Professional Responsibility, Therapeutic Jurisprudence, and Preventive Law

Abstract

This Article considers how the developing disciplines of therapeutic jurisprudence and preventive law might inform the field of professional responsibility. Professional responsibility standards often are rooted in hidden psychological assumptions about the interaction between clients and lawyers. The Article suggests that social science analysis of the these psychological assumptions could have numerous beneficial effects, including clarifying ethics norms and teaching lawyers to deal with clients in a way that will help clients cope with the legal system and avoid tensions with their lawyers.