Professional Responsibility

In our Professional Responsibility courses, students will understand that ethical participation in the legal profession requires subordinating a lawyer's own interests to those of the client, and avoiding representation of matters in which the interests of two or more clients or former clients conflict, except as the rules of legal ethics may otherwise allow. Students will be able to identify and apply the professional obligation to respect client autonomy, including the duty to ensure that clients, once fully informed, are able to make the decisions that are unqualifiedly theirs to make, and to inform and consult with clients about those decisions a lawyer is entitled to make whenever the client has a legitimate interest in being consulted. Students will demonstrate knowledge of a lawyer's duty to respond to client requests for information in a timely manner and to keep clients reasonably informed of significant developments in their matters, as well as the duty to protect a client's privileged and confidential information such that its disclosure or use serves only the client's benefit, absent an applicable exception.

Students will further develop the ability to act with civility and honesty in dealings with clients, opposing counsel, and others encountered in the practice of law, and to act with candor toward courts and other tribunals, including an understanding of what that duty of candor requires in practice. Students will be able to identify what it means to act competently as a lawyer, to exercise independent professional judgment on a client's behalf, and to pursue a client's lawful goals diligently and with genuine devotion to the client's interests. Finally, students will gain an understanding and appreciation of the structure, purpose, and application of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and the New York Rules of Professional Conduct, and will be able to apply these rules in analyzing professional responsibility questions that arise across the practice of law.

Required Course Learning Outcomes

Professional Responsibility and the Regulation of Lawyers (LAW-LW.11479)

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to demonstrate:

Knowledge and Understanding of Substantive Law (ABA Standard 302(a)(1))

1. the historical development of U.S. labor law and the institutional and political forces that shaped the current regime.
2. the statutory framework of the National Labor Relations Act, including its structure, purposes, and the jurisdiction and role of the National Labor Relations Board.
3. the legal processes governing union organizing, including representation elections, card-check recognition, and employer and union conduct regulated under Section 8.
4. the legal framework governing collective bargaining, including the scope of mandatory, permissive, and illegal subjects of bargaining, and the statutory duty to bargain in good faith.
5. the law governing weapons of economic conflict, including strikes, picketing, lockouts, and secondary activity, and the statutory and common-law limits on each.
6. the law governing grievance arbitration, including the enforceability of arbitration agreements, judicial deference to arbitral awards, and the relationship between arbitration and NLRB proceedings.
7. preemption doctrine under the NLRA and federal antitrust law, and its interaction with state law.
8. the Railway Labor Act as an alternative federal labor relations regime, including points of contrast with the NLRA.
9. various proposals to amend labor law.

Legal Analysis and Reasoning (ABA Standard 302(a)(2), (3))

1. to analyze and apply NLRA principles and NLRB/judicial precedent to novel fact patterns involving organizing campaigns, bargaining disputes, and economic conflict.
2. to critically evaluate the policy rationales underlying collective labor law, including the balance struck between employer, union, and individual worker interests.
3. to assess the effectiveness of the current U.S. labor law regime in light of changing economic conditions, evolving forms of worker organization, and union strategies, and to evaluate proposed reforms to amend labor law.

Other Professional Skills (ABA Standard 302(a)(4), (b))

1. The ability to support client autonomy and informed decision-making through effective and timely communication with clients about the status of, and decisions arising in, their matters.
2. The ability to recognize and appropriately resolve ethical challenges through practical, case-based problem-solving, using tools and strategies employed by lawyers in practice to comply with applicable rules and regulations.
3. The ability to reflect on one's developing professional identity and values as a member of the legal profession, including an appreciation of the relationship between a lawyer's psychological fitness, response to professional stress, and overall professional competence.

