2006 NIFTEP FELLOWS
Heidi Li Feldman
Professor of Law
Georgetown University Law Center
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Georgetown University
600 New Jersey Ave. NW, Washington DC 20001
Phone: 202-662-9396 or 202-279-013
Fax: 1-302-341-1375
Email: feldmanh@law.georgetown.edu
Home Page:
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Brief description of your involvement in the teaching of ethics and professionalism:
I regularly teach (and have done for at least 10 years) an advanced legal ethics seminar entitled Can Good Lawyers Be Good Ethical Deliberators? This "boutique" course has proven to be in great demand. I use literature (not always featuring a lawyer or legal situation) to help introduce students to major Western secular ethical and moral theories; they also read primary source materials in these areas. Then the students prepare presentations, and ultimately papers, based on interviews with practicing lawyers, interviews that require the attorney to discuss an ethically troubling situation s/he faced and how s/he handled it. Students write papers relating the situation and the attorneys'handling to Rules of Professional Responsibility; at least one major moral/ethical theory; and the fictional examples we have discussed. I have also participated in judicial education conferences, teaching judges about ethical frameworks for thinking about legal issues posed by advances in biotechnology. Finally, I currently teach the law of fiduciary duties, and will be developing a course that relates to lawyers as fiducaries.
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Reason for applying:
I am particularly interested in the session on whether "law as a business" leads to better or worse ethical conduct from lawyers (or something more complex); I have my doubts based on the many interviews my students have conducted and my current teaching of fiduciary duty in the corporate governance context.
I am even more interested in Teaching Ethics and Professionalism as Part of a Course on Fundamentals of Law Practice, because I would be interested in developin such a course specifically for Georgetown Law Center - expanding some of what I do in the current "boutique seminar" into a course that also gives students a sense of the business of running a legal services entity.
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Roberta (Bobbi) K. Flowers
Stetson College of Law
1401 61st Street South
St. Petersburg, Florida 33707
Phone: 727 562-7863
Fax:
Email: Flowers@law.stetson.edu
Home Page:
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Brief description of your involvement in the teaching of ethics and professionalism:
I am a professor at Stetson University College of Law in St. Petersburg, Florida. I teach
Professional Responsibility, Evidence and Criminal Procedure. I am currently the
William Reece Smith Jr. Distinguished Professor in Professionalism. In that capacity, I
am charged with creating programs to foster and encourage professionalism in
students. I am including as part of this application the grant report that lists my activities
last year for this grant. By way of highlighting, I participate in the orientation for all new
students each year. Last year, I created a set of video scenarios depicting
professionalism issues facing law students. Each scene depicts a letter in the word
'professional' including promptness, respect, overindulgence; fair competition; email
etiquette, service; studying; integrity; organization; non-verbal communications;
adversary/advocate and language. I use these scenes to teach professionalism during
orientation. Our hope is to have the completed video available to other schools in the
near future. This is the third set of videos I have produced or co-produced on the
subject of Ethics and Professionalism. In 2005, Professor Morgan and I co-produced a
set of video scenes entitled Ethics and the Elder Law Attorney, which won the Florida
Bar Professionalism Award that year. In 1999, with the help of Professor Longan, I
produced a series on Ethics and the Criminal Prosecutor, which won a national Telly
award for education films. Video depictions are a powerful way to bring to life ethical
and professionalism issues and can begin a productive discussion. Last year, I coached
a team that participated in a Professional Responsibility Mock Trial Competition in
California. I believe that coaching students is one of the most effective ways to model
and teach professionalism. I am currently completing an article on teaching
professionalism through competition teams.
I am also the Director of the Center for Excellence in Advocacy, which oversees all the
skills-based programming at Stetson. I oversee the competition teams, clinics, and CLE
programming in the area of advocacy. Our mission is to improve professionalism
through training effective and professional advocates. In all our advocacy training, we
stress the need to be ethical and professional. Every CLE program we sponsor includes
an ethics component.
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Reason for applying:
I am interested in participating in the 2006 National Institute for Teaching Ethics and
Professionalism because I am constantly looking for new ways to introduce
professionalism and ethics into the classrooms across the curriculum. Last year, I
participated in a pilot program for the Florida Bar, in which we developed factual
scenarios for each of the typical first year courses, attempting to incorporate subjects
that would already be included in the first year courses. That project is on going in
hopes of encouraging first year professors to incorporate the scenes in their classes.
