Professional Responsibility

This course satisfies the J.D. Professional Responsibility requirement.
This course also satisfies the LL.M. Professional Responsibility requirement for the California bar.

This course examines the duties and responsibilities of members (and soon-to-be members) of the legal profession. We will undertake a detailed analysis and discussion of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, with an awareness that, in practice, different states might have adopted some variations on these rules. The primary goal of the course is to recognize when ethical issues could arise in practice (conflicting loyalties, as one example) and articulate and apply the relevant rules to arrive at a solution. The course also will encourage students (1) to contemplate the current rules and determine if they succeed or fail in their stated goals; (2) to consider ways in which the rules could be improved; and (3) to develop a sense of professional identity and consider how that comports with students’ own personal morals and the rules of ethical lawyering.