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Professional Responsibility
Course Information and Resources
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COURSE
INFORMATION
Professional Responsibility: Law 731
Fall 2009
Faculty Information
FACULTY
INFORMATION
Associate Dean and Professor Barbara Glesner Fines
Email
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glesnerb@umkc.edu
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Work Phone
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(816) 235-2380
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Office Location
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1-511 in the
Holmes suite
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Office Hours
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Mondays &
Wednesdays 11:00 to 12:30 pm
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SCHEDULE
Class meets Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 11:00 to 11:50 in Classroom
04.
Coursework Begins Monday,
August 24 and ends Friday, October 30
Labor Day Holiday Monday,
September 7 (no school)
The final examination will be held on Monday November 9th
from 11:00 to 12:50.
Those of you taking the
MPRE this semester should note that the exam will be on Saturday, November 7. Registration deadlines is September 29th;
late registration October 15. See http://www.ncbex.org/multistate-tests/mpre/
for information on how to register, study materials and a guide to bar
admission requirements in all 50 states.
TEXT AND COURSE MATERIALS
REQUIRED:
·
A paper copy of the ABA Model Rules of Professional
Conduct (2004 or later edition). Copies can
be purchased through on-line bookstores such as Amazon.com
or at the campus bookstore. Students must bring the rule book to
class. Failure to have a book in class
will be considered an absence. When
rules are assigned for class, be sure to read all pertinent sections of the
rules and the comments. Remember that over the course of the semester, you
should read the entire Model Rules, including sections that we do not review in
class.
·
Readings
COURSE POLICIES
& OBJECTIVES
Course Objectives
Professional Responsibility
is the only course in the curriculum (save perhaps some aspects of business
organizations courses) for which the client you are learning to serve is
yourself. Accordingly, it is critical that you master "the law of lawyering" as you will be subject to that law no
matter what your practice setting. Like any regulation, some of this law
is fairly straightforward. Since, by this stage in your legal education,
you should have a fairly strong facility with learning and applying rules, we
will learn, but not dwell upon, these rules.
Rather, our energies will
be primarily directed toward those questions for which the law provides only
vague, shifting, and sometimes contradictory regulation and for which our
decisions about how to use that law to guide our own conduct must necessarily
reach beyond the law. As the Preamble to the Model Rules of Professional
Responsibility points out: "The rules do not, however, exhaust the moral
and ethical considerations that should inform a lawyer, for no worthwhile human
activity can be completely defined by legal rules." Thus, we will
explore the underlying ethical, moral and political themes in these
rules. We will debate the ethics of lawyer actions that are not covered
by "the rules". We will try to apply the same rigor and
discipline in our reasoning about ethical issues as we do in parsing a section
of the Uniform Commercial Code.
Moreover, we will take
some opportunities to observe how those choices are put into action in the
day-to-day practice of attorneys. How does the duty of communicating with
a client translate into interviewing and counseling techniques? How does
the inherent conflict of making your living from your client's troubles
influence your choice of billing practices? How does the responsibility
to police one another's practices translate into organizational structures of
law partnerships? These and other questions will give us a practical
grounding for our theoretical perspectives.
Learning Objectives
At the end of the course,
students should:
1.
Master the law governing
lawyers. You should understand the relationship between bar-generated
disciplinary codes and other sources of law, such as cases, statutes and
regulations. You should be able to identify the core issues and governing
law in any troublesome situation and be able analyze complex professional
responsibility problems in the core areas of concern for attorneys:
·
the
four C’s of the attorney-client relationship : Competence, Communication,
Confidentiality, and Conflict-free representation
·
the
three C’s of the attorney-court relationship : Candor, Compliance, and
Civility
·
and
the FAIR rule for the attorney’s relationship with everyone else in
society : Fairness, Access, Integrity, Responsibility
Finally, you should
be able to recognize the tensions and gaps among these concepts, which are
inherent in the regulation of attorneys.
2.
Be able learn more. You will have experience in researching issues of
professional responsibility and be aware of sources for additional help.
3.
Have a clearer vision of your own professional identity and your stance on
critical questions of professional role.
I hope that you already believe that the role of attorney confers a
special responsibility to insure justice and that this class will help you to
clarify how specific choices you make in your professional life can fulfill
that responsibility.
4.
Be able to avoid getting yourself,
your fellow attorneys, and your clients into trouble, by having learned some
practical strategies for avoiding common professional pitfalls.
A note on the relationship between the MPRE and
the Professional Responsibility Course
The Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE) is NOT a law school exam
or a requirement of any law school course. Most students take the MPRE in the
same semester as they enroll in Professional Responsibility; however, the exam
can be taken before taking the course or in semesters after completing the
course. While there is a substantial overlap in subject matter between the
professional responsibility course and the MPRE, the law school course is not
designed as a "bar prep" course for the MPRE for two reasons:
First, the MPRE tests some
materials that are easily mastered without a law school course. It would be a waste of your tuition dollars
and time to take an entire law school course simply to master these rules.
Second, the MPRE tests
only a small portion of the knowledge required to practice law professionally
and ethically. The MPRE necessarily
cannot test doctrines for which there is substantial uncertainty or controversy
regarding their meaning or application nor can it test notions of “best
practices.” Yet this is the very knowledge
that attorneys must call upon in their day to day practice.