I am especially interested in the program on Teaching Ethics and Professionalism as
part of a course on Fundamentals of Law Practice. At Stetson we have experimented
with tethering skills classes with substantive law classes. For example our Evidence
class is combined with a Trial Practice class. A few years ago, we tethered a
Professional Responsibility class to an Interviewing, Counseling and Negotiations skills
class. The students would learn about a Rule of Professional Conduct in the
substantive class and then be faced with an interviewing or counseling problem
depicting that rule. We believed it was highly successful in teaching the students not
only the rules but also how to handle the application of those rules in real life situations.
We are constantly looking for ways to combine skills and substantive training at
Stetson. I would enjoy and benefit from a program that discusses a variety of ways to
incorporate the teaching of professionalism and ethics in skills classes.
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Thomas C. Grella
McGuire, Wood & Bissette, P.A.
P.O. Box 3180
Asheville, NC 28802
Phone: 828-254-8800
Fax: 828-252-2438
Email: tgrella@mwbavl.com
Home Page: www.mwbavl.com
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Brief description of your involvement in the teaching of ethics and professionalism:
The short answer is that I am not a conventional teacher or professor of ethics and professionalism. I am a practicing attorney who is the Managing Partner of a law firm of 20 attorneys and a total of 46 employed, in Asheville, North Carolina. I have also been active in Bar organizations (and am sending a separate resumé by email) including service as the Chair position of the North Carolina Young Lawyers Division Professionalism Committee and the ABA-YLD Ethics and Professionalism Committee. I have also been the ABA-YLD liaison to the ABA Standing Committee on Professional Discipline and a member of a special committee to the North Carolina State Bar responsible for drafting model bylaws for local bars. I was also a member of an ABA Presidential Task Force that drafted the Model Definition of the Practice of Law. Presently, I am Chair of the ABA Law Practice Management Section. As stated, my teaching experience is not conventional. As the Managing Partner of a law firm, I strive to set an example for others in the area of ethics and professionalism. It is important that my leadership exemplifies sound principles of ethics and professionalism, and that I balance the business needs of the firm and financial pressures and demands of partners, against our individual and corporate responsibility to the local and legal community in the area of ethics and professional responsibility.
With respect to the ABA Law Practice Management Section, ethics and professionalism has not been emphasized with Section programs and publications due to the existence of the ABA Center for Professionalism. However, as Chair of the Section, it is my hope that I can find ways to influence decision making within the Section such that every Section resource will include appropriate instruction in the area of ethics and professionalism.
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Reason for applying:
Some of the reasons for my applying for this program are set forth in my response above. In addition to those responses, the Fall 2006 Draft Program is of particular interest to me with respect to my leadership of the ABA Law Practice Management Section. The focus of the Tennessee pilot project is in areas relevant to the mission of the Law Practice Management Section. Any CLE programs in the areas of "client communications, ethical decision-making and law practice management" are of particular interest to the Law Practice Management Section, in that we are a major provider of legal educational programming. In addition, the mission of the Law Practice Management Section is to provide resources in the core areas of the "business of practicing law," namely management, marketing, finance and technology, to our members and subscribers. It is my belief that education in all four areas should incorporate germane ethics and professionalism content. The models of business practice that Professor Mahoney will discuss, might be considered as an important component of law practice management education. Finally, generally speaking, the ABA Law Practice Management Section does not regularly provide programming in law schools (though we do provide occasional joint projects and programs with the ABA Law Student Division). Our Section has over 12,000 law student members, and therefore, the Fundamentals of Law Practice programming would be of interest as our Section is constantly seeking ways to support our extensive law student membership.
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Peter Joy
Washington University School of Law
One Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130
Phone: 314-935-6445
Fax: 314-935-5356
Email: joy@wulaw.wustl.edu
Home Page: http://law.wustl.edu/Faculty/index.asp?id=255
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Brief description of your involvement in the teaching of ethics and professionalism:
I have taught legal ethics and issues of professionalism as a law professor for over twenty years, and I am frequently a lecturer on legal ethics and professionalism issues at continuing legal education (CLE) programs sponsored by bar associations, law schools, and other legal organizations. I currently teach the course Legal Profession at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, and I also teach Comparative Legal Ethics, which explores legal ethics and professionalism issues common to the United States and other countries, and Trial Practice & Procedure, a simulation trial skills course. I previously taught the course Professional Responsibility at Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland, Ohio, where I directed the clinical program.
