Ethics in Practice: Lawyers' Roles, Responsibilities, and Regulation [Paperback]

Deborah L. Rhode (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195167678 | ISBN-13: 978-0195167672 | Publication Date: September 25, 2003

Lawyers' ethics have been condemned for centuries, but they received little scholarly scrutiny until the last few decades. Ethics in Practice brings together leading experts in the emerging field of legal ethics to discuss the central dilemmas of practicing law.

This collection cuts across conventional disciplinary boundaries to address the roles, responsibilities, and regulation of contemporary lawyers. Contributors address common concerns from diverse perspectives, including philosophy, psychology, economics, political science, and organizational behavior. Topics include the nature of professions, the structure of practice, the constraints of an adversarial system, the attorney-client relationship, the practical value of moral theory, the role of race and gender, and the public service responsibilities of lawyers and law students.

Unique in both its breadth and its depth, this book redefines debates that are of enduring significance for both the profession and the public.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Leading scholars offer diverse opinions on how to narrow the gap between the ideals and the institutions of legal practice."--The American Lawyer

"These essays should prove especially provocative and instructive for students and practitioners of law. Recommended for upper division undergraduates, graduates, and law students."--CHOICE

"This is a splendid and finely-crafted collection. It can serve both as a state-of-the-art guide to the most important current debates about legal professionalism and as the starting point finally to move beyond the rhetorical posturing that still dominates the field. Instead of adding more words toward laments about the decline in professional ethics or the lack of lawyer civility, the authors find new theoretical and practical approaches that confront the full complexity of the asserted professional crisis and its causes."--Bryant Garth, American Bar Foundation

"The honest critiques and moral ambitions of the essays collected in this volume revitalize the study of the legal profession. Deborah Rhode has brought together a bracing mixture of scholars who pursue the structural as well as the personal factors crucial to meaningful change."--Martha Minow, Harvard University

"The ethical dilemmas of lawyers are a staple of professional debates, but also of popular culture. The reason for such broad curiosity is simple: the promises of any justice system very much depend on the conduct of its ministers. So in a democracy, it is essential that the public, not the professionals, be the final arbiter of the rules governing the behavior of lawyers. To advance that goal, Deborah Rhode has here assembled leading American thinkers on the topic who, in clear prose based on experience, illuminate the issues in ways that permit readers to understand the questions and supply their own answers."--Stephen Gillers, New York University

"Some of the most formidable minds in the country turn their attention to the complex and sometimes contradictory ethical principles that underlie legal practice in this compelling book. Rhode's own brilliant analysis and commitment is complemented by an array of essays--distinguished by their depth and clarity--that will engage readers far beyond the boundaries of the legal profession."--Cynthia Fuchs Epstein, Graduate Center, CUNY

About the Author

Deborah L. Rhode is the McFarland Professor of Law and Director of the Center on Ethics at Stanford University. She has served as president of the Association of American Law Schools and Chair of the American Bar Association's Commission on Women in Profession, and as senior counsel for the House Judiciary Committee on impeachment issues. She is the author or coauthor of eleven books and over one hundred articles, and has received the Keck Foundation Award for Distinguished Scholarship on Ethics by the American Bar Foundation, as well as the Pro Bono Publico Award from the American Bar Association.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (September 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195167678
• ISBN-13: 978-0195167672
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,754,615 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Deborah L. Rhode is the Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law and the Director of the Center on the Legal Profession at Stanford University. She has a Yale BA and JD, and is a former law clerk of Justice Thurgood Marshall, a former president of the Association of American Law Schools, a former chair of the American Bar Association's Commission on Women in the Profession, and a former director of both Stanford's Center on Ethics and its Institute for Research on Women and Gender. She is the author or coauthor of twenty books and over 200 articles, and is the nation's most cited scholar on professional responsibility.

Author Photo by David Weintraub, photographer.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensible Guide to Legal Ethics, February 9, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Ethics in Practice: Lawyers' Roles, Responsibilities, and Regulation (Hardcover)

Features contributions from the foremost scholars writing on legal ethics

Lawyers' ethics have been condemned for centuries, but they received little scholarly scrutiny until the last few decades. Ethics in Practice brings together leading experts in the emerging field of legal ethics to discuss the central dilemmas of practicing law.

This collection cuts across conventional disciplinary boundaries to address the roles, responsibilities, and regulation of contemporary lawyers. Contributors address common concerns from diverse perspectives, including philosophy, psychology, economics, political science, and organizational behavior. Topics include the nature of professions, the structure of practice, the constraints of an adversarial system, the attorney-client relationship, the practical value of moral theory, the role of race and gender, and the public service responsibilities of lawyers and law students.

Unique in both its breadth and its depth, this book redefines debates that are of enduring significance for both the profession and the public.

"This is a splendid and finely-crafted collection. It can serve both as a state-of-the art guide to the most important current debates about legal professionalism and as the starting point finally to move beyond the rehtorical posturing that still dominates the field." -- Bryant Garth, Director, American Bar Foundation

"The honest critiques and moral ambitions of the essays collected in this volume revitalize the study of the legal profession. Deborah Rhode has brought together a bracing mixture of scholars who pursue the structural as well as the personal factors crucial to meaningful change."-- Martha Minow, Professor of Law, Harvard University

3.0 out of 5 stars a generally uninspired collection of essays, July 18, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Ethics in Practice: Lawyers' Roles, Responsibilities, and Regulation (Hardcover)

It is not surprising that this collection of essays is uneven, since such volumes usually are. Here, only two of the essays stand out as particularly instructive -- David Wilkins's on whether a lawyer should subordinate his or her identity to (certain) professional ideals, and Koniak & Cohan's on counterproductive incentives built into the class-action system. Several other essays contain an interesting idea or two, but most often they are too impressionistic, and their recommendations too general, to be of any real use.

I also must mention one odd thing about this book: it almost appears that someone involved in its production bore a grudge against Wilkins, because his name is misspelled in the table of contents, his bio is strangely truncated, and there are...many egregious typos in his essay...