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Russell Pearce

Fordham University, Law, Faculty Member

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In 1990, Professor Pearce joined the Fordham faculty, where he teaches, writes and lectures in the field of professional responsibility. Professor Pearce has delivered the Baker & McKenzie Lecture on Legal Ethics at Loyola Chicago Law School, the inaugural Louis D. Brandeis Lecture at Pepperdine Law School and the inaugural William D. Brahms Lecture on Law and Religion at Case Western Reserve Law School. He has also received the Sanford D. Levy Memorial Award from the New York State Bar Association “in recognition of his contribution to understanding and advancement in the field of professional ethics.”

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Papers by Russell Pearce

Rethinking Lawyer Regulation: How a Relational Approach Would Improve Professional Rules and Roles

Social Science Research Network, 2012

Professor of Legal Ethics, Morality & Religion, Fordham University School of Law. Many thanks to ... more Professor of Legal Ethics, Morality & Religion, Fordham University School of Law. Many thanks to the participants in the Michigan State University College of Law Conference on Lawyers as Conservators for their helpful comments. Special thanks to John Flood and Julian Webb for their valuable assistance. We are also very appreciative of Ted Schneyer's wise counsel.

Jewish Lawyer's Question, The Essay

The Baal Shem' handed [the Maggid of Mezeritch] the Book of splendor, the Zohar: "Can you read?"-... more The Baal Shem' handed [the Maggid of Mezeritch] the Book of splendor, the Zohar: "Can you read?"-"Yes."-"Well then, read!" The Maggid obeyed. "That is not the way one reads," the Baal Shem interrupted. "I can see you know how to decipher the signs, but your knowledge lacks soul." 2 * MARTIN BUBER, ON JUDAISM 19 (Nahum N. Glatzer ed., 1967) (referring to the "personal Jewish question").

Educación jurídica y tecnología: El potencial para democratizar el conocimiento y el poder jurídicos

Latin american law review, Mar 6, 2023

The current technological transformation of legal education, including computer-based, interactiv... more The current technological transformation of legal education, including computer-based, interactive, and online modes of instruction, represents "one of the most dramatic technological revolutions in history, if not the most dramatic." 1 As the AI-based technological revolution accelerated dramatically in the 1990s, many commentators responded to the "commercial spread of the Internet" with utopian faith in its potential to equalize and democratize knowledge and power. This faith gave way to a second wave of comments criticizing the "damages… to historically subservient groups", the threat of "disinformation" and polarization of democracy, the consolidation of power in Big Tech and authoritarian governments, and the threat to privacy in general. 2 Today's commentators are challenged to determine if and how to address these harms while realizing the potential benefits of AI-powered technology, especially given the impact and use of technology during the forced experimentation that took place during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Viewer’s Manual for the Film Red State/Blue State: Lawyers, Politics & Moral Counseling

Social Science Research Network, 2010

ABSTRACT This Viewer’s Manual provides a lesson plan for classroom or continuing legal education ... more ABSTRACT This Viewer’s Manual provides a lesson plan for classroom or continuing legal education discussion of the film, “Red State/Blue State: Lawyers, Politics &amp; Moral Counseling” (http address in Viewer’s Manual). The Viewers Manual and film use the question of why lawyers are more politically liberal than non-lawyers as a way to explore the foundation in political philosophy for the dominant conception of lawyers as amoral partisans and to consider whether engaging in moral conversation with clients is permitted or preferable. The film attempts to make this inquiry both fun and accessible. It features an entertaining narrative, musical selections from R.E.M., and comments from law students, lawyers, clients, and scholars from diverse political backgrounds, including Doug Ammar, Robin Barnes, Erwin Chemerinsky, Lawrence Fox, Heather MacDonald, John McGinnis, Russell Pearce, Deborah Rhode, William Simon, Ken Starr, and David Wilkins. The Viewer’s Guide and the film build on “The Legal Profession as a Blue State: Reflections on Public Philosophy, Jurisprudence, and Legal Ethics,” available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=988196.