In addition to my teaching in the classroom and to CLE audiences, I also teach legal ethics and professionalism in the context of clinical legal education courses. Currently, I direct and teach the Criminal Justice Clinic, and I work with law students in providing legal representation to indigent persons charged with criminal offenses. In this course, the students I appear in court on almost a daily basis and we confront ethics and professionalism issues in the context of the practice of law on behalf of real clients.
I am a Contributing Editor and I co-author an ethics column for the ABA quarterly publication CRIMINAL JUSTICE. In addition, I have written on issues of lawyer and judicial professionalism and ethics in law reviews and bar journals. I have also prepared materials for integrating legal ethics issues into first year law school courses, and I have written on integrating the teaching of ethics into the Criminal Law and Evidence courses.
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Reason for applying:
I am very interested in attending because of my interests in the following aspects of the program.
I am most interested in the Project for Professional Proficiency Testing and Teaching Ethics and Professionalism as Part of a Course on Fundamentals of Law Practice. I am on the Steering Committee for the Best Practices Project of the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA). The Best Practices Project is studying how law schools can better prepare law students to be competent, ethical lawyers. A corollary of this effort is how bar examiners may influence law school curricula through practice portions of bar exams, and how post-bar exam proficiency examinations may be used for practicing lawyers. The Tennessee Commission on Continuing Legal Education and Specialization pilot project sounds intriguing, I would like to learn more about the project and the Signet Accreditation program in Scotland. Similarly, I would like to learn more about integrating the teaching of ethics and professionalism in a course on the fundamentals of law practice. As someone who teaches legal ethics, simulation courses, and a clinical course, I am very interested in innovative approaches to teaching ethics and professionalism.
I am also very interested in the topic "The Practice of Law as a Business: Not a Bad Thing?" I believe that too much time has been spent on the rhetoric professionalism that "law is becoming a business" and too little time on discussing lawyer professionalism in the context of society's needs and the expectations of lawyers. I am interested in what Professor Mahoney has to say about how good business practices might address some of the problems of ethics and professionalism the legal profession faces.
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Michael Kuhn
Bracewell Giuliani LLP
711 Louisiana Street
2300 South Tower Pennzoil Place
Houston, TX 77002-2700
Phone: 713-221-1239
Fax: 712-222-3252
Email: michael.kuhn@bgllp.com
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Brief description of your involvement in the teaching of ethics and professionalism:
I am general counsel and partner at Bracewell Giuliani LLP. In that position, I teach firm lawyers the principles of legal ethic and risk management. Topics include conflict of interest standards in the various jurisdictions in which we operate, as well as the ABA Model Rules and Restatement 3d Law Governing Lawyers.
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Reason for applying:
I have been involved with legal ethics, as a practical concern in the life of this firm, for more than 10 years. It is always a welcome opportunity to enhance my skills while at the same time contributing to the needs of our profession.
The Practice of Law as a Business: Not a Bad Thing? is the topic that is particularly interesting, how the principles of economics of a firm are either consistent with or adverse to an ethics-based practice. Fore example, use of engagement letters contribute to good client relationships; but, does an "eat-what-you-kill" compensation structure have adverse implications for ethics and fairness?
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Denise Platfoot Lacey
Commission on Professionalism
Ohio Supreme Court
65 S. Front Street
Columbus, OH 43215
Phone: 614-387-9317
Fax: 614-387-9529
Email: laceyd@sconet.state.oh.us
Home Page: www.supremecourtofohio.gov/CP
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Brief description of your involvement in the teaching of ethics and professionalism:
In my capacity directing the Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, I regularly speak at CLE seminars around the state on professionalism topics. As a former bar counsel where I investigated and prosecuted disciplinary cases, I am also asked to speak on ethics topics at CLE seminars. Recently, I had the opportunity to speak as a guest lecturer on professionalism to students of professional responsibility classes at two Ohio law schools, and hopefully I will have more opportunities in the future to do that.