Professional Responsibility in the Public Interest Seminar (LAW-LW.10093)

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to demonstrate:

Knowledge and Understanding of Substantive Law (ABA Standard 302(a)(1))

1. Knowledge and understanding of the rules of professional conduct governing the lawyer-client relationship as applied in the public interest and civil practice context, including formation of the relationship and its scope and limits.
2. Knowledge and understanding of the doctrines of confidentiality and attorney-client privilege, and their application in public interest representation.
3. Knowledge and understanding of the rules governing conflicts of interest, including conflicts that arise in the representation of classes, groups, or multiple similarly situated clients.
4. Knowledge and understanding of the special ethical obligations attendant to representing clients with diminished capacity.
5. Knowledge and understanding of the doctrines governing lawyer competency and malpractice liability.
6. Knowledge and understanding of the principles of judicial ethics as they relate to and interact with the role of public interest lawyers and the courts.
7. Knowledge and understanding of the structures and institutions through which legal services are delivered to underserved populations, including innovations in access-to-justice problem solving.

Legal Analysis and Reasoning (ABA Standard 302(a)(2), (3))

1. The ability to analyze and critically evaluate competing conceptions of the lawyer's professional role, including how considerations of justice inform or complicate a lawyer's obligations beyond formal rule compliance.
2. The ability to apply rules and norms of professional responsibility to concrete problems arising in public interest practice using the problem method.
3. The ability to critically assess the scope and limitations of lawyer zealousness, and to evaluate the ethical boundaries on advocacy in the public interest context.
4. The ability to analyze the distinctive ethical dimensions of representing a class or group, as opposed to an individual client, including the identification of client interests within a collective representation.
5. The ability to critically evaluate and propose approaches to rethinking the role of lawyers and courts in addressing the civil justice gap.

Other Professional Skills (ABA Standard 302(a)(4), (b))

1. The ability to engage effectively in client counseling and negotiation within the public interest practice context, attentive to the particular dynamics of representing underserved or vulnerable clients.
2. The ability to identify and evaluate ethical challenges arising in practice and to formulate and defend a reasoned position in response, both orally in class discussion and in writing.
3. The ability to produce clear, well-reasoned, and concise written analysis of contested professional responsibility issues under time and length constraints, as demonstrated through a series of short response papers.

Professional Responsibility in Criminal Practice Seminar (LAW-LW.10200)

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to demonstrate:

Knowledge and Understanding of Substantive Law (ABA Standard 302(a)(1))

1. Knowledge and understanding of the distinct ethical roles, duties, and responsibilities of criminal defense attorneys and prosecutors, and how those duties diverge from one another and from the norms of civil practice.
2. Knowledge and understanding of the rules governing confidentiality and attorney-client privilege as applied in the criminal practice context.
3. Knowledge and understanding of a lawyer's duty of candor to the tribunal in criminal proceedings.
4. Knowledge and understanding of the scope and exercise of prosecutorial discretion, including the ethical obligations unique to the prosecutorial role.
5. Knowledge and understanding of the ethical rules and practical constraints governing prosecution and defense investigations in criminal matters.
6. Knowledge and understanding of the ethical dimensions of trial advocacy in the criminal context, including duties owed to clients, witnesses, opposing counsel, and the court.

Legal Analysis and Reasoning (ABA Standard 302(a)(2), (3))

1. The ability to critically analyze the scope and limits of zealous representation as it applies differently to defense attorneys and prosecutors.
2. The ability to identify and evaluate ethical tensions and dilemmas arising in criminal practice, and to assess how a lawyer's professional role shapes the resolution of those dilemmas.
3. The ability to critically examine the influence of race and poverty on the practice and administration of criminal law, and to analyze how these factors bear on lawyers' professional and ethical obligations.
4. The ability to situate the ethical rules governing criminal practice within the broader context of contemporary criminal justice issues and debates.

Other Professional Skills (ABA Standard 302(a)(4), (b))

1. The ability to conduct effective and ethically appropriate client and witness interviewing and counseling in the criminal practice context.
2. The ability to engage in sustained oral analysis and debate of contested ethical questions in criminal practice through informed seminar discussion, including engagement with the perspectives of practicing prosecutors, defense attorneys, and former clients.
3. The ability to communicate reasoned ethical analysis in writing through structured reflection on assigned readings and discussion topics.