Beyond cardboard lawyers in legal ethics

Social Science Research Network, Jun 11, 2012

ABSTRACT In his thought-provoking book, Lawyers and Fidelity to the Law, Bradley Wendel offers an... more ABSTRACT In his thought-provoking book, Lawyers and Fidelity to the Law, Bradley Wendel offers an understanding of the lawyer’s role grounded in political philosophy as an alternative to the contrasting perspectives of the neutral partisan and the morally responsible lawyer. Wendel explains that law provides a “coordinating function” that allows “citizens to cooperate on common undertakings” and “makes stability, coexistence, and cooperation possible in a pluralistic society.” In their role as “political officials,” lawyers make the legal system work when they show fidelity to law by zealously assisting clients in pursuing their legal entitlements, but not their interests as Holmesian bad men. Fidelity has generated great interest and many of the leading thinkers in the field have engaged with its insights. Some commentators question Wendel’s great faith in the law and obedience to it. Others challenge his commitment to fidelity to the law to the exclusion of common morality. While we share some of these debates regarding whether the law warrants the kind of fidelity Wendel envisions, we focus in this review on Fidelity’s conception not of law but of lawyers.While Wendel makes an important contribution to the field of legal ethics, his theory does not fully address either the relational reality of lawyers’ work or the contrary – and dominant – belief that lawyers and clients are, and are best understood as, atomistic individuals who are autonomous actors. We argue that lawyers who understand both their clients and themselves as autonomously self-interested actors are likely to construe clients’ entitlements broadly, and consequently in good-faith collapse the view of fidelity into the “standard conception” of the lawyer as a neutral partisan which Wendel seeks to replace. Furthermore, in instances in which the law (and fidelity to it) runs out, such as when the law would permit a client to pursue alternative courses of conduct, fidelity to the law is disappointedly agnostic and silent, leaving practicing lawyers with little guidance as to how to counsel and represent their clients. Lawyers are therefore likely to fill this gap with guidance from the dominant culture of autonomous self-interest. Accordingly, a new perspective on lawyers’ role that would bridge the gap between the reality of lawyers’ work and the dominant culture of autonomous self-interest would need to offer a more comprehensive account of lawyers and clients as relational actors.

The Lawyer and Public Service

The American University journal of gender, social policy & the law, 2001

The Relational Infrastructure of Law Firm Culture and Regulation: The Exaggerated Death of Big Law

Social Science Research Network, 2013

In recent years, the ethical infrastructure and culture of law firms has come under attack from c... more In recent years, the ethical infrastructure and culture of law firms has come under attack from commentators, 2 such as Larry Ribstein, Bill Henderson, and Marc Galanter, who, in related ways, predict "the death of Big Law." 3 They assert that the individualistic ethical infrastructure 1. The quote, "the report of my death is greatly exaggerated," has been wrongly attributed to Mark Twain, who actually said, "the report of my death was an exaggeration." Louis J. Budd, Mark Twain as an American Icon, in THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO MARK TWAIN 7 (Forrest G. Robinson ed., 1995). We are not the only commentators who have found this analogy useful.

Rethinking the Legal Reform Agenda: Will Raising the Standards for Bar Admission Promote or Undermine Democracy, Human Rights, and Rule of Law?

Social Science Research Network, May 11, 2010

The movement was premised on the theory that an instrumentalist approach to law would engender "l... more The movement was premised on the theory that an instrumentalist approach to law would engender "legal development," advancing the functioning of a just and equitable legal system. Matthew Stephenson, A Trojan Horse in China?, in PROMOTING THE RULE OF LAW ABROAD: IN SEARCH OF KNOWLEDGE 191, 205 (Thomas Carothers ed., 2006) (quoting Trubek & Galanter, supra, at 1074). As the scholars cited above have documented, those involved in the law and development movement failed to appreciate the social and political context in which these legal reforms were to be implemented. First, "[a]n expanded and modernized legal profession tended to increase social inequality, because the social elite had greater access to the better-educated and professionalized legal personnel." Id. Second, "these conservative elites could make use of better-trained lawyers to block changes that

The Professionalism Paradigm Shift: Why Discarding Professional Ideology Will Improve the Conduct and Reputation of the Bar

Social Science Research Network, Apr 8, 1995

That we are at the end of an era is not something that can be proved scientifically. One senses i... more

The Great Disruption: How Machine Intelligence Will Transform the Role of Lawyers in the Delivery of Legal Services

