Professional Responsibility (Feder)
Faculty
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| Richard Feder Lecturer in Law richiefeder@gmail.com |
Additional Information
Skills Training
Other Professional Skills:
Grading
100% Exam,
Other (A borderline grade will be increased for extraordinary class participation.)
Exam
Essay,
In Class,
Partial Open Book (You may bring any hard copy material into the exam room. You may use any material you have downloaded onto your computer. You will not have internet access.)
No
Class meets in person.
Course Continuity
Students are encouraged to stay home if you are ill or experience flu-like symptoms. If you miss a class for any reason, it is still your responsibility to make up the work missed.
I offer the following to students who miss class due to illness:
- Class sessions are regularly recorded. I will make these recordings routinely available on the course site to everyone in the class.
- I will make PowerPoint slides or other class materials routinely available on the course site to everyone in the class.
Meeting Times/Location
T 6:40PM - 8:30PM
Gittis Hall 213
Category
Upper-Level
Credits
2.0
Richard Feder
This is professional responsibility for the well-rounded lawyer. It is a particularly good fit for students who recognize that a great lawyer is comfortable in many different roles and for students who want to be familiar with the ethical restrictions faced by lawyers in many different contexts. Thus, we will explore professional responsibility issues faced by lawyers in the representation of for-profit organizations, not-for-profit organizations, and private individuals, in the litigation, transactional, civil, criminal, public interest, and counseling contexts. We will also explore the professional responsibility issues faced by government lawyers, and how the Rules of Professional Conduct fit, or don’t fit, with a government law practice.
Although we will focus on the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, the goal of the class is to familiarize you with the principles of professional responsibility, with a heavy emphasis on questions for which the Rules do not provide a clear answer, so that you have the tools to decide