I have also developed the curriculum materials for Ohio's statewide pilot mentoring program for newly admitted lawyers which covers ethics and professionalism topics, and I will continue to update these materials for any permanent mentoring program that is implemented by the Supreme Court of Ohio. (These materials are on-line at www.supremecourtofohio.gov/mentoring.)
Finally, I am currently involved in evaluating Ohio's mandatory New Lawyer Training CLE program for new lawyers to make recommendations to the Supreme Court of much-needed revisions to the curriculum of that program.
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Reason for applying:
All three topics in the program are of interest to me, as they all touch upon trends that I track for the Commission on Professionalism and projects on which we are currently working.
"Teaching Ethics and Proefssionalism as Part of a Course on Fundamentals of Law Practice" is particularly applicable to the current work I am doing with the Commission on developing a new curriculum for Ohio's mandatory New Lawyer Training CLE course and the curriculum for the statewide mentoring program which is connected to the New Lawyer Training course. We are currently making decisions about how to best incorporate a law office management class (or classes) into the New Lawyer Training course, including determining what aspects of law office management should be covered. This subject is of particular interest to many key players in Ohio because of the number of lawyers who are not adequately running their solo practices because they do not know and understand the ethical rules that guide them, the business practices that can assist them, or the fundamentals of the use of trust accounts and accounting principles in general.
Further, I believe this topic would assist me in work that I am doing with the National Organization of Bar Counsel ("NOBC"), of which I am a member. I am on a NOBC committee which is evaluating ways to ensure national implementation of the recommendations in the National Action Plan on Lawyer Conduct and Professionalism of the Conference of Chief Justices. Our focus has been on the implementation of the recommendations regarding improving lawyer competence, which include suggestions about law office management training, transitional education for new lawyers, and mentoring.
The "Pilot Project for Professional Proficiency Testing" is also of interest to me because I have been tracking national trends that indicate a move toward practical testing on the bar exam. Several years ago, Ohio incorporated the Multistate Performance Test into the bar exam so that fundamental lawyering skills could be tested. I would be interested to bring back to Ohio information about alternate bar exam testing that is being done nationally.
Finally, in general, I am always interested in discussing new and better methods of teaching ethics and professionalism since that is such a large part of my job
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Reed Elizabeth Loder
Vermont Law School
Chelsea St.
South Royalton, VT 05068
Phone: (802) 763-8303 (extension 1293)
Fax:
Email: rloder@vermontlaw.edu
Home Page: http://www.vermontlaw.edu
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Brief description of your involvement in the teaching of ethics and professionalism:
I am a professor at Vermont Law School who has a Ph.D. in philosophy and a J.D., and this interdisciplinary background allows me to integrate moral issues and ethical reasoning into my courses in an informed and systematic manner.
One course I teach is Legal Profession, an upper level course in regulatory ethics. My approach is contextual and novel for this course in that I teach the ethical material predominantly in the context of solving environmental problems. Many of these problems involve the representation of corporations and other organizations. One theme is how lawyers can contribute to restructuring their own legal workplaces to be more conducive to ethical practice. Another is how lawyers, in their advisory capacity, can facilitate the ethical and just endeavors of their organizational clients.
I also teach a relevant upper level seminar, Moral Philosophy for Professionals, which takes a cross-professional approach to professional ethical issues, considering issues of confidentiality, client autonomy, workplace loyalty, deception, and others, and how these arise in various professions, with emphasis on law.
I also serve on the New Hampshire Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics and have participated in training court personnel in individual and workplace ethics. It is extremely satisfying to have opportunities to improve the ethical cuture and decision-making within the court system.
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Reason for applying:
The workshop substantively fits my teaching emphases on workplace ethics and ethical institutional structures. Attending the workshop would enhance my existing ideas on the compatibility between sound business practices and strong ethical commitment (topic two).
My current writing could also benefit from workshop insights. I am working on a book, LAWYERS AND VIRTUE, in which I examine the nature of specific virtues (generosity, gratitude, a temperament for justice, among others), and discuss how each virtue (and their interrelationship) applies to lawyers and legal institutions. I consider workplace structure in each chapter, considering how and why an institution could and should foster the development of specific virtues.
I am also writing an article, "The Moral Personalities of Legal Groups," in which I am arguing that organized groups such as businesses and law firms, possess collective moral character and are responsible for the traits they acquire and inculcate. All three workshop topics, but especially topic two, would be highly relevant to this piece.