Fordham Law Review, 2014

Цель: анализ влияния искусственного интеллекта на юридическую деятельность и оказание юридических... more Цель: анализ влияния искусственного интеллекта на юридическую деятельность и оказание юридических услуг. Методы: диалектический подход к познанию социальных явлений, позволяющий проанализировать их в историческом развитии и функционировании в контексте совокупности объективных и субъективных факторов, который определил выбор следующих методов исследования: формально-логический, сравнительно-правовой, социологический, государственное и правовое моделирование. Результаты: рынок электронных юридических услуг находится на сравнительно ранней, но очень важной стадии своего развития относительно разрушительного влияния искусственного интеллекта на монополию юристов. Развиваясь, искусственный интеллект будет играть все более важную роль в юридической деятельности. Со временем компьютеры смогут оказывать юридические услуги быстрее и эффективнее многих юристов. Юристы будут продолжать оказывать услуги, которые невозможно превратить в товар; это смогут делать только выдающиеся юристы, а также те, кто специализируется в узких, быстро меняющихся областях, выступает в суде или оказывает услуги, качество которых сильно зависит от человеческих взаимоотношений. В остальных случаях не существует никаких эффективных барьеров на пути продвижения компьютерных технологий в сферу юридической деятельности, в том числе законодательных и этических барьеров. Юристы продолжат использовать искусственный интеллект в качестве помощника и будут не в состоянии предотвратить использование его неюристами для оказания юридических услуг. Таким образом, развитие искусственного интеллекта приведет к разрушению монополии юристов, принеся тем самым выгоды потребителям и обществу, поскольку юридические услуги станут более прозрачными и доступными, как и правосудие в целом. Научная новизна: в статье впервые сформулированы пять сфер юридической деятельности, которые существенно изменятся под влиянием искусственного интеллекта в ближайшем будущем: (1) поиск информации по обстоятельствам дела; (2) поиск прецедентов; (3) составление документов; (4) подготовка материалов дела и (5) прогнозирование исхода дела. Причем уже сейчас компьютерные технологии составляют существенную конкуренцию юристам и подрывают их монополию. Крупные финансовые компании предоставляют компьютерные юридические услуги, несмотря на то, что пока экономически значимые разработки существуют всего в трех из пяти вышеназванных областей. Три наиболее выгодные в этом отношении области -это поиск прецедентов, поиск информации по обстоятельствам дела и составление документов. Практическая значимость: основные положения и выводы статьи могут быть использованы в научной, педагогической и правоприменительной деятельности при рассмотрении вопросов, связанных с влиянием искусственного интеллекта на юридическую деятельность и оказание юридических услуг. * Впервые статья опубликована на английском языке в журнале Fordham Law Review. По вопросам коммерческого использования обратитесь в редакцию журнала Fordham Law Review:

Looking Backward: A Foreward

Fordham Law Review, 2003

A Jewish Perspective on Tom Shaffer: Zecher Tzadik Livracha (May the Memory of the Righteous be a Blessing)

Faith and the Lawyer's Practice

St. John’s Law Review, 2012

The Future of Legal Services: Legal and Ethical Implications of the LSC Restrictions - Ethics Issues Panel

Fordham Urban Law Journal, 1998

Investor in Arbitration?, 8 SEC. ARB. COMMENTATOR 1, 1 (1997) [hereinafter SAC Survey]; infra not... more Investor in Arbitration?, 8 SEC. ARB. COMMENTATOR 1, 1 (1997) [hereinafter SAC Survey]; infra note 36 and accompanying text. CLINICAL EXPERIMENT proper planning and adjustment is necessary for a successful clinical program. I. Representation by Non-attorneys The general issue of the representation of clients in legal or quasi-legal proceedings by non-attorneys has been a troubling one. Not only has such representation by non-attorneys taken the form of transactional services, i.e., advising, drafting deeds and documents, etc., but it has also spread to actual representation of parties before administrative agencies. Moreover, as more and more disputes are being resolved through alternative dispute mechanisms, such as arbitration, non-attorneys are also representing clients in such proceedings as civil litigation-often involving complex issues and significant sums of money-against litigants who are usually represented by skilled attorneys. Such has been the case with the arbitration of securities disputes. In 1991, SICA began to receive complaints, particularly in Florida and California, that claimants were increasingly being represented in SRO arbitrations, not by their friends, accountants, business associates, or relatives, but by professional groups who were not attorneys ("Non-Attorney Representatives" or "NARs"). One of the principal arguments the NARs used-in touting the need for their services to public customers in disputes with their brokers/dealers-was that it was often difficult to retain the services of an attorney, especially in small claims. 16 SICA's initial view was that the subject should be handled at the state level, because attorneys general and bar associations have the responsibility for dealing with questions relating to standards and qualifications to practice law. 1 7 The complaints persisted, however, 16. See NARs Report, supra note 15, at 516-17. 17. See Constantine N. Katsoris, Foreword to NARs Report, 22 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 503, 505 [hereinafter Foreword]. The Foreword contains the following discussion: The ABA Draft discusses not only pro se representation and legal services delivery by traditional paralegals, but also by so-called legal technicians, who are identified as someone who: is not a lawyer, is not functioning as a traditional paralegal or a document preparer, and is not working with supervision by or accountability of a lawyer. As to the competence of the legal technicians, or their supervision in rendering their services to the public, the Draft points out that in certain areas of legal technician practice, such as proceedings before some administrative agencies, there are mechanisms to ensure their competency and accountability. In other areas, oversight mechanisms may arise from statutes and rules unrelated to a tribunal; for example, in many jurisdictions, real estate brokers are permitted to assist consumers in completing standardized residential sales contracts under a scheme of regulation related to brokerage functions. 1998] if they are not licensed to practice in Florida; (ii) represent parties to securities arbitrations other than investors; and (iii) represent investors but are not compensated for doing so.

