Professional Responsibility 

Course Information and Resources


Professor Barbara Glesner Fines
University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Law

 

COURSE INFORMATION
Professional Responsibility: Law 731
Fall 2009

Faculty Information

Course Schedule & Textbooks

Policies

Syllabus

Web Resources

 

FACULTY INFORMATION
Associate Dean and Professor Barbara Glesner Fines

Email

glesnerb@umkc.edu

Work Phone

(816) 235-2380

Office Location

1-511 in the Holmes suite

Office Hours

Mondays & Wednesdays 11:00 to 12:30 pm

 

 

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 and cases provided through on-line links on this course page.  If you have trouble accessing these materials, you may obtain a CD from me with the materials for $5.00.

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, 1-800-735-2966 (TT) or 1-800-735-2466 (Voice.)  For questions or further information, see Adela Fleming in the Law School Administrative Suite.

COURSE SYLLABUS

Under Construction

 

INTERNET RESOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY

·        ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct

Selected Missouri Supreme Courts Rules

·        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

·        Rule 15 -- Continuing Legal Education

·        Rule 16 -- Substance Abuse Intervention

·        Rule 17 -- Alternative Dispute Resolution

 

Missouri Ethics Opinions

·        Missouri Legal Ethics Counsel Informal Advisory Opinions

·        Missouri Supreme Court Formal Advisory Opinions

 

Selected Kansas Supreme Court Rules

 

Selected Research Links

·        American Legal Ethics Library (Cornell University LII)

 

Multi-state Professional Responsibility Exam Information

 

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