Ethical Problems in the Practice of Law [Connected eBook with Study Center]

by Lerman, Lisa G.; Schrag, Philip G.; Rubinson, Robert; Hans, Gautam S.; Luciani, Alexandra

• ISBN13: 9798892074421
• ISBN10: 8892074423
• eBook ISBN(s): 9798892074445
• Edition: 7th
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2025-11-04
• Publisher: Aspen Publishing
• More Book Details

Summary

Buy a new version of this textbook and receive access to the Connected eBook with Study Center on Casebook Connect, including academic lifetime access to the online ebook with highlight, annotation, and search capabilities. Access also includes practice questions, an outline tool, and other helpful resources. Connected eBooks provide what you need most to be successful in your law school classes.

Ethical Problems in the Practice of Law, Seventh Edition is built around dozens of ethical problems, nearly all drawn from actual events. Instead of reading judicial opinions, students read clear narrative explanations of the law and are then presented with ethical dilemmas in the contexts in which lawyers first encountered them. The problems challenge students to decide what they would do if presented in practice with dilemmas in which every possible course of action is problematic. Students must draw on formal ethics rules, other relevant law, their perceptions of clients’ needs, public interests, and their own ethical principles to engage in deep analyses and participate in lively class discussions.  

Features include:

• The law governing lawyers explained in an accessible question-and-answer format.
• An introduction to the legal profession and the law and institutions that govern it, to help students assume their responsibilities as members of the legal profession.
• More than 60 complex problems in which students step into the shoes of practicing lawyers to confront difficult ethical dilemmas that have arisen in practice.
• Many fascinating examples of cases in which lawyers have faced disciplinary consequences, civil or criminal penalties, court sanctions, or other professional consequences as a result of unethical or unlawful conduct.
• Lively presentation of materials, including tables, photos, and cartoons.

Unsolicited comment from an adopter of Ethical Problems in the Practice of Law:

• Professor Jamie P. Werbel, Seton Hall University School of Law, wrote: “I wanted to drop you a line and let you know how fabulous your textbook is! I just started teaching Professional Responsibility this year, and your book has been invaluable to me as I guide my students through the course. My husband, also an attorney, made fun of me last semester as a few times I was reading it at night in bed! It really is just that enjoyable to read.”

New to the Seventh Edition:

• Inclusion of recent events raising issues of professional responsibility, including:
  • The Supreme Court’s adoption of its first-ever ethics code for the justices, and the absence of an enforcement mechanism.
  • The ABA’s amendments to Model Rule 1.16 designed to minimize the risk of lawyers representing clients engaged in money laundering or other crimes or frauds.
  • The effect of the 2023 Supreme Court decision on affirmative action in law school admissions.
  • The Trump administration’s executive orders attacking law firms, and the firms’ responses.
  • The controversial dismissal of the prosecution of New York Mayor Eric Adams and the subsequent resignations of several Department of Justice prosecutors.
  • The effects of artificial intelligence on the legal profession, including issues of confidentiality, competence, and judicial responses to false citations in briefs.
  • Legal consequences for lawyers who attempted to subvert the 2020 Presidential election with unfounded claims of fraud.
  • An example from the Alex Jones litigation of how lawyers may try to use “clawback” rules to recover inadvertently disclosed privileged communications.
  • The legal advice given to Vice President Mike Pence as he prepared to count the presidential electors’ ballots on January 6, 2021.

Benefits for instructors and students:

• Students:
  • A problem-based approach built upon ethical dilemmas faced by real lawyers, which enables students to test their understanding of the law in a practical context.
  • A clear introduction to the ethics codes and other law governing lawyers, and to the legal profession.
  • Graphics (cartoons, tables, photos) throughout, which make the presentation lively and engaging.
  • Shocking examples of recent lawyer misconduct that maintain student interest.
• Professors:
  • ?A problem method that engages students and generates class discussion because most problems present head-scratching dilemmas that students must puzzle through together.
  • Materials organized in teachable units, scaled to provide appropriate reading assignments for each class.
  • Clear exposition of the law so that professors can focus the majority of class time on interactive discussion of the problems.
  • Transformation of a course that many students only take because it is required to a learning environment that is educationally rich, engaging, and fun.
  • A 400-page Teacher’s Manual with sample syllabi, advice on how to structure the course, and detailed discussion guides for all problems and questions in the text. The manual explains possible student responses to each problem and includes follow-up questions and answers that allow even novice teachers to master the material.
  • A password-protected companion website that includes the Teacher’s Manual, slides, and recordings from lawyers whose cases are in the textbook. Instructors may freely convert the electronic version of the Teacher’s Manual into their own class notes, modify them as they wish, and edit the slides to meet the needs of their courses.

