LAW DAY 2050: POST-PROFESSIONALISM, MORAL LEADERSHIP, AND THE LAW-AS-BUSINESS PARADIGM

FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW, Vol. 27:9, 1999

AUTHOR:
RUSSELL G. PEARCE

ABSTRACT:

Inspired by Ted Schneyer’s future history of professional discipline and Bob Gordon’s description of “the hazy aspirational world” of the “Law Day Sermon,” I offer a vision of the legal profession’s next fifty years in the form of a Law Day speech from the year 2050. Looking back on developments in the first half of the twenty-first century, this piece explores the implications of the analysis proposed  in my earlier article, The Professionalism Paradigm Shift: Why Discarding Professional Ideology Will Improve the Conduct and Reputation of the Bar. The speech presents a projection of the moral leadership the bar could achieve if it were to embrace the law as a business paradigm.

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The Two Faces of Lawyers: Professional Ethics and Business Compliance With Regulation

THE GEORGETOWN JOURNAL OF LEGAL ETHICS, Vol. 22:201, 2009.

AUTHOR:
CHRISTINE E. PARKER,
ROBERT ELI ROSEN
VIBEKE LEHMANN NIELSEN

ABSTRACT:

This article reports on the first major quantitative study of businesses that explores the use and influence of lawyers. Previous research has only surveyed or interviewed lawyers. Our findings are particularly robust in regards to lawyer behaviors because they do not derive from lawyer self-reports.

The professionalism thesis holds that what lawyers supply to clients is constrained by norms of professionalism, so that lawyers become compliance monitors. The devolution of professionalism thesis holds that what lawyers supply is constrained by client demand, so that lawyers enable client behaviors which are not oriented towards compliance.

We find that neither thesis applies to the market for corporate legal services. The devolution thesis fails to recognize that clients vary in their attitudes towards law and legal risk. As a result of client demand, a significant portion of what lawyers supply is service as compliance monitors. The professionalism thesis fails to recognize that norms of legal professionalism support lawyers' action as gamesters and adversarial advocates. As a result, even when clients demand lawyers who act as compliance monitors, lawyers supply services that incline clients to increasingly accept legal risk and adopt a gamester approach to law and regulation.

Our findings extend the market model by detailing mechanisms through which lawyers may influence compliance.

Keywords: lawyers, corporate governance, regulatory compliance, professionalism

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Competing Identities of ‘Managed Professionalism’: Lawyers’ Attitudes to Management in Law Firms

Stream title: New perspectives in the study of professionalism: Reconnecting professional organizations with professional occupations, Reconnecting Critical Management. The 5th International Critical Management Studies Conference, Manchester Business School. 11th–13th July 2007.

AUTHOR:
Ashly Pinnington
Karin Winroth

ABSTRACT:

This paper examines how lawyers explain and narrate their on-going enactments of professionalism and management. Through investigation of various identity constructions and post-hoc justifications of ‘managed professionalism’ we explore some of the ways that individuals and collective institutions of the legal professions call on similar resources available in work, organisations and society. In interpreting and differentiating their shared and ceded territories of work and social life lawyers may often evoke norms and values of particular reference groups such as their professional occupational peers and corporate clients.

Through accounts from lawyers working in law firms in two different countries (Australia and Sweden) we seek to understand individuals’ different orientations towards the roles of management in law firms. We conclude that these accounts can be assessed for their pragmatism in serving individual and group interests and recommend that they be more closely evaluated for their distinctive value commitments to systems of societal ethics, politics, economics and law.

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THE LAW OF MORTGAGE LENDING and INSURANCE DISCRIMINATION : A substantive and procedural manual for attorneys

The Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc. 100 N. LaSalle St., Suite 600 Chicago, Illinois 60602

Partial funding for this manual was provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Fair Housing Initiatives and Voluntary Programs

OVERVIEW:

This manual is designed to provide basic substantive and procedural information to attorneys litigating mortgage lending or insurance discrimination cases. Chapter 1 discusses the substantive law governing mortgage lending discrimination. Chapter 2 details the law on insurance discrimination. Chapter 3 provides an overview of the procedures involved in litigating one of these cases. This manual is not intended to be a comprehensive treatise on fair housing law generally. For a broader overview of fair housing law and litigation procedure, we suggest John P. Relman, Housing Discrimination Practice Manual (5th ed. 1998), and Robert G. Schwemm, Housing Discrimination: Law and Litigation (7th ed. 1997). Questions regarding any information contained in this manual should be directed to Nina E. Vinik, Fair Housing Project Director, Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc., (312) 630-9744.

