Professional Responsibility

3 units

This course is part of the Online MLS/LL.M. in U.S. Law curriculum. The goal of this course is to help students understand and resolve the ethical dilemmas that practicing lawyers face in the United States. Among the subjects that the course will examine are the nature and types of lawyer regulation, client-attorney relationships, confidentiality rules, conflicts of interest, duties to courts, adversaries and third parties, client solicitation and billing, and access to legal services. The course will use as its foundational rules the American Bar Association's Model Rules of Professional Conduct and will also consider ethical duties arising under common law and other sources of authority. Most of the classes will focus on the skills of identifying and solving the ethical dilemmas lawyers face in practice and on the professional values of providing competent legal representation, improving the legal profession, and promoting justice and fairness. Regular class attendance and participation are required.