Added a new excerpt of Law School as Straight Space, to include a discussion of law school as a structural space that might privilege certain kinds of identity performances while excluding others.
• Deleted the excerpt on Legal Profession as a Blue State and edited some of the other excerpts (esp. the Carpenter excerpt on Getting Queer Priorities Straight, which was significantly longer in the last edition) to make space for these edits, keeping word count similar to the previous iteration of this chapter.
• Modified questions and simulation exercises throughout the chapter to reflect these edits.

Chapter 9

• Added material to help students identify the impacts of artificial intelligence on law practice and the legal profession.
• Expanded commentary on lawyer mental health and well-being including new excerpts from “Lawyers, Trauma, and Professional Well-Being: How the Legal Community Takes Back Its Mental Health,” 78 Ark. L. Rev. (2024) by Brenda Gibson.
• Included new excerpts from “Pro Bono Publico Versus Pro Bono Presidential,” 94 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. Arguendo 1 (2025) by S. I. Strong, exploring the Executive Orders requiring certain large, international law firms to provide pro bono legal services.
• Revised material in global perspectives boxes.
• Updated material related to multidisciplinary practice and nonlawyer ownership and investment.

Learn more about this series.