Professional Responsibility

This course introduces students to the goals, rules and responsibilities of the American legal profession and its members. The course is designed around the premise that the subject of professional responsibility is the single most relevant to students' future careers as members of the bar. These issues come up on a constant basis and it is critical that lawyers be alert to spotting them when they arise and be educated in the methods of resolving them. As such, the course will address many of the most commonly recurring issues that arise, such as confidentiality, conflicts of interest, candor to the courts and others, the role of the attorney as counselor, the structure of the attorney-client relationship, issues around billing, the tension between "cause lawyering" and individual representation, and lawyers' duty to serve the underrepresented. The course will consider the overlapping, inconsistent, and incomplete sources of the regulation of lawyers in the United States. International graduate students will bring their own experiences to compare with standards applicable to legal behavior in different jurisdictions. The course will also instill familiarity with the coverage and testing methods of the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination that is required by virtually every U.S. state and territory for licensure. Individual and group participation in class discussion is vital, as well as good faith completion of review questions and/or brief quizzes on the daily reading assignments. Students will work regularly in small groups to discuss hypothetical problems during each class, as well as complete a group assignment due at the close of the course. Each student must also submit a brief reflection paper. The instructor retains the right to take class participation and attendance into account in the final assessment. This course is offered to international graduate students only. It is taught on an accelerated basis with an introductory class at Orientation and daily classes during the three weeks between orientation and the beginning of the Autumn Quarter classes. Limited to LLMs, JSMs and exchange students. Required for LLMs.