I also believe that my academic and extra-academic teaching on professionalism in the workplace would be enriched by a consideration of contextual methods of evaluation (described in topic one) and by ideas on ethics and business models (topic two).
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Paul Paton
Faculty of Law, Queen's University
Macdonald Hall, 128 Union Street
Kingston ON Canada K7L 3N6
Phone: 613-533-6000 x78346
Fax: 613-533-6509
Email: paul.paton@queensu.ca
Home Page: http://law.queensu.ca/facultyAndStaff/facultyProfiles/PaulDPaton-1.html
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Brief description of your involvement in the teaching of ethics and professionalism:
2005 NIFTEP Fellow
Full-time tenure-stream professor since 2004, with primary focus on legal ethics and the legal profession. Completing doctorate at Stanford (spring 2007).I offer the core legal ethics seminar at the Faculty and am the faculty resource on legal ethics and professional responsibility. Research and writing centers on ethics in corporate contexts. Recent publications include a peer-reviewed article in Fall 2006 Canadian Bar Review Special Edition on Ethics ("Corporate Counsel as Corporate Conscience"); other publications in Canada and the US on ethics and professional responsibility issues for lawyers and accountants. Recently completed a study on "lawyers as whistleblowers" and money-laundering for the Law Society of Upper Canada Task Force on the Independence of the Bar, and appeared before the government Standing Committee on Justice considering legislative change to regulate paralegals. Invited presentation on "Institutionalizing Integrity" at a major conference on Law and P!
arliament in Ottawa, November 2006.
Formerly Fellow of the Keck Center on Legal Ethics and the Legal Profession at Stanford. Fellow of the Salzburg Seminar on Globalization and the Development of Transnational Legal Services.Member of the new Canadian legal ethics curriculum network, presenter on mandatory vs. optional ethics education (Dalhousie University, October 2006). Co-organizer of October 2007 conference on teaching ethics and professional responsibility in Canada. Seminars/presentations on ethics and professional responsibility to the University of Toronto (November 2006 -- Legal Ethics through a Law & Society Lens), Queen's University first year law class, and various Law Society of Upper Canada and Canadian Bar Association panels. Previous teaching on ethics and business for bar admission in Ontario.
Member of Chief Justice of Ontario's Advisory Committee on Professionalism Colloquium in the Legal Profession Series, and Subcommittee on Teaching of Professionalism. Organizer and Chair of 5th Colloquium on Professionalism in the Legal Profession, October 2005; Moderator and Speaker, 7th Colloquium on Professionalism (panel on Commercialism and Professionalism, Town Hall on Professionalism).
Organizer and speaker, Law Society of Upper Canada "Professionalism -- The Tool-Kit" series on privilege and confidentiality for junior lawyers (1-5 years in practice).
Appointed and re-appointed in 2006 to the Canadian Bar Association's National Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility.Member, Law Society of Upper Canada Advisory Committee on Skills and Professional Responsibility (bar admission for all Ontario lawyers). Drafted licensing examinations in professional responsibility and business law.
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Reason for applying:
It was a privilege to be a 2005 NIFTEP Fellow and to become part of an extraordinary network. I've been able to apply the lessons learned to my teaching at the Faculty of Law and in the work of the professionalism initiatives of the Law Society and the Chief Justice of Ontario's committees. I'd be honored to have the chance to participate again and to contribute. I greatly enjoyed the chance to meet Tim Mahoney last year, remain very interested in his work, and we enjoyed a very productive exchange. I provide a particular focus on the business of legal practice in my legal ethics teaching, and this October took my students to see the argument of a case in the Supreme Court of Canada (about which I'm writing)that completes a trilogy of cases about law firms and duties of loyalties and conflict of interest. The Canadian Bar Association intervened because of the potential impact of the decision; their submission attempted to provide guidance on business practice that would accord with ethical imperatives. Other recent settlements from the Enron and Hollinger corporate scandals engage law firm conflict issues and practices which I'm exploring. I am also writing, teaching and speaking more on the role of corporate counsel and lawyers in corporate practice and the ethics challenges posed by business imperatives. My earlier work with Deborah Rhode on "Lawyers, Ethics and Enron" and my continuing interest in regulation of lawyers and firms also make this session of special interest. It would be a privilege to be part of the discussion and I appreciate your considering my application.