Table of Contents

SUMMARY OF  CONTENTS

Contents 
Table of Problems 
Preface to the Seventh Edition for Teachers and Students
Acknowledgments 
Notes to Students 

Introduction 1
A. Ethics, morals, and professionalism
B. Some central themes in this book 
C. The structure of this book 
D. The rules quoted in this book: A note on sources 
E. Stylistic decisions 

Chapter 1: The Legal Profession: Bar Admission, History, and Diversity 17
A. Admission to the bar 
B. History and development of the U.S. legal profession
C. History of American legal education 
D. Diversity and discrimination in the legal profession 

Chapter 2: The Legal Profession: Regulation, Discipline, and Liability 67
A. Institutions that regulate lawyers 
B. State ethics codes 
C. The disciplinary system 
D. Civil liability 
E. Criminal liability  
F. Client protection funds 

Chapter 3: Relationships Between Lawyers and Clients 
A. Formation of the lawyer- client relationship 
B. Lawyers’ duties of competence, diligence, honesty, and
communication  
C. Lawyers’ responsibilities as agents 
D. Who calls the shots? 
E. Terminating a lawyer- client relationship 

Chapter 4: The Duty to Protect Client Confidences 
A. The basic principle of confidentiality 
B. Exceptions to the duty to protect confidences 
C. Use or disclosure of confidential information for personal gain
or to benefit another client 
D. Talking to clients about confidentiality 

Chapter 5: The Attorney- Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine 
A. Confidentiality and attorney- client privilege compared 
B. The elements of attorney- client privilege 
C. Asserting the privilege 
D. Waiver of the privilege 
E. Exceptions to the privilege 
F. The death of the client 
G. The attorney- client privilege for corporations 
H. The attorney- client privilege for government officials 
I. The work product doctrine 

Chapter 6: Conflicts of Interest: Current Clients
A. An introduction to conflicts of interest 
B. General principles in evaluating concurrent conflicts
C. Conflicts between current clients in litigation 

Chapter 7: Conflicts Involving Former and Prospective Clients 
A. Nature of conflicts between present and former clients 
B. Duties to former clients 
C. Distinguishing present and former clients
D. Evaluating successive conflicts 
E. Addressing former client conflicts in practice 
F. Conflicts between the interests of a present client and a client
who was represented by a lawyer’s former firm 
G. Imputation of former client conflicts to affiliated lawyers 
H. Conflicts involving prospective clients 

Chapter 8: Conflicts Issues in Particular Practice Settings 
A. Representing multiple parties who are not in litigation 
B. Representing organizations 
C. Representing co- defendants in criminal cases 
D. Representing family members
E. Representing insurance companies and insured persons 
F. Representing employers and immigrant employees 
G. Representing plaintiffs in class actions
H. Representing parties to aggregate settlements of individual cases 

Chapter 9: Conflicts of Interest Between Lawyers and Clients 
A. Legal fees 
B. Lawyer as custodian of client property and documents 
C. Conflicts with lawyers’ personal or business interests 

Chapter 10: Conflicts Issues for Government Lawyers and Judges 
A. Ethics rules for government lawyers 
B. Successive conflicts of former and present government lawyers 
C. Conflicts involving judges, law clerks, arbitrators, and mediators 

Chapter 11: Lawyers’ Duties to Courts 
A. Being a good person in an adversary system 
B. Investigation before filing a complaint
C. Truth and falsity in litigation 
D. Concealment of physical evidence and documents 
E. The duty to disclose adverse legal authority
F. Disclosures in ex parte proceedings G. Improper influences on judges and juries 
H. Agreements not to accept future cases 
I. Lawyers’ duties in nonadjudicative proceedings 

Chapter 12: Lawyers’ Duties to Adversaries and Third Persons 
A. Communications with lawyers and third persons
B. Duties of prosecutors 
C. Conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice 
D. Are lawyers really too zealous? 

Chapter 13: The Changing Landscape of Law Practice 
A. Unauthorized practice of law: Who can provide legal services 
B. Multidisciplinary practice 
C. Financing law practice 
D. Getting business: Advertising and solicitation 
E. Globalization of law practice 
F. Artificial intelligence

Chapter 14: Access to Justice: The Lawyer’s Role 
A. The unmet need for legal services 
B. Sources of free legal services for those who cannot afford legal fees 
C. Pro bono representation
D. Loan forgiveness and scholarships for public service lawyers 
E. A concluding problem

About the Authors 
Table of Cases
Table of Rules, Restatements, Statutes, Bar Opinions, and Other Standards 
Index