Nothing New Under the Sun: How the Legal Profession's Twenty-First Century Challenges Resemble Those of the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Social Science Research Network, 2012

This is the fixed version of an article made available by an organization that acts as a publishe... more This is the fixed version of an article made available by an organization that acts as a publisher by formally and exclusively declaring the article "published". If it is an "early release" article (formally identified as being published even before the compilation of a volume issue and assignment of associated metadata), it is citable via some permanent identifier(s), and final copy-editing, proof corrections, layout, and typesetting have been applied.

To Save a Life: Why a Rabbi and a Jewish Lawyer Must Disclose a Client Confidence Symposium: Executing the Wrong Person: The Professionals' Ethical Dilemmas

A Taxonomy of Lawyer Regulation: How Contrasting Theories of Regulation Explain the Divergent Regulatory Regimes in Australia, England and Wales, and North America

Legal Ethics, Dec 31, 2013

What explains the dramatic contrast between legal services regulation in the United States and an... more What explains the dramatic contrast between legal services regulation in the United States and anglophone Canada, on one hand, and England/Wales and Australia, on the other? In order to help explain these divergent regulatory choices, and to further comparative analysis, this Essay proposes a taxonomy 4

Making Good Lawyers

ABSTRACT Today, the criticism of law schools has become an industry. Detractors argue that legal ... more ABSTRACT Today, the criticism of law schools has become an industry. Detractors argue that legal education fails to effectively prepare students for the practice of law, that it is too theoretical and detached from the profession, that it dehumanizes and alienates students, too expensive and inapt in helping students develop a sense of professional identity, professional values, and professionalism. In this sea of criticisms it is hard to see the forest from the trees. “There is so much wrong with legal education today,” writes one commentator, “that it is hard to know where to begin.” This article argues that any reform agenda will fall short if it does not start by recognizing the dominant influence of the culture of autonomous self-interest in legal education. Law schools engage in a project of professional formation and instill a very particular brand of professional identity. They educate students to become autonomously self-interested lawyers who see their clients and themselves as pursuing self-interest as atomistic actors. As a result, they understand that their primary role is to serve as neutral partisans who promote the narrow self-interest of clients without regard to the interests of their families, neighbors, colleagues, or communities and to the exclusion of counseling clients on the implications of those interests. They view as marginal their roles as an officer of the legal system and as a public citizen and accordingly place a low priority on traditional professional values, such as the commitment to the public good, that conflict with their primary allegiance to autonomous self-interest. In this work of professional formation, law schools are reflecting the values and commitments of the autonomously self-interested culture that is dominant in the legal profession. Therefore, even if law schools sought to form a professional identity outside of the mold of autonomous self-interest, such a commitment would require much more than curricular reform. It would, at minimum, require the construction of a persuasive alternative understanding of the lawyer’s role. The article seeks to offer such an understanding grounded in a relational perspective on lawyers and clients. Part I offers workable definitions of professionalism and professional identity that enable an informed discussion of the formation of professional identity in and by law schools. Part II explores what and how legal education teaches students showing that both institutionally (at the law school level) and individually (at the law professor level) legal education is proactively engaged in the formation of a professional identity of autonomous self-interest. Part II further explains that its dominance in legal education notwithstanding, autonomous self-interest is but one, often unpersuasive, account of professionalism and professional identity. Part III turns to the competing vision of relationally self-interested professionalism and professional identity and develops an outline for legal education grounded in these conceptions. Because legal education reflects a deep commitment to the dominant culture of autonomous self-interest, it is unlikely that reform proposals that are inconsistent with that culture are likely to succeed in the near future. Yet proposing an alternative account of professional identity that exposes the assumptions of the dominant culture, explains their limitations, and develops a more persuasive understanding is a necessary step toward providing a workable framework for reformers committed to promoting professional values in the long term.

