This book is a comparative study which covers a number of major jurisdictions, viz., Australia, Belgium, Canada, England and Wales, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands and the USA. A separate chapter deals with developments in the context of the European Union. The study is based on a questionnaire of the IBA Section on Business Law Subcommittee on the Structure and Ethics of Business Law. Part one of each country report covers the basic rules applying to the domestic legal profession, such as the method of qualifying as a lawyer, the extent to which legal services are reserved to lawyers, and the ethical rules which apply to matters such as advertising, fees, correspondence, etc. The second part sets out what rules the jurisdiction in question imposes on its own lawyers when they are involved outside the jurisdiction. The third part deals with the rules which apply to a foreign lawyer practising within the jurisdiction. The last part deals with the various kinds of international associations to which lawyers may be party, such as alliances, office-sharing and multi-national and multi-disciplinary partnerships. In a final chapter the editor draws some conclusions on the current situation and on where international practice is heading. A number of useful appendices have been added, which set out the most important texts including the IBA International Code of Ethics.
Lawyers' ethics have been condemned for centuries, but they received little scholarly scrutiny until the last few decades. Ethics in Practice brings together leading experts in the emerging field of legal ethics to discuss the central dilemmas of practicing law. This collection cuts across conventional disciplinary boundaries to address the roles, responsibilities, and regulation of contemporary lawyers. Contributors address common concerns from diverse perspectives, including philosophy, psychology, economics, political science, and organizational behavior. Topics include the nature of professions, the structure of practice, the constraints of an adversarial system, the attorney-client relationship, the practical value of moral theory, the role of race and gender, and the public service responsibilities of lawyers and law students. Unique in both its breadth and its depth, this book redefines debates that are of enduring significance for both the profession and the public.
The legal profession has played a key role in enabling business to move goods and services across borders, but the regulation of the legal profession has not kept pace with the changes that have occurred in communications, transportation and technology. Lawyers who regularly counsel clients on transactions and litigation having an international dimension frequently find themselves without clear guidance on their ethical responsibilities. The extent and scope of their potential liability to clients is similarly uncertain. This work is the first major study by transnational lawyers and academics of ethical and practice-related problems and challenges arising from the provision of cross-border legal services. it discusses such topics as conflicts of interest from the perspective of the US, English, French and Dutch legal systems, And The rights of foreign lawyers to practice in Belgium, France, Great Britain, Germany, Japan And The US. Particular attention is paid To The Code of Conduct for Lawyers in the European Community And The Draft Directive on the Right to Establishment for Lawyers in the European Community. Audience: Practitioners and academics will find the work an invaluable resource. For practitioners, The chapters are sensitive to real-life dilemmas that are regularly encountered. For academics, there is a comparative approach and analysis that is both intellectually rich and provocative.
The evolution of partnership forms is stimulated by powerful economic forces that can lead to widespread prosperity and wealth creation for a society. Given the importance of closely held firms in the United States and Europe, The Evolution of Legal Business Forms in Europe and the United States argues that partnership law should trouble itself less with historical and descriptive arguments about the legal rules and structure of the partnership form and focus much more on the new analytical apparatus of the economics of organizational form as well the fundamental economic learning that informs the debates on limited liability, partnership rules regarding management and control, conflict resolution and fiduciary duties. Introducing and extending the best available theories from law and economics, particularly those from the theory of the firm, This book?s analysis demonstrates that the patterns of European partnership law and its recent history are best understood from an economic and comparative law perspective. By examining the economic theories of the firm and the economics of organization choice, The Evolution of Legal Business Forms in Europe and the United States conceives partnership-type business forms as contractual entities. The key feature of the modern partnership form is that partners have significant flexibility and power to limit their liability, transfer all of their rights, and to freely exit the firm. Another key feature of partnership law is the insight that lawmakers should provide the rules and enforcement mechanisms to regulate the important relationships within the partnership. This book applies an efficiency test to determine which sets of default rules are likely to resolve the main problems in partnerships. Having identified partnership law with the economic theory of organization, The Evolution of Legal Business Forms in Europe and the United States then goes to argue that most of partnership law is directed at offering bundles of legal rules for different types of firms. Lawmakers should promote partnership rules that attract investors and can be expected to be efficient if they allow entrepreneurs to freely select the bundle of rules that best match their priorities. In a modern vision of partnership law, lawmakers promote economic welfare through creating non-mandatory rules that allow multiple businesses to switch to a favourable business form without significant costs. Jurisdictions plagued by falling incorporations and low levels of small and medium business activity, should abandon the mandatory and standardized framework and the `lock in? effect that it promotes, and focus on the mechanisms of legal evolution and rules that tend to mimic the market. This innovation work will have ramifications felt across European jurisdictions, and will be debated by a large audience of policymakers and academic lawyers involved in law reform. Moreover, the book will receive serious attention from students of law and economics, as well as practising lawyers involved in resolving complex issues of organizational law. Review (s) ?Vermeulen?s work makes a significant contribution to the dialogue between legal scholars and policy makers from Europe and the United States on the matter of business entity law reform. The volume is ambitious in scope, thoughtful in approach, and accurate in result. It shows a well-read and nuanced view of the recent American partnership law reform debates. He moves with assurance between different systems of law and analysis, and has a confident sense of what his diverse readers need to know to come to the ultimate discussion with a common sense of the issues and alternatives at hand. Vermeulen?s work should serve as a starting point for a robust discussion among scholars and policy makers.?
Explains the various types of MDP's, where they are permitted, and the advantages and disadvantages of each. This book includes coverage of ABA and CPA rules on professional independence, conflicts of interest, confidentiality, and other critical issues.