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Josh Perry
Vanderbilt University
507B Light Hall
Nashville, TN 37232
Phone: 615-500-3629
Fax:
Email: joshua.e.perry@vanderbilt.edu
Home Page:
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Brief description of your involvement in the teaching of ethics and professionalism:
I approach the teaching of ethics and professionalism from the unique perspective of a lawyer, with an advanced degree in ethics from a divinity school, who finds himself on a medical school faculty tenure track and actively teaches as an adjunct member of the law school faculty across campus. Let me explain . . .
After practicing law for 2½ years, I joined Vanderbilt's Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society, a broadly interdisciplinary group directed by Ellen Wright Clayton, MD, JD, and Larry Churchill, PhD, as a Research Fellow. Eighteen months later, I was appointed Assistant Professor in the School of Medicine and Adjunct Professor in the Law School. As a Research Fellow, I co-taught a mini-course on Medical Ethics & Professionalism that was required of all 2nd year medical students. Now as an Assistant Professor, my primary teaching responsibilities in the medical school focus on the legal and ethical components of the Patient, Profession, & Society course. In the law school, I have just finished co-teaching an experimental Ethics and Professionalism course for 1L students. In this first-of-its-kind offering at Vanderbilt, approximately twenty students a week have participated even though attendance is voluntary and no grades or credits are being given. This spring I will be teaching one of the required Professional Responsibility sections.
My teaching experience is marked by a uniquely comparative environment that allows me to explore the contours and contrasts of professionalism and moral decision making from the perspective of both lawyers and doctors. This two-pronged approach to professional ethics is also evidenced in my scholarly agenda, which informs my strategies for teaching ethics and professionalism in both the medical school and law school. Because two of my current projects hold immediate relevance to the NIFTEP's proposed Fall 2006 program, I describe them in response to Question 2 below.
Finally, my approach to teaching ethics and professionalism was profoundly shaped by attending Vanderbilt's Law and Divinity schools as a joint-degree student. While the two schools had radically different environments, each strangely complemented the other as they both emphasized the development of skills necessary to the practice of moral decision making: critical thinking, analytical reasoning, and persuasive argumentation. In the Law School, of course, it was called "thinking like a lawyer," while in the Divinity School these skills were referred to as "the hermeneutics of suspicion." Thus, as a joint degree student, I learned to think and argue rigorously and carefully about principles and theories that engender great passion and deserve consideration from a multiplicity of vantage points. These experiences as a joint degree student inform my pedagogy with a broad perspective and deep appreciation for a diversity of viewpoints and learning modes that is particularly valuable when guiding students through the ambiguity and uncertainty of ethical questions not easily resolved with neat and tidy answers. This is the caution and circumspection that marks my approach to the teaching of ethics and professional formation in the classroom.
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Reason for applying:
My motivation for applying to be a 2006 NIFTEP Fellow is fueled by an interest in two items on the proposed program.
First, the "Pilot Project for Professional Proficiency Testing" and its focus on developing the ethical decision making skills of practicing lawyers is very closely aligned to two similarly focused empirical research projects on which I am currently working.
In May 2006, I was awarded a grant by Vanderbilt's Cal Turner Program for Moral Leadership in the Professions ("Cal Turner Program") to explore the moral landscape of how health care attorneys deliberate about ethical dilemmas they confront in their practice. This empirical study, entitled "The Moral Reasoning of Health Care Lawyers: An Empirical Assessment," promises to enrich our understanding of how this subset of lawyers thinks about thorny ethical problems that arise as they confront problems specific to the health care industry and interact with health care professionals. The results of this project will be of interest not only to lawyers in academia and in practice, but also to those clinicians and businesspersons engaged in the delivery of health care services.
Recently I joined with two other investigators to work on a similar project entitled "Ethics and Common Moral Problems across the Professions." With funding and support from Vanderbilt's Center for Ethics, the Owen Graduate School of Management, and the Cal Turner Program, this empirical project aims to identify and explore the ethical issues and dilemmas faced by professionals in law, medicine, nursing, ministry, and business, in their everyday practices. Knowledge gained through this work will be particularly useful for professional schools as they prepare their students for life beyond academe, as well for professional organizations seeking to better understand and regulate their members' behavior and well-being. Because both of my projects have the potential to improve the intensity and relevance of CLE ethics education, I am particularly attracted by the synergy that might be created by collaboration with the Tennessee Commission on Continuing Legal Education and Specialization and with the Signet Accreditation program.
