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Professional Responsibility
Class Term:
Fall Term 2023-2024
Catalog Number:
5609
Professor(s):
Professor
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.
The course relies on spaced repetition and consistent practice as pathways to mastering the ethical rules. Hence, the course is designed around opportunities for students to review the rules constantly in a variety of practice settings. Classes will involve discussions of problem sets devoted to a particular topic in a problem-oriented approach to mastering the Model Rules of Professional Conduct and the Code of Judicial Conduct. 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. 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).
Grading Details
Final grades will be based primarily on an open-book, in-class final examination. Consideration will also be given to the quality of students’ participation in class discussions.
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).
This course has been flagged as a distance education course. This means this class is one in which students are separated from the faculty member or each other (other than specially accommodated students) for more than one-third of the instruction and the instruction involves the use of technology to support regular and substantive interaction among students and between the students and the faculty member, either synchronously or asynchronously.
This course is held on a specific day, at a specific time, on Zoom or using some other remote technology. The class never meets in person.