Gilbert Law Summary on Legal Ethics

Puts what could be abstract rules into context in order to illuminate what led to adoption of each rule, why the rules require what they do, and where changes in lawyer regulation may be coming.

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This Gilbert Law Summary is designed to serve three groups. The first is law students taking their required course in Professional Responsibility or preparing for the bar-required Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam. Second are persons considering a legal education who want to appreciate what it means to have a law license, what issues lawyers face, and how the law requires lawyers to deal with those issues. Third are lawyers who want a handy place to turn when they face a question in practice and need help finding quick answers and relevant authority to go deeper. Using the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, the ABA Model Code of Judicial Conduct, and the ALI Restatement (Third): The Law Governing Lawyers as key authorities, the author puts what otherwise could be abstract rules into context in order to illuminate what led to adoption of each rule, why the rules require what they do, and where changes in lawyer regulation may be coming. Substantive issues covered include how a lawyer and a client form their relationship, what fiduciary duties are and which ones a lawyer owes to his or her clients, how a lawyer markets and gets paid for his or her services, and various ways both confidentiality obligations and conflicts of interest can arise. In addition, the author calls attention to a lawyer's obligations to a client's opponents, courts and other tribunals, and the broader public interest, as well as a final chapter on the special responsibilities of judges.