Organizational professionalism in globalizing law firms.

Are the challenges of globalization, technology and competition exercising a dramatic impact on professional practice whilst, in the process, compromising traditional notions of professionalism, autonomy and discretion? This paper engages with these debates and uses original, qualitative empirical data to highlight the vast areas of continuity that exist even the largest globalizing law firms. Whilst it is undoubted that growth in the size of firms and their globalization bring new challenges, these are resolved in ways that are sensitive to professional values and interests. In particular, a commitment to professional autonomy and discretion still characterises the way in which these firms operate and organize themselves. This situation is explained in terms of the development of an organizational model of professionalism, whereby the large organization is increasingly emerging as a primary locus of professionalization and whereby professional priorities and objectives are increasingly supported by organizational logics, systems and initiatives

Report of the Working Group on Determining the Child\u27s Capacity to Make Decisions

[Preamble] As with adults, a lawyer has an ethical obligation to advocate the position of a child unless independent evidence exists that the child is unable to express a reasoned choice about issues that are relevant to the particular purpose for which the lawyer is representing the child. Where such evidence exists, the lawyer must engage in additional fact-finding to determine whether the child has, or may develop, the capacity to direct the lawyer\u27s action in the particular context

The Lawyer as Legal Scholar

I review Eugene Volokh's recent book, Academic Legal Writing. The book is nominally directed to law students and those who teach them (and for those audiences, it is outstanding), but it also contains a number of valuable lessons for published scholars. The book is more than a writing manual, however. I argue that Professor Volokh suggests implicitly that scholarship is underappreciated as a dimension of the legal profession. A well-trained lawyer, in other words, should have experience as a scholar. The argument sheds new light on ongoing discussions about the character of law schools

Catholic Social Teaching and American Legal Practice: A Practical Response

The author responds to Avery Cardinal Dulles\u27s essay and lecture Catholic Social Teaching and American Legal Practice, Fordham Urb. L.J., 277 (2002) (available at http://new.fordhamj.org/demonstration/dc/v30/27_30FordhamUrbLJ277(2002-2003).pdf). She provides a practical perspective on the applications of Catholic social teachings to the practice of law. She concludes that Catholic teachings and law intersect in two areas: in the lawyer\u27s discretion and in the lawyer\u27s professional interactions with others

The Developmental Path of the Lawyer

My mother does not drive, and I own a towel that I cannot use-these are my reasons for studying law. I am an integrated tapestry of elation and disappointment, risk and reward, ambiguity and conviction .. .. I discovered [through adversity] that transitional challenges were not permanent impediments to my progress, but were instead emboldening catalysts to my personal evolution and professional development. These two stories come from admissions essays submitted by members of Georgetown University Law Center\u27s class of 2014, recently published in the Law Center\u27s alumni magazine. The published essays provide fascinating views into the personal experiences and deep reflection that lead people to pursue legal studies

Conflicts of Interests in the Representation of Children

C ONFLICTS of interests arise whenever the representation of a client may be materially limited by the lawyer\u27s duties to either another client or a third person or by the interests of the lawyer herself.\u27 Analyzing such conflicts typically requires identifying situations involving a potentially impermissible conflict, determining whether the conflict is consentable, and, if it is, obtaining consent after full disclosure.2 Conflicts analysis is difficult enough when the client is an adult.3 When the client is a child, however, the analysis is complicated by a number of factors. For example, in the wide variety of cases in which children (or their interests) are involved, the child\u27s role varies enormously. In some cases, the child is actually a party; in others, the child has a legal interest of some sort; in still others, the outcome will affect the child only indirectly. Moreover, a child\u27s interests can be protected in a variety of fashions, some of which involve legal representation, some of which involve appointment of a guardian ad litem (who may be a lawyer), and some of which involve indirect protection through the participation of the parent. Even when it is clear that the lawyer\u27s role is actual representation, it may be unclear to whom the lawyer turns when decisions on behalf of the child are to be made. In some cases, the child may sue (or be sued) only through the parent as guardian or next friend. In other cases, the child may be named as a party, but the parent may assert the right to make some or all decisions on the child\u27s behalf. In still others, the child may not be a party at all, but the court may permit or assign a lawyer to represent either the child or the child\u27s guardian or guardian ad litem. Finally, the lawyer may choose or be asked to represent more than one party; for example, the lawyer may attempt to represent both parent and child, agency and child, or multiple siblings. All these situations involve at least the potential for conflicting interests; however, only some of the issues raised are amenable to resolution through conflict of interests analysis. Moreover, even among those issues that do fall within the purview of conflict of interests rules, there are several unique aspects of the representation of children which ultimately call for an analysis far more complex than that typically encountered in even the most intractable conflicts issues involving adults

Robinson Everett: The Citizen Lawyer Ideal Lives On

In this tribute to Professor Robinson O. Everett, Dean David Levi questions the view that the citizen-lawyer or lawyer-statesmen models are in decline. Tracing Professor Everett’s varied career, accomplishments, and commitments to individuals and institutions; Levi contends that Everett combined the lawyer\u27s traditional focus on the individual with an overall dedication to the larger community. Everett was not just a model citizen; he was a lawyer-citizen. Levi contends that the survival of the lawyer-citizen and lawyer-statesmen models is a matter of choice and character. Nothing in the current structure of the legal economy places these models out of reach for those who would follow in Robinson Everett\u27s footsteps