This course approaches the subject of professional responsibility as a study of how society regulates the legal profession and the conduct of lawyers. First, we study the organized regulation of the profession, which includes the following topics: (1) the admission of lawyers, (2) the establishment of the legal services monopoly through unauthorized practice of law statutes, (3) the state and federal systems for disciplining lawyers, and (4) the clients. Second, we study the regulation of the conduct of individual lawyers through the transactional perspectives: (1) formation of the attorney- client relationship, (2) performance of the representation, and (3) termination of the relationship. We also spend significant time examining the three contexts of regulating lawyers' conduct: (1) the disciplinary committee, (2) the private malpractice action, and (3) judicial regulation as part of the lawyer's representation of a client.
Although we discuss the Model Code and the Model Rules, this course does not focus on the rules of professional responsibility as the sole source of ethical guidelines. The course should prepare you for the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam; however, it is more useful as an introduction to identifying and resolving ethical problems in practice. In addition, it is your first introduction to the practice of law as a profession.
Dzienkowski, John S.