Lawyers as America's Governing Class: The Formation and Dissolution of the Original Understanding of the American Lawyer's Role

The University of Chicago Law School Roundtable, 2001

Not the end of lawyers, but a beginning

Routledge eBooks, Jun 19, 2023

Rethinking Lawyer Regulation: How a Relational Approach Would Improve Professional Rules and Roles

Social Science Research Network, 2012

Professor of Legal Ethics, Morality & Religion, Fordham University School of Law. Many thanks to ... more Professor of Legal Ethics, Morality & Religion, Fordham University School of Law. Many thanks to the participants in the Michigan State University College of Law Conference on Lawyers as Conservators for their helpful comments. Special thanks to John Flood and Julian Webb for their valuable assistance. We are also very appreciative of Ted Schneyer's wise counsel.

Jewish Lawyer's Question, The Essay

The Baal Shem' handed [the Maggid of Mezeritch] the Book of splendor, the Zohar: "Can you read?"-... more The Baal Shem' handed [the Maggid of Mezeritch] the Book of splendor, the Zohar: "Can you read?"-"Yes."-"Well then, read!" The Maggid obeyed. "That is not the way one reads," the Baal Shem interrupted. "I can see you know how to decipher the signs, but your knowledge lacks soul." 2 * MARTIN BUBER, ON JUDAISM 19 (Nahum N. Glatzer ed., 1967) (referring to the "personal Jewish question").

Educación jurídica y tecnología: El potencial para democratizar el conocimiento y el poder jurídicos

Latin american law review, Mar 6, 2023

The current technological transformation of legal education, including computer-based, interactiv... more The current technological transformation of legal education, including computer-based, interactive, and online modes of instruction, represents "one of the most dramatic technological revolutions in history, if not the most dramatic." 1 As the AI-based technological revolution accelerated dramatically in the 1990s, many commentators responded to the "commercial spread of the Internet" with utopian faith in its potential to equalize and democratize knowledge and power. This faith gave way to a second wave of comments criticizing the "damages… to historically subservient groups", the threat of "disinformation" and polarization of democracy, the consolidation of power in Big Tech and authoritarian governments, and the threat to privacy in general. 2 Today's commentators are challenged to determine if and how to address these harms while realizing the potential benefits of AI-powered technology, especially given the impact and use of technology during the forced experimentation that took place during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Viewer’s Manual for the Film Red State/Blue State: Lawyers, Politics & Moral Counseling

Social Science Research Network, 2010

ABSTRACT This Viewer’s Manual provides a lesson plan for classroom or continuing legal education ... more ABSTRACT This Viewer’s Manual provides a lesson plan for classroom or continuing legal education discussion of the film, “Red State/Blue State: Lawyers, Politics &amp; Moral Counseling” (http address in Viewer’s Manual). The Viewers Manual and film use the question of why lawyers are more politically liberal than non-lawyers as a way to explore the foundation in political philosophy for the dominant conception of lawyers as amoral partisans and to consider whether engaging in moral conversation with clients is permitted or preferable. The film attempts to make this inquiry both fun and accessible. It features an entertaining narrative, musical selections from R.E.M., and comments from law students, lawyers, clients, and scholars from diverse political backgrounds, including Doug Ammar, Robin Barnes, Erwin Chemerinsky, Lawrence Fox, Heather MacDonald, John McGinnis, Russell Pearce, Deborah Rhode, William Simon, Ken Starr, and David Wilkins. The Viewer’s Guide and the film build on “The Legal Profession as a Blue State: Reflections on Public Philosophy, Jurisprudence, and Legal Ethics,” available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=988196.

