Code of Lawyering Standards and Responsibilities
I. Preamble
The Lawyering Program provides a realistic simulation of many of the pressures and obligations of legal practice. Lawyering Exercises are intellectually demanding, time pressured, and highly collaborative. They require focus, cooperation, timeliness, and maintenance of a complex, individualized schedule of appointments. Lapses on the part of any student will affect the performance and learning experience of others. It is therefore essential that students work in Lawyering with the conscientiousness and professionalism that will be required of them in practice. The standards described below codify this obligation.
These standards, modeled after Rules of Professional Conduct and Codes of Professional Responsibility of the legal profession, are essentially “rules of reason” that outline obligations akin to those of professional practice. Variants of these standards are found, in some form, in virtually all Rules of Conduct and Codes of Responsibility established for lawyers in the United States. They prescribe the minimum obligations and responsibilities each student must satisfy in order to receive credit for Lawyering.
Students should direct questions concerning the Code of Lawyering Standards and Responsibilities to their Lawyering professor.
II. Lawyering Standards and Responsibilities
A. Diligence:
A student shall act with diligence in strengthening and critiquing his or her professional skills – and those of his or her classmates – and shall complete all Lawyering Program assignments in a timely fashion.
i. This requirement means that:
- The student must attend and be on time for all Lawyering classes, conferences, and other appointments or meetings, except where s/he has sought and obtained permission in advance from the professor;
- The student must complete and submit all assignments on a timely basis, except where s/he has sought and obtained permission in advance from the professor to make a late submission;
- The student’s work in each exercise must represent the student’s best effort; and
- In the event that an emergency prevents the student from complying with requirements (1) - (3) above, s/he is responsible for contacting the professor, providing an explanation, and taking the steps necessary to make up missed work.
ii. In the case of a writing assignment, for example, diligence requires:
- an initial submission that represents a full, thorough, and polished effort to address the questions posed by the assignment;
- careful and thoughtful evaluation of one’s own and one’s colleagues’ submissions; and
- revisions (where required) that reflect an evolving understanding of the issues raised by the writing assignment and an ongoing effort to improve one’s legal writing and respond to feedback.
iii. In the case of an assignment involving interactive work, diligence requires:
- familiarity with relevant factual materials and legal principles, including performance of all necessary factual and legal research;
- careful planning, execution, and evaluation of all interviewing, counseling, negotiation, and advocacy functions; and
- careful and thoughtful evaluation of one’s own and one’s colleagues’ interviewing, counseling, negotiation, and advocacy work.
B. Respect for Others:
A Lawyering student shall treat all persons involved in the Lawyering Program, including student colleagues, faculty, and administrative staff, with courtesy and respect.
This requirement means that students must maintain an atmosphere of professionalism and respect in all Lawyering classes and activities. Students must act in a manner that is respectful of the different experiences, backgrounds, opinions and other diversity that their colleagues bring to the Lawyering classroom.
Compliance with the requirement of respect for others is fundamental to successful learning in Lawyering's small class setting, simulations, and conferences.
C. Integrity:
Students must comply with the Lawyering Program’s Statement on Plagiarism and Collaboration, which appears below.[1]
Lawyering Program’s Statement on Plagiarism and Collaboration
The Lawyering Program strongly encourages students to learn from one another; indeed, collaboration and peer learning are at the heart of the Program’s pedagogy. Thus, there will be many times when the program invites students to work collaboratively.
At all times, however, students must follow two ethical rules:
i. In preparing an individual (single authored) written assignment or in conducting an individual research assignment, a student may not do any of the following, unless s/he has sought and obtained advance permission from the professor, or the Lawyering course materials specify that s/he may do so:
- examine or review the written work or research results of any other student;
- invite any other student to review his or her written work or research results; or
- consult the written work or research results of any Lawyering student from a previous year.
ii. Students should avoid having discussions with former Lawyering students where those discussions would compromise the current Lawyering student’s learning.
Specifically, when preparing for an Exercise, a student may not discuss with former Lawyering students (other than a Lawyering Teaching Assistant communicating with the student in a manner consistent with the Teaching Assistant’s proper role) any factual, legal, or strategic matter relating to the Exercise, such as possible lines of argument, problem solving approaches, and plans of action or tactics.
III. Lawyering Grades
Lawyering is graded on a credit/fail basis. A student will receive a grade of “fail” if, in the judgment of the Lawyering faculty, s/he fails to complete satisfactorily one or more Exercise(s) or violates the Statement on Plagiarism and Collaboration. Failure may also result from other conduct manifesting a lack of diligence, respect, or integrity, such as a pattern of unexcused absence or lateness; lack of preparation; or disrespect to faculty, staff, or student colleagues.
If, in the judgment of a faculty member, a student is at risk of failure or otherwise is not meeting the minimum performance standards of diligence, respect, and integrity described above, that student will be so notified by his or her Lawyering professor.
[1] Law Students in Lawyering are also subject to the Law School’s policy on plagiarism, which can be found at pp. 45-46 of the Law School’s Student Handbook.