Professional Responsibility in Public Interest, Government, and Pro Bono Practice

Professional Responsibility is the heartbeat of our profession. In this class and throughout your career, you will encounter, analyze, and resolve ethical questions. Our rules are intellectually and philosophically interesting and afford us both agency in deciding our path as well as a shared set of expectations with one another. We will explore in this class the obligations attendant with our professional privilege – to our clients, the courts, the general public, and the rule of law and justice. All are welcome in this course regardless of career goals. Most professional responsibility considerations are universal. The applications we will focus on in this course will be specific to public interest, government, and pro bono. We will rely primarily on the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and their New York counterparts, as well as some comparative examples from other jurisdictions, case law, bar opinions, and substantive federal and state laws, particularly those dictating the conduct of government employees. Class discussion will be encouraged, and all students will complete a small group project on the justice technology of their choice and its attendant ethical issues. Grading will also be based on brief, pre-class prompts on Courseworks, as well as an open-book exam.