Beyond cardboard lawyers in legal ethics

Social Science Research Network, Jun 11, 2012

ABSTRACT In his thought-provoking book, Lawyers and Fidelity to the Law, Bradley Wendel offers an... more ABSTRACT In his thought-provoking book, Lawyers and Fidelity to the Law, Bradley Wendel offers an understanding of the lawyer’s role grounded in political philosophy as an alternative to the contrasting perspectives of the neutral partisan and the morally responsible lawyer. Wendel explains that law provides a “coordinating function” that allows “citizens to cooperate on common undertakings” and “makes stability, coexistence, and cooperation possible in a pluralistic society.” In their role as “political officials,” lawyers make the legal system work when they show fidelity to law by zealously assisting clients in pursuing their legal entitlements, but not their interests as Holmesian bad men. Fidelity has generated great interest and many of the leading thinkers in the field have engaged with its insights. Some commentators question Wendel’s great faith in the law and obedience to it. Others challenge his commitment to fidelity to the law to the exclusion of common morality. While we share some of these debates regarding whether the law warrants the kind of fidelity Wendel envisions, we focus in this review on Fidelity’s conception not of law but of lawyers.While Wendel makes an important contribution to the field of legal ethics, his theory does not fully address either the relational reality of lawyers’ work or the contrary – and dominant – belief that lawyers and clients are, and are best understood as, atomistic individuals who are autonomous actors. We argue that lawyers who understand both their clients and themselves as autonomously self-interested actors are likely to construe clients’ entitlements broadly, and consequently in good-faith collapse the view of fidelity into the “standard conception” of the lawyer as a neutral partisan which Wendel seeks to replace. Furthermore, in instances in which the law (and fidelity to it) runs out, such as when the law would permit a client to pursue alternative courses of conduct, fidelity to the law is disappointedly agnostic and silent, leaving practicing lawyers with little guidance as to how to counsel and represent their clients. Lawyers are therefore likely to fill this gap with guidance from the dominant culture of autonomous self-interest. Accordingly, a new perspective on lawyers’ role that would bridge the gap between the reality of lawyers’ work and the dominant culture of autonomous self-interest would need to offer a more comprehensive account of lawyers and clients as relational actors.

The Lawyer and Public Service

The American University journal of gender, social policy & the law, 2001

The Relational Infrastructure of Law Firm Culture and Regulation: The Exaggerated Death of Big Law

Social Science Research Network, 2013

In recent years, the ethical infrastructure and culture of law firms has come under attack from c... more In recent years, the ethical infrastructure and culture of law firms has come under attack from commentators, 2 such as Larry Ribstein, Bill Henderson, and Marc Galanter, who, in related ways, predict "the death of Big Law." 3 They assert that the individualistic ethical infrastructure 1. The quote, "the report of my death is greatly exaggerated," has been wrongly attributed to Mark Twain, who actually said, "the report of my death was an exaggeration." Louis J. Budd, Mark Twain as an American Icon, in THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO MARK TWAIN 7 (Forrest G. Robinson ed., 1995). We are not the only commentators who have found this analogy useful.

Rethinking the Legal Reform Agenda: Will Raising the Standards for Bar Admission Promote or Undermine Democracy, Human Rights, and Rule of Law?

Social Science Research Network, May 11, 2010

The movement was premised on the theory that an instrumentalist approach to law would engender "l... more The movement was premised on the theory that an instrumentalist approach to law would engender "legal development," advancing the functioning of a just and equitable legal system. Matthew Stephenson, A Trojan Horse in China?, in PROMOTING THE RULE OF LAW ABROAD: IN SEARCH OF KNOWLEDGE 191, 205 (Thomas Carothers ed., 2006) (quoting Trubek & Galanter, supra, at 1074). As the scholars cited above have documented, those involved in the law and development movement failed to appreciate the social and political context in which these legal reforms were to be implemented. First, "[a]n expanded and modernized legal profession tended to increase social inequality, because the social elite had greater access to the better-educated and professionalized legal personnel." Id. Second, "these conservative elites could make use of better-trained lawyers to block changes that

The Professionalism Paradigm Shift: Why Discarding Professional Ideology Will Improve the Conduct and Reputation of the Bar

Social Science Research Network, Apr 8, 1995

That we are at the end of an era is not something that can be proved scientifically. One senses i... more

The Great Disruption: How Machine Intelligence Will Transform the Role of Lawyers in the Delivery of Legal Services

