The practicing lawyer must balance multiple identities: advocate, adviser, citizen, and public servant. Using actual problems and issues arising from the practicing bar, students apply the rules of professional responsibility and explore how to balance the lawyer's own interests with those of the client and the public.
The course deals with the structure of the legal profession, the functions and activities of lawyers, and the relation of the profession to society as a whole. Course resources include the Model Rules of Professional Conduct and selected problems that the Rules address. A central theme is the balancing of the lawyer's own interests with those of the client and the public good. Evaluation of student performance is based on a two-hour examination designed to assess student understanding of the Rules of Professional Responsibility as applied to specific fact situations. |
