Professional Responsibility includes the law and principles that govern the practice of lawyering.  A basic reference point is the set of lawyer disciplinary codes developed by bar associations and adopted by courts.  However, these rules co-exist with a growing body of common law and statutory liability rules that regulate lawyering.  The Sarbanes-Oxley coprorate accountability legislation, recent amendments to the tax code on tax shelters, criminal obstruction of justice statues, the common law of fraud and the anti-fraud provisions of the securities law all bear importantly on lawyers.  All these doctrines make up the "law of lawyering."  The most pervasive issues pertain to the trade-off between duties of client confidentiality and duties of candor or disclosure to non-clients.  Other topics typically considered are conflicts of interest and restraints on the organization of law firms and the marketing of legal services.  Some of the issues treated in the course arise virtually daily in practice -- for example, conflicts of interest; others arise less frequently but often involve enormous stakes when they do -- for example, client fraud.  Debates about professional responsibility are often animating by competing conceptions about the general role of the lawyer in the legal system and the nature of the adversary system, and these debates are considered in the courses. 

Offerings in the area include general survey courses taught by Professors Ziegler and Simon and courses focused on specific areas of practice.  Professor Genty's course focuses on Public Interest practice and Ms. Wollman's on tax practice. 

L6365 INTENSIVE PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY (1 pt)
D. Capra
This course is a concise survey of legal and ethical issues concerning law practice. It includes a review of representative professional responsibility doctrine on such issues as confidentiality, disclosure, and conflict of interest.

L6363 PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY ISSUES IN PUBLIC INTEREST PRACTICE (3 pts)
P. Genty
The course will focus broadly on the extent to which ethical principles should/do vary by practice context, and the questions that typically arise in public interest practice. The course is intended for students who are interested in exploring ethical issues in this context, regardless of where they intend to work after graduation. The course will comprise the following components:

I. Introduction
A. Competing views on the role of the attorney
B. History of the regulatory structure of the profession
C. History of ethics requirements and teaching of professional skills and values in U.S. law schools
D. Does context matter? Should ethical rules apply across-the-board, or should they vary by practice area? Are the ethical issues faced by public interest lawyers common to the profession, or do/should they call for a special approach? Private clients often have money and a choice of lawyers. Poverty law clients have neither, and the attorney is therefore in a position of power relative to these clients. To what extent do existing ethical rules reflect this dichotomy and guide the lawyers in making decisions about client representation? (We will return to these questions at other points in the course.)

II. Ethical Decision Points
A. Career Choice.
We will examine the ethical issues inherent in specific career choices, both between public interest and other practice areas, and among different public interest organizational settings and specialties.
B. Case Selection.
A lawyer often has a good deal of freedom to choose which clients and cases to accept for representation. We will discuss the ways in which such choices are made in the public interest setting, the criteria, both explicit and implicit, for making such choices, and the values involved.
C. Client Representation.
Once a case has been accepted, how should the attorney approach the representation? What ethical issues confront the lawyer, and how should these be resolved? The following topics will be explored:
1. Confidentiality and disclosure
2. Conflict of interest; group representation
3. "Rationing" of time and services. Unlike a private attorney, where money dictates how much time an attorney will devote to a case, public interest lawyers must find some other basis for setting priorities and organizing time. How should this be done?
4. Whose case is it? How should case theory and choice of remedy be determined? How should settlements and attorneys' fees be negotiated? How should a lawyer balance the interests of the individual client v. the larger social mission and goals of the practice (e.g. deciding whether to appeal an adverse ruling, which may create precedent; or choosing between individual cases and impact litigation)?
5. The impact of government restrictions upon public interest practice and the ways in which these restrictions may affect ethical decision making.

III. Re-examination of existing ethical codes in light of these discussions. Do these codes adequately reflect the specific concerns of public interest practice?

L6362 PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY ISSUES IN BUSINESS PRACTICE (3 pts)
W. Simon
A survey of legal and ethical doctrine bearing on lawyers in business practice. Topics include disclosure and confidentiality, secondary liability for client wrongdoing, conflicts of interest, and regulatory constraints on the organization and marketing of legal services. We will be especially concerned with the application of client loyalty principles to organizational clients in situations where organizational constituencies are in conflict. We will also consider issues distinctive to tax and securities practice, and will consider the role of lawyers in some recent business scandals.  

L6274 PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY (3 pts)
W. Simon, C. Ziegler
A survey of the laws and principles governing the practice of lawyers and the organization of the legal profession. Topics include the the relationship between professional ethics and personal morality, the formation and termination of the lawyer-client relationship, confidentiality, disclosure, conflicts of interest, litigation tactics, lawyer liability for client wrongdoing ,the sources of regulatory authority over lawyers, the marketing of legal services, and law firm structure and culture .

L8401 SEMINAR: THE LEGAL PROFESSION AND DELIVERY OF LEGAL SERVICES (2 pts)
J. Charn
High quality legal service in civil matters is beyond the financial reach of most people. This course addresses the policy and professional responsibility implications of expanding access to the civil justice system in the US. We will compare the US system to the much larger programs in peer nations. The course will emphasize the professional and institutional problems of allocating scarce resources among needy claimants and the difficulty in assuring quality and a strong consumer orientation in a subsidized delivery system. We will explore the possible contours of a more comprehensive delivery system, which might include on-line legal advice and other technological innovations; simplification of rules and procedures; expanded roles for paralegals; contacting with the private bar or "judicare"; vouchers and low fee/"low-bono" service; and pre-paid or legal insurance systems. There will be no examination but students will, in consultation with the course instructor, develop, carry out and report on a field or analytic research project that relates to making legal services available. Students may work collaboratively on course research projects. Possibliities for course projects will be posted on the course web site along with examples of prior student projects.

The following are not offered in 2007-2008 but are part of the regular course offerings at Columbia Law School.

L6290 PROFESSION OF LAW (1 pt)
This is an intensive, one-week course taught through simulation and other experiential techniques. The course goals are to introduce students to ways of thinking about professional ethics and the rules constraining that thinking; to explore the values that underlie the primary conceptions of the lawyering role; to expose students to the practice and practitioners who form the culture students are about to enter; and to introduce the habit of reflection about ethical issues and the capacity for self-evaluation of the students' professional ethical behavior.

L8185 SEMINAR: ETHICAL ISSUES IN TAX PRACTICE (2 pts)
This course will investigate how the US government?s multi-pronged attack on tax shelters over the past five years has altered the professional obligations of tax lawyers and raised new ethical problems and issues for tax lawyers. We will begin by looking at the professional obligations that tax lawyers have historically owed to their clients and to the legal system and how the professional performance of tax lawyers has been regulated in the past. We will then focus on the how the new tools the US government is using to crack down on tax shelters have radically altered not only the roles and responsibilities of tax lawyers, but also the extent to which the government regulates and controls the conduct of tax lawyers; we will also investigate how these new tools have created systemic conflicts between the tax lawyer and the client and how the lawyer may resolve these conflicts in an ethical and appropriate manner. Students will be expected to participate in class. The assignments will consist of readings and problems. In addition, from time to time, students will be asked to write their own problems highlighting the issues we have discussed in class and turn those problems in together with a rough outline of the issues raised and how the student would resolve them.