Professional Responsibility - 2251

Professional Responsibility
Class Term:
Fall Term 2024-2025
Catalog Number:
5609
Professor(s):

Professor

Type:
Lecture
Credits:
3 (3 Contact, 0 Field)
Graduation Requirements:
Legal Profession
Priority:
General Enrollment Course
Full Year Course:
No
Category:
Standard Courses

Additional Information

This course will explore the black letter “law of lawyering,” assist students in the development of professional identity, and outline the prominent ethical traps for beginning lawyers. The primary objectives of the course are to understand the basic concepts of ethical conduct for lawyers and to advance in lawyerly professionalism. This course is equally committed to preparing students to take the MPRE and honing student test-taking skills with ongoing assessment from the instructor.

Topics include formation and termination of the attorney-client relationship, confidentiality and attorney-client privilege, fees, conflicts of interest, legal malpractice, transactional lawyering, supervisor/subordinate, entity representations, and criminal litigation.

Grading Details

There will be an in-class final exam.

Description

This course will cover selected topics on the law governing lawyers. Major topics will include formation and termination of the attorney-client relationship and its attendant obligations, fee issues, conflicts of interest, ethics in advocacy, transactional lawyering, and entity representations, among others. The course will cover these topics from the vantage point of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct and the Restatement of the Law Governing Lawyers, as well as those aspects of Constitutional law, evidence law, agency law, tort law, and procedural rules (both civil and criminal) that bear on an attorney’s obligations to clients, courts, opposing parties and their attorneys, and the legal system at large. Class discussions will incorporate in-depth analysis of case law and the Rules, as well as analysis of practical hypothetical scenarios in which a lawyer seeks advice about his or her legal and ethical options for moving forward in dealing with his or her clients. This course meets the New York professional responsibility requirement. N.Y. Court Rules for Admission of Attorneys and Counselors at Law Rule 520.3(c)(1)(iii).

Professional Responsibility