The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.
Among members of the legal profession and judiciary throughout the world, there is a genuine concern with establishing and maintaining high ethical standards. It is not difficult to understand why this should be so. Nor is it difficult to see the professional standards are not completelydivorced from ordinary morality. Indeed, legal ethics and professional responsibility are more than a set of rules of good conduct; they are also a commitment to honesty, integrity, and service in the practice of law. In order to ensure that the standards established are the right ones, it isnecessary first of all to examine important philosophical and policy issues, such as the need to reconsider the boundaries between, on the one hand, a lawyer's obligation to a client and, on the other, the public interest. It is also to be appreciated that conflicts of interest are pervasive andthat all too often they are so common that they are not recognized as such. Yet rarely is public policy clearly cut. The underlying themes of this book are: * that the move to more definite rules is not only inevitable but also desirable * that existing codes of professional practice cannot simply be treated as a system of specific rules * that the current set of ethical rules is contestable and requires further refinement, perhaps even radical surgery * and that legal ethics must be conceived in the more general area of professional responsibility The wider ethical issues of the operation of the legal profession as a whole are now firmly on the agenda. Both law schools and law professionals have a role to play in developing acceptable standards in this area and it is therefore appropriate that the essays in this volume are written by adistinguished group of law teachers and practitioners together with senior members of the judiciary. The book opens with an overview chapter, followed by three chapters analysing the ethical rules pertaining to the judiciary, the Bar, and solicitors, written by, respectively, the Master of the Rolls, Anthony Thornton, and Alison Crawley and Christopher Bramall. The following three chapters lookat the specific issues of confidentiality (Michael Brindle and Guy Dehn) and the particular ethical problems in the family and criminal law jurisdictions (Sir Alan Ward and Professor Andrew Ashworth respectively). Chapter 8, by Sir Alan Paterson, discusses the teaching of legal ethics, whilstChapters 9 and 10, by Marc Galanter, Thomas Palay, and Cyril Glasser put the subject in its wider social and professional context. The book finishes with a chapter which examines what lawyers may learn from looking at the study of medical ethics.
"The eighth edition of the Annotated Model Rules of Professional Conduct presents an authoritative and practical analysis of the lawyer ethics rules and the cases, ethics opinions, and other legal authorities essential to understanding them. The Model Rules of Professional Conduct were adopted by the ABA in 1983 and have been amended numerous times since. This new edition of the Annotated Model Rules of Professional Conduct represents a major refinement of previous editions. It takes into account all amendments through February 2013, as well as the American Law Institute's Restatement (Third) of the Law Governing Lawyers (2000)"--Acknowledgments.
Closely organized around the Society of Professional Journalists' code of ethics--the news industry's widely accepted "gold standard" of journalism principles--this updated edition features a wide selection of case studies penned by professional journalists--including several new additions--that offer examples of thoughtful, powerful, and principled reporting. Cases where regrettable decisions have taught important lessons are also included, providing a new template for analyzing moral predicaments. This revised edition includes chapters such as "Ethics and the Law," "Conflicts of Interest," "Privacy," and "Source/Reporter Relationships." Describing the basic connection between ethical journalism and excellent journalism, this is a lively, succinct, and accessible discussion of how this type of reporting can be morally upheld in the present day, regardless of medium or platform.
