Teaching Professional Responsibility and Ethics

Abstract

This article discusses the development of teaching legal ethics in light of the changes in the ethics rules over the years. The thesis is that many ethics rules reflect the needs of a cartel (the legal profession) to protect itself, rather than the need to protect the clients of lawyers. The author uses stories and examples to illustrate this thesis.

Keywords: law teaching, legal writing, legal ethics, lawyering skills, professional responsibility, economic effects of ethics rules, economic analysis of legal ethics rules, ABA, Model Rules of Professional Conduct