While much of the PR
course will prepare you to take the MPRE, you should understand that some
subjects tested on the MPRE are not covered in the PR class and some subjects
tested on the PR exam and through in-class assignments are not covered on the
MPRE.
Course Requirements and Grading
1. Regular and
respectful class attendance is required.
Regular, prepared, and
punctual attendance is required in the legal profession. To reinforce those habits in this course of
professional responsibility, the following policy will be applied.
You must attend all
classes unless excused. To be counted as
present in any class you must:
·
Arrive
on time
·
Have
necessary materials (a copy of the rules and other assigned material)
·
Remain
for the entire class session. (If you have a medical condition that requires
you to leave class, just let me know and I will insure that you are seated
where you can leave and return without disrupting others).
·
Be
engaged in class. Students who are noticeably
disengaged (falling asleep, web surfing, reading materials unrelated to the
class) may be counted absent.
All absences must be
excused by providing at least 24 hours advance notice to me of your absence. You need not give a reason unless you are
absent without advance notice.
Your absences may not
exceed four class sessions. Each absence exceeding this limitation results in a one-step letter
grade reduction for the course to be assessed by the Dean’s Office, e.g.,
from "B" to "B-" or from "A-" to "B+". Absences in excess of six class sessions
shall result in the student's administrative withdrawal from the course
provided the student is in good standing at that time,
i.e., provided the student has not earned the grade of "F" for work
completed at the time of withdrawal. Students who are not in good standing will
receive a grade of "WF" for the course.
I take attendance through
a seating-chart each scheduled class and maintain attendance records for the
class. If at any time you have questions about your attendance, feel free to
contact me.
2. Students
are expected to prepare for class and participate in any discussions and
complete any in-class exercises.
Please complete all
reading assignments before class. I will conduct classes through a
variety of methods. Because the ability to collaborate is an essential
aspect of the practice of law in nearly all settings, many classes will include
group exercises and discussions.
Unless otherwise notified
by the instructor, students are responsible for all materials assigned,
regardless of specific coverage in class. The pacing and content of
assignments may be adjusted to reflect student mastery and interest.
I sometimes use quizzes or
short written exercises during the semester, to assist you in preparing for and
reviewing materials in class. On occasion, we will incorporate brief role
playing exercises into our study. Please
consider that the value of role playing exercises turns largely on your
willingness to play the role sincerely.
For some topics, I will lecture on the assigned topic. Lecture
outlines will be provided to minimize your need for note taking. Please feel
free to contribute news items, videos of television programs, lawyer jokes and
advertisements. I will try to incorporate as many of these contributions
into the classroom activities as time and the syllabus allows.
3. Final grades will be based on several short
assignments & quizzes and a final examination.
The final exam will be a
2-hour, in-class exam. It will be open book and open note. The
final exam may cover anything we discuss in class (including guest speaker
presentations), as well as any questions that may be answered by using the
Model Rules or the reading materials assigned for class.
Students will be expected
to prepare a number of problem assignments and short quizzes over the
course of the semester. For some of
these assignments, students may collaborate on the out-of-class assignments
with up to two other students (i.e., groups of 3) with the understanding that
all students will receive the same grade for their collaborative work. I will offer some short quizzes during the
semester. In addition, I will award
class participation points to students who are called upon or who volunteer to
contribute to class discussions in class or through contributing thoughtful
written reflections on the materials or discussion after class. Students who are absent when
Students have the
opportunity through these assignments, quizzes and participation to earn up to
25% of the final examination score points.
Disabled Student Services
UMKC endeavors to make all
activities, programs and services accessible to students with disabilities.
A Campus Coordinator for Disabled Student Services is available to
arrange for reasonable accommodations. If you need accommodations, it is
important that you contact the Coordinator as soon as possible to arrange for
providing appropriate documentation and the prescribing of reasonable
accommodations in the classroom and for exams. For information call (816)
235-5696. Speech and hearing impaired use Relay Missouri Law
School
COURSE SYLLABUS
Under
Construction
INTERNET
RESOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY
·
ABA Model Rules
of Professional Conduct
Selected Missouri
·
Rule
2 -- Code of Judicial Conduct
·
Rule
4 -- Rules of Professional Conduct
·
Rule
5 -- Complaints and Proceedings Thereon
·
Rule
8 -- Admission to the Bar
·
Rule
9 -- Practice by Nonresident Attorneys
·
Rule
13 -- Legal Assistance by Law Students
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Rule
15 -- Continuing Legal Education
·
Rule
16 -- Substance Abuse Intervention
·
Rule
17 -- Alternative Dispute Resolution
Missouri
·
Missouri
Legal Ethics Counsel Informal Advisory Opinions
·
Missouri
Supreme Court Formal Advisory Opinions
Selected
- Rules Relating to
Discipline of Attorneys
- Rules Relating to
Judicial Conduct
- Rules Relating to Admission
of Attorneys
- Rules Relating to
Continuing Legal Education
- Rules Relating to
Mediation
Selected Research Links
·
American Legal Ethics Library (Cornell
University LII)
- ABA Center for Professional
Responsibility
- National
Organization of Bar Counsel (NOBC)
- Association
of Professional Responsibility Lawyers
- Find Law Index : Ethics and Professional Responsibility
- Legal
Profession Blog
- Freivogel on Conflicts
- Legal Ethics Forum
- Legal ethics.com (Internet Legal Services)