Secondly, my interest is piqued by the workshop on "Teaching Ethics and Professionalism as Part of a Course on Fundamentals of Law Practice." I am convinced that new lawyers must be better equipped to recognize quickly and respond appropriately to ethical dilemmas and professional conflicts. To this end, law schools must be sensitive to the real struggles facing lawyers during the early stages of their careers, and I am excited that Dean Ed Rubin is committed to comprehensive integration of ethical reflection, professional formation, and practical preparation throughout the law school curriculum, which is currently under revision. Among Dean Rubin's innovations at Vanderbilt has been this fall's Ethics and Professionalism group, a voluntary 10-week course in which 1Ls learned about and discussed various ethical issues and their own role as professionals. Having just finished co-teaching in this exciting new Vanderbilt offering, I am particularly keen to engage other scholars and practitioners with a similar commitment to preparing lawyers for the realities of the practice.
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Barbara M. Seymour
Office of Disciplinary Counsel
South Carolina Supreme Court
Post Office Box 12159
Columbia, SC 29211
Phone: (803) 734-1419
Fax: (803) 734-1964
Email: bseymour@sccourts.org
Home Page:
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Brief description of your involvement in the teaching of ethics and professionalism:
I am an attorney with the Office of Disciplinary Counsel at the South Carolina Supreme Court where I investigate and prosecute attorney greivances. Because I believe that it is better to educate the Bar through CLE than through discipline, I have committed a considerable amount of my own time and effort to conducting seminars on topics of ethics, professionalism and law office management for the SC Bar and for many other legal organizations. In six years, I have presented approximately 50 ethics seminars.
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Reason for applying:
I am intrigued by the topic The Practice of Law as a Business: Not a Bad Thing? to be presented by Professor Mahoney. I have addressed office management issues at a number of CLE seminars and in my Law Office Management course. My initial interest in that topic stemmed from my undergraduate work in management and business. However, it did not take me long to make the connection between ineffective office management practices and ethical dilemmas. In my job as a prosecutor of attorney grievances, I have learned that the underlying cause of most minor (and some major) violations of the rules of professional conduct is a lack of attention to the business of practicing law. I have developed an ethics program for CLE that teaches a systems approach to law office management, with a focus on efficiency rather than profitability. Through that program, lawyers and paralegals gain practical tools they can use to properly organize and manage office processes and people – with the byproduct of ethical compliance. I would be happy to share a sample of the written materials I use if it would help you in making a determination regarding my application. The fellowship workshop is a unique opportunity for me to interact with other legal professionals interested in ethics education and to learn from them.
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Sylvia E. Stevens, General Counsel
Oregon State Bar
5200 SW Meadows Rd.
Lake Oswego, OR 97035
Phone: 503-431-6359
Fax: 503-598-6359
Email: sstevens@osbar.org
Home Page:
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Brief description of your involvement in the teaching of ethics and professionalism:
I have been teaching ethics and professionalism since joining the Oregon State Bar more than 14 years ago after 11 years in private practice. In my current capacity as General Counsel, I continue to be the primary contact for the "ethics hot line." I also issue "informal written advisory opinions" which can be used by members in mitigation of disciplinary sanctions. I am the staff liaison to the the OSB's Legal Ethics Committee and oversaw the OSB's adoption of and migration to the new Oregon Rules of Professional Responsibility, which are pattenered on the ABA Model Rules. I am frequently asked to write and speak on professional responsibility issues to a wide variety of bar groups. My recent appointment to a second term on the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professionalism reflects the respect my peers have for my committment to enhancing ethics and professionalism in the profession.