Fordham Law Review, 2014

Цель: анализ влияния искусственного интеллекта на юридическую деятельность и оказание юридических... more Цель: анализ влияния искусственного интеллекта на юридическую деятельность и оказание юридических услуг. Методы: диалектический подход к познанию социальных явлений, позволяющий проанализировать их в историческом развитии и функционировании в контексте совокупности объективных и субъективных факторов, который определил выбор следующих методов исследования: формально-логический, сравнительно-правовой, социологический, государственное и правовое моделирование. Результаты: рынок электронных юридических услуг находится на сравнительно ранней, но очень важной стадии своего развития относительно разрушительного влияния искусственного интеллекта на монополию юристов. Развиваясь, искусственный интеллект будет играть все более важную роль в юридической деятельности. Со временем компьютеры смогут оказывать юридические услуги быстрее и эффективнее многих юристов. Юристы будут продолжать оказывать услуги, которые невозможно превратить в товар; это смогут делать только выдающиеся юристы, а также те, кто специализируется в узких, быстро меняющихся областях, выступает в суде или оказывает услуги, качество которых сильно зависит от человеческих взаимоотношений. В остальных случаях не существует никаких эффективных барьеров на пути продвижения компьютерных технологий в сферу юридической деятельности, в том числе законодательных и этических барьеров. Юристы продолжат использовать искусственный интеллект в качестве помощника и будут не в состоянии предотвратить использование его неюристами для оказания юридических услуг. Таким образом, развитие искусственного интеллекта приведет к разрушению монополии юристов, принеся тем самым выгоды потребителям и обществу, поскольку юридические услуги станут более прозрачными и доступными, как и правосудие в целом. Научная новизна: в статье впервые сформулированы пять сфер юридической деятельности, которые существенно изменятся под влиянием искусственного интеллекта в ближайшем будущем: (1) поиск информации по обстоятельствам дела; (2) поиск прецедентов; (3) составление документов; (4) подготовка материалов дела и (5) прогнозирование исхода дела. Причем уже сейчас компьютерные технологии составляют существенную конкуренцию юристам и подрывают их монополию. Крупные финансовые компании предоставляют компьютерные юридические услуги, несмотря на то, что пока экономически значимые разработки существуют всего в трех из пяти вышеназванных областей. Три наиболее выгодные в этом отношении области -это поиск прецедентов, поиск информации по обстоятельствам дела и составление документов. Практическая значимость: основные положения и выводы статьи могут быть использованы в научной, педагогической и правоприменительной деятельности при рассмотрении вопросов, связанных с влиянием искусственного интеллекта на юридическую деятельность и оказание юридических услуг. * Впервые статья опубликована на английском языке в журнале Fordham Law Review. По вопросам коммерческого использования обратитесь в редакцию журнала Fordham Law Review:

Looking Backward: A Foreward

Fordham Law Review, 2003

A Jewish Perspective on Tom Shaffer: Zecher Tzadik Livracha (May the Memory of the Righteous be a Blessing)

Faith and the Lawyer's Practice

St. John’s Law Review, 2012

The Future of Legal Services: Legal and Ethical Implications of the LSC Restrictions - Ethics Issues Panel

Fordham Urban Law Journal, 1998

Investor in Arbitration?, 8 SEC. ARB. COMMENTATOR 1, 1 (1997) [hereinafter SAC Survey]; infra not... more Investor in Arbitration?, 8 SEC. ARB. COMMENTATOR 1, 1 (1997) [hereinafter SAC Survey]; infra note 36 and accompanying text. CLINICAL EXPERIMENT proper planning and adjustment is necessary for a successful clinical program. I. Representation by Non-attorneys The general issue of the representation of clients in legal or quasi-legal proceedings by non-attorneys has been a troubling one. Not only has such representation by non-attorneys taken the form of transactional services, i.e., advising, drafting deeds and documents, etc., but it has also spread to actual representation of parties before administrative agencies. Moreover, as more and more disputes are being resolved through alternative dispute mechanisms, such as arbitration, non-attorneys are also representing clients in such proceedings as civil litigation-often involving complex issues and significant sums of money-against litigants who are usually represented by skilled attorneys. Such has been the case with the arbitration of securities disputes. In 1991, SICA began to receive complaints, particularly in Florida and California, that claimants were increasingly being represented in SRO arbitrations, not by their friends, accountants, business associates, or relatives, but by professional groups who were not attorneys ("Non-Attorney Representatives" or "NARs"). One of the principal arguments the NARs used-in touting the need for their services to public customers in disputes with their brokers/dealers-was that it was often difficult to retain the services of an attorney, especially in small claims. 16 SICA's initial view was that the subject should be handled at the state level, because attorneys general and bar associations have the responsibility for dealing with questions relating to standards and qualifications to practice law. 1 7 The complaints persisted, however, 16. See NARs Report, supra note 15, at 516-17. 17. See Constantine N. Katsoris, Foreword to NARs Report, 22 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 503, 505 [hereinafter Foreword]. The Foreword contains the following discussion: The ABA Draft discusses not only pro se representation and legal services delivery by traditional paralegals, but also by so-called legal technicians, who are identified as someone who: is not a lawyer, is not functioning as a traditional paralegal or a document preparer, and is not working with supervision by or accountability of a lawyer. As to the competence of the legal technicians, or their supervision in rendering their services to the public, the Draft points out that in certain areas of legal technician practice, such as proceedings before some administrative agencies, there are mechanisms to ensure their competency and accountability. In other areas, oversight mechanisms may arise from statutes and rules unrelated to a tribunal; for example, in many jurisdictions, real estate brokers are permitted to assist consumers in completing standardized residential sales contracts under a scheme of regulation related to brokerage functions. 1998] if they are not licensed to practice in Florida; (ii) represent parties to securities arbitrations other than investors; and (iii) represent investors but are not compensated for doing so.