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Investigation of Health Care Cost Trends and Cost Drivers

Preliminary Report
January 29, 2010
Office of Attorney General Martha Coakley

OVERVIEW:

The Office of the Attorney General (AGO) releases this preliminary report based on its ongoing investigation of health care cost trends and cost drivers pursuant to the authority granted to the Attorney General by Section 24 of Chapter 305 of the Acts of 2008, An Act to Promote Cost Containment, Transparency and Efficiency in the Delivery of Quality Health Care. In accordance with the statutory mandate, the focus of our investigation and this preliminary report is squarely on factors that contribute to cost growth within the Commonwealth’s health care system. This preliminary report identifies factors driving up health insurance premiums in Massachusetts to help policymakers in this state develop measures to control costs without sacrificing quality or access. It reflects current realities of the Massachusetts health care market to inform policymakers focused on cost containment. This report does not address health care reform efforts in other states or at the national level. This preliminary report provides a broad analysis of the Massachusetts health care marketplace and does not make any conclusions about specific health care providers or insurers. Although our investigation is ongoing, our preliminary analysis indicates that current contracting practices by health insurance companies and health care providers have resulted in significant differences in compensation rates among hospitals and physicians that do not appear to be based on the complexity or quality of the care provided. These market dynamics and distortions should be considered by the Legislature and administration policymakers pursuing  health care cost containment strategies.

Health care costs are increasing much faster than the growth in the economy, gross domestic production (GDP), and wages. Such increases, if unchecked, threaten the financial stability of individuals and businesses, and the future viability of our gains in health care access. Massachusetts is a national leader in health care. In the Commonwealth, we benefit from highly ranked health plans and hospitals, and we also have strong market reforms protecting access to health care that are a national model. As a result of Chapter 58, Massachusetts has expanded coverage to 97% of the population through the shared responsibility of individuals and employers. These landmark gains in access, however, are jeopardized by unsustainable increases in health care costs in Massachusetts.

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Student Loan Default Literature Review

TG Research and Analytical Services
December 22, 2004

AUTHOR:
Robin McMillion

OVERVIEW:

 College experience and success variables are those that occur in college and which the college, the borrower, or both have some ability to affect. These characteristics include college major, academic achievement, transfer status, educational goals of the student, financial support, and degree completion (Volkwein et al. 1998).

The reason for the correlation between college success and default behavior is unknown; however, it is possible that the hard work and responsibility that result in college success are established habits that carry over to other responsibilities in students’ lives, such as loan repayment. Also, borrowers who achieve success in college will most likely obtain better positions in the job market and be in a better position to repay their loans after they leave school (Steiner and Teszler 2003).

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NEW BRAZILIAN ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMES LAW: AN ANALYSIS OF ITS EFFECTIVENESS TO PROTECT THE FORESTS OF AMAZONIA

SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE AND ENFORCEMENT 9-15 APRIL 2005

CONFERENCE PROCEEDING VOLIME 1

AUTHOR:
BRENDA BRITO
PAULO BARRETO
JOHN ROTHMAN

ABSTRACT:

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the new Brazilian environmental crimes law, we analyzed 55 judicial actions involving forestry crimes in the federal courts of Belém, the capital of Pará. Pará is the Brazilian state that currently accounts for 40% of Amazonian logging. We identified the kinds of crimes committed, and the kind of penalties assessed and collected. We then identified the main obstacles to effective enforcement against environmental violators and propose some solutions to these problems. We conclude that the two principle obstacles to effective enforcement arise from 1) the ineffective communication among the agencies responsible for applying the law and 2) inability to apply penalties resulting from environmental crimes to environmental projects. In order to resolve these problems we propose: 1) adaptation for Pará of models of communication that have already been used successfully in another part of Brazil; and 2) use of environmental

funds to enable penalties for environmental projects to be used for environmental purposes.

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FEDERAL STUDENT LOAN REPAYMENT ASSISTANCE FOR PUBLIC INTEREST LAWYERS AND OTHER EMPLOYEES OF GOVERNMENTS AND NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS

HOFSTRA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 36:27, 2007]

AUTHOR:
Philip G. Schrag

ABSTRACT:

The problem of high monthly repayment obligations for educational debt has long plagued students,  particularly graduate and professional students who desired lower-paying public interest careers. Congress has recently responded very positively. In the College Cost Reduction and Access Act (“CCRAA”),  Congress has made it possible for high-debt, lower-income graduates to manage debt repayment through an “income-based repayment” plan. In addition, Congress has created a new program through which public servants—including all government workers and all employees of all nonprofit organizations that are  axexempt under § 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code—are entitled to have a substantial portion of their educational debt forgiven after making modest repayments during ten years of full-time employment. Together, these two new programs will enable student borrowers to choose their careers without being unduly influenced by their debt burdens and will enable governments and nonprofit organizations to retain talented professionals who would otherwise be forced to resign after two or three years and seek higher-paying jobs so that they could repay their student loans. This Article describes how the new law will apply to graduates serving in public interest jobs (including those who have already graduated and those who will graduate before the law goes fully into effect). A major purpose of this Article is to help students and high-debt/low-income graduates understand how the new law may help them in their career and financial planning. This Article  proposes changing current income tax rules to exempt the forgiveness that the new law provides for public servants.

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