Professional Responsibility in the Corporate Context (LAW-LW.12346)

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to demonstrate:

Knowledge and Understanding of Substantive Law (ABA Standard 302(a)(1))

1. Knowledge and understanding of the formation and scope of the attorney-client relationship in the representation of companies engaged in transactional work, litigation, and internal investigations.
2. Knowledge and understanding of the rules governing confidentiality and attorney-client privilege as applied to organizational clients.
3. Knowledge and understanding of the rules governing conflicts of interest arising in corporate and transactional practice, including conflicts among affiliated entities.
4. Knowledge and understanding of the rules governing lawyer fees and the handling of client property.
5. Knowledge and understanding of a lawyer's duties of truthfulness in litigation and in negotiation, including the ethical limits on advocacy and deal-making conduct.
6. Knowledge and understanding of a lawyer's ethical obligations upon discovering or confronting client malfeasance, including the scope of permissible or required disclosure.
7. Knowledge and understanding of the doctrines governing malpractice liability and attorney discipline in the corporate practice context.
8. Knowledge and understanding of the special ethical rules applicable to representation of organizational clients, including identification of the client, the respective roles of management and in-house counsel, and the duties owed (or not owed) to corporate affiliates.
9. Knowledge and understanding of the ethical obligation to report matters "up the ladder" to higher authority within an organization, and the circumstances triggering that obligation.

Legal Analysis and Reasoning (ABA Standard 302(a)(2), (3))

1. The ability to identify and analyze ethical issues as they arise across distinct areas of corporate practice, including mergers and acquisitions, capital markets offerings, litigation, and internal investigations.
2. The ability to critically evaluate how the identity and interests of an organizational client should be determined, and how that determination affects a lawyer's professional obligations.
3. The ability to analyze the ethical and practical consequences that arise when a corporate client is sold or undergoes a change of control, including the effect on the lawyer's ongoing duties and relationships.
4. The ability to apply professional responsibility doctrine to complex, multi-party transactional and investigative scenarios involving competing interests among management, employees, and affiliated entities.

Other Professional Skills (ABA Standard 302(a)(4), (b))

1. The ability to identify and appropriately respond to ethical issues encountered in the course of conducting an internal investigation on behalf of an organizational client.
2. The ability to counsel corporate clients and their representatives on compliance with professional responsibility obligations arising in transactional and litigation matters.
3. The ability to communicate reasoned ethical analysis effectively in written and oral form when addressing professional responsibility questions specific to organizational representation.

The Role of the Lawyer in Public LIfe (LAW-LW.12397)

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to demonstrate:

Knowledge and Understanding of Substantive Law (ABA Standard 302(a)(1))

1. Knowledge and understanding of the ethical rules and obligations applicable to lawyers representing the government as a client, and how those obligations differ from the representation of private clients.
2. Knowledge and understanding of the distinctive roles and ethical responsibilities of executive branch attorneys, including Attorneys General, White House Counsel, the Office of Legal Counsel, and prosecutors.
3. Knowledge and understanding of the ethical obligations of counsel supporting congressional oversight and investigations.
4. Knowledge and understanding of the professional responsibility issues arising in the representation of personal counsel to high government officials and political parties.
5. Knowledge and understanding of the ethical obligations and regulatory framework applicable to "lawyer-lobbyists" who exercise influence over public policy.
6. Knowledge and understanding of principles of judicial ethics as they bear on lawyers and officials operating in public life.

Legal Analysis and Reasoning (ABA Standard 302(a)(2), (3))

1. The ability to analyze how a lawyer's professional ethical obligations are shaped and complicated by representation of clients in public life, including the government, clients with interests in government action, and clients active in electoral politics.
2. The ability to critically evaluate case studies of lawyers who have confronted ethical dilemmas in public life, assessing the choices they made and the professional obligations they understood, or failed to understand, to be in play.
3. The ability to analyze the scope of a lawyer's professional ethical obligations in a polarized political environment marked by sharp disagreement over the role of law and the rule of law itself.
4. The ability to identify and evaluate novel or unsettled questions of professional responsibility that arise in the context of government and public-sphere legal practice, where established rules may not squarely apply.

Other Professional Skills (ABA Standard 302(a)(4), (b))

1. The ability to engage in sustained oral analysis and debate of contested ethical questions in public life through active, informed class discussion.
2. The ability to synthesize legal doctrine, institutional context, and case-study analysis under exam conditions, demonstrating independent judgment in evaluating the professional responsibility issues faced by lawyers in public life.