Wendel - Professional Responsibility

EDITORIAL ADVISORS

Rachel E. Barkow

Segal Family Professor of Regulatory Law and Policy

Faculty Director, Center on the Administration of Criminal Law

New York University School of Law

Erwin Chemerinsky

Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law

University of California, Berkeley School of Law

Richard A. Epstein

Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law

New York University School of Law

Peter and Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow

The Hoover Institution

Senior Lecturer in Law

The University of Chicago

Ronald J. Gilson

Charles J. Meyers Professor of Law and Business

Stanford University

Marc and Eva Stern Professor of Law and Business

Columbia Law School

James E. Krier

Earl Warren DeLano Professor of Law

The University of Michigan Law School

Tracey L. Meares

Walton Hale Hamilton Professor of Law

Director, The Justice Collaboratory

Yale Law School

Richard K. Neumann, Jr.

Alexander Bickel Professor of Law

Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University

Robert H. Sitkoff

John L. Gray Professor of Law

Harvard Law School

David Alan Sklansky

Stanley Morrison Professor of Law

Faculty Co-Director, Stanford Criminal Justice Center

Stanford Law School

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ISBN 978-1-5438-0578-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Wendel, W. Bradley, 1969- author.

Title: Professional responsibility / W. Bradley Wendel, Professor of Law, Cornell Law School.

Description: A study guide to be used in conjunction with a casebook in the area of Professional Responsibility. | Frederick, MD: Aspen Publishing, [2020] | Includes

bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019021407 | ISBN 9781543805789

Subjects: LCSH: Legal ethicsUnited States. | Attorney and clientUnited States. | LCGFT: Study guides.

Classification: LCC KF306.W46 2020 | DDC 174/.30973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019021407

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For Ben and Hannah

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Preface

No matter what area of law you choose to specialize in, I guarantee that you will practice the subject of this course. You may never file a motion for summary judgment, appear at a preliminary hearing or sentencing, perfect a security interest, prepare a will, or draft comments on proposed new regulations; but you will, at some time, think about what you are learning in your Professional Responsibility course. You may have to decide whether you can represent a new client in light of your obligations to an existing client. You certainly will have to keep client confidences, and at some point, you may need to assert a privilege covering certain confidential communications to prevent them from being discovered by others. You may bill clients for your services, in which case you need to know the rules governing attorneys fees, and you may even advertise for business. One way or the other, you will have to know the law of professional responsibility.

One of the major themes of this book is that you cannot understand your duties and responsibilities as a lawyer just by looking at the disciplinary rules, sometimes called ethics codes or rules of ethics. The ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, in whatever version they are adopted in your state, are the basis for potential professional discipline by state bar authorities, but this discipline is not the only thing that lawyers must worry about in practice. Your day-to-day actions also will be influenced by the possibility of liability for malpractice to your client, sanctions imposed by a court under its inherent power or rules of procedure, potential loss of entitlement to fees, disqualification from representing a client, and waiver of evidentiary privileges. Not to slight the importance of the disciplinary system, but by the calculations of some scholars, a lawyer is over a