Ethics in Practice: Lawyers' Roles, Responsibilities, and Regulation

Features contributions from the foremost scholars writing on legal ethicsLawyers' ethics have been condemned for centuries, but they received little scholarly scrutiny until the last few decades. Ethics in Practice brings together leading experts in the emerging field of legal ethics to discuss the central dilemmas of practicing law. This collection cuts across conventional disciplinary boundaries to address the roles, responsibilities, and regulation of contemporary lawyers. Contributors address common concerns from diverse perspectives, including philosophy, psychology, economics, political science, and organizational behavior. Topics include the nature of professions, the structure of practice, the constraints of an adversarial system, the attorney-client relationship, the practical value of moral theory, the role of race and gender, and the public service responsibilities of lawyers and law students.Unique in both its breadth and its depth, this book redefines debates that are of enduring significance for both the profession and the public."This is a splendid and finely-crafted collection. It can serve both as a state-of-the art guide to the most important current debates about legal professionalism and as the starting point finally to move beyond the rehtorical posturing that still dominates the field." -- Bryant Garth, Director, American Bar Foundation"The honest critiques and moral ambitions of the essays collected in this volume revitalize the study of the legal profession. Deborah Rhode has brought together a bracing mixture of scholars who pursue the structural as well as the personal factors crucial to meaningful change."-- Martha Minow, Professor of Law, Harvard University