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Reason for applying:
I have long been a strong proponent for lifelong education in ethics and professionalism. The NIFTEP workshop would be an excellent opportunity for me enhance my ability to be a leader in the field. All three of the draft program topics are of considerable interest. During the several years that I oversaw the OSB's MCLE program, I often questioned whether CLE has any measurable impact on lawyer proficiency and whether meaningful measurements could be obtained. The Tennessee project is therefore quite intriguing. I agree that lawyers could benefit from applying more of the business model to their practices, in part because I am convinced that a considerable amount of ethical misconduct results from a lack of financial success as well as lack of focus on one's own strengths. I would very much like to explore that topic in more depth. Finally, Oregon has done a good job of incorporating ethics and professionalism into our bridging-the-gap program; I would like to share our experience and learn from others.
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Justin P. Wilson
Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis
3022 Vanderbilt Place
Nashville, Tennessee 37212
Phone: 615-327-0566 or 615-850-8479
Fax: 615-244-6804
Email: jwilson@wallerlaw.com
Home Page:
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Brief description of your involvement in the teaching of ethics and professionalism:
I teach the ABA required course on Professional Responsibility at the Vanderbilt Law School in the spring. I lead group meetings on ethical issues at Waller Lansden, the law firm where I am a member. For example, I spoke before 140 lawyers and paralegals on recognizing conflicts last Thursday.
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Reason for applying:
Vanderbilt Law School has a new Dean who is working to change the way law is taught at the law school by moving away from the case method to a more transactional approach. Last year I attempted to make that change in the way I taught Professional Responsibility.
I worked from the assumption that most of the graduates would first become entry level associates in medium size or large law firms. I then attempted to create hypothetical situations similar to those I have seen in my practice (30 years, 13 of which I served as managing partner or member of the Executive Committee of a larger law firm) that I thought they would encounter in their first few years of practice. These included clients who wanted to testify falsely, pressures to "pad" billable hours, juggling conflicting demands of both clients and partners, confidentiality and the cocktail party, self-serving memoranda, and the like. I attempted to weave these into the Code of Professional Responsibility.
I also focused on what I called the business of the practice of law: why it is important to learn about a client's business and how to do so, how to become involved in community activities; when to and when not to handle pro bon cases, how to entertain for business development, and the like.
Interestingly, I learned from a variety of sources that the course, particularly the interactive parts, was wildly popular with some students and disliked by others, especially those who looked upon the course as a required course that has as its primary purpose preparation for the multi-state bar exam.
Organizing the class was difficult. I learned a lot that I did right and a lot I did wrong. I believe your seminar will help me do a lot more right. It would also give me a much better idea how others are addressing similar problems. I believe my experience, which I suspect is a bit novel, would be valuable to others teaching law students. The Practice of Law as a Business seems a natural for me.
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Melvin F. Wright, Jr.
Executive Director
North Carolina Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism
100 E. Six Forks Road, Suite 303
Raleigh, NC 27609
Phone: 919-571-4762
Fax: 919-788-5348
Email: Melvin.F.Wright@nccourts.org
Home Page:
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Brief description of your involvement in the teaching of ethics and professionalism:
I have been an Adjunct Professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law teaching Professional Responsibility since the Fall 2004 semester and I have served as the Executive Director of the North Carolina Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism since November 1999. When I was approached by then-Carolina Law Dean Gene Nichol to teach Professional Responsibility, it was because his vision for the course was to have more Professionalism (defined as the higher standard of conduct expected of attorneys) taught along with Ethics (defined as the minimum standard of conduct required of attorneys). I incorporate the aspirational aspects of professionalism into my ethics portions through video hypotheticals, class discussion, "thought of the week," guest speakers and Audio/Visual presentations.
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Reason for applying:
I am applying for this workshop in order to contribute my own insights and to also learn from others' experiences regarding the teaching of professionalism and ethics. I participated in this workshop last year and found it to be exceptionally helpful to me. I believe my contributions were helpful to others as well. As the Executive Director of the Commission on Professionalism, I work with all North Carolina Law schools, in addition to my responsibilities at Carolina Law. In 2006, our state opened two new law schools: Elon Law School in Greensboro and Charlotte Law School in Charlotte. In 2003, 2004 and 2005, Campbell Law School, Wake Forest Law School and Duke Law School, respectively, received the ABA Gambrell Award for their professionalism programs. I plan to take all information, ideas and insights gleaned from this workshop to not only my own teaching position at Carolina but to all the other six law schools. In addition, recently I have been asked to Chair the National Consortium on Professionalism Initiatives. I believe the information and presentations at this workshop will benefit my responsibilities with the Consortium as well.