Nothing New Under the Sun: How the Legal Profession's Twenty-First Century Challenges Resemble Those of the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Social Science Research Network, 2012

This is the fixed version of an article made available by an organization that acts as a publishe... more This is the fixed version of an article made available by an organization that acts as a publisher by formally and exclusively declaring the article "published". If it is an "early release" article (formally identified as being published even before the compilation of a volume issue and assignment of associated metadata), it is citable via some permanent identifier(s), and final copy-editing, proof corrections, layout, and typesetting have been applied.

To Save a Life: Why a Rabbi and a Jewish Lawyer Must Disclose a Client Confidence Symposium: Executing the Wrong Person: The Professionals' Ethical Dilemmas

A Taxonomy of Lawyer Regulation: How Contrasting Theories of Regulation Explain the Divergent Regulatory Regimes in Australia, England and Wales, and North America

Legal Ethics, Dec 31, 2013

What explains the dramatic contrast between legal services regulation in the United States and an... more What explains the dramatic contrast between legal services regulation in the United States and anglophone Canada, on one hand, and England/Wales and Australia, on the other? In order to help explain these divergent regulatory choices, and to further comparative analysis, this Essay proposes a taxonomy 4

Making Good Lawyers

ABSTRACT Today, the criticism of law schools has become an industry. Detractors argue that legal ... more ABSTRACT Today, the criticism of law schools has become an industry. Detractors argue that legal education fails to effectively prepare students for the practice of law, that it is too theoretical and detached from the profession, that it dehumanizes and alienates students, too expensive and inapt in helping students develop a sense of professional identity, professional values, and professionalism. In this sea of criticisms it is hard to see the forest from the trees. “There is so much wrong with legal education today,” writes one commentator, “that it is hard to know where to begin.” This article argues that any reform agenda will fall short if it does not start by recognizing the dominant influence of the culture of autonomous self-interest in legal education. Law schools engage in a project of professional formation and instill a very particular brand of professional identity. They educate students to become autonomously self-interested lawyers who see their clients and themselves as pursuing self-interest as atomistic actors. As a result, they understand that their primary role is to serve as neutral partisans who promote the narrow self-interest of clients without regard to the interests of their families, neighbors, colleagues, or communities and to the exclusion of counseling clients on the implications of those interests. They view as marginal their roles as an officer of the legal system and as a public citizen and accordingly place a low priority on traditional professional values, such as the commitment to the public good, that conflict with their primary allegiance to autonomous self-interest. In this work of professional formation, law schools are reflecting the values and commitments of the autonomously self-interested culture that is dominant in the legal profession. Therefore, even if law schools sought to form a professional identity outside of the mold of autonomous self-interest, such a commitment would require much more than curricular reform. It would, at minimum, require the construction of a persuasive alternative understanding of the lawyer’s role. The article seeks to offer such an understanding grounded in a relational perspective on lawyers and clients. Part I offers workable definitions of professionalism and professional identity that enable an informed discussion of the formation of professional identity in and by law schools. Part II explores what and how legal education teaches students showing that both institutionally (at the law school level) and individually (at the law professor level) legal education is proactively engaged in the formation of a professional identity of autonomous self-interest. Part II further explains that its dominance in legal education notwithstanding, autonomous self-interest is but one, often unpersuasive, account of professionalism and professional identity. Part III turns to the competing vision of relationally self-interested professionalism and professional identity and develops an outline for legal education grounded in these conceptions. Because legal education reflects a deep commitment to the dominant culture of autonomous self-interest, it is unlikely that reform proposals that are inconsistent with that culture are likely to succeed in the near future. Yet proposing an alternative account of professional identity that exposes the assumptions of the dominant culture, explains their limitations, and develops a more persuasive understanding is a necessary step toward providing a workable framework for reformers committed to promoting professional values in the long term.

Lawyers as America's Governing Class: The Formation and Dissolution of the Original Understanding of the American Lawyer's Role

The University of Chicago Law School Roundtable, 2001

Not the end of lawyers, but a beginning

Routledge eBooks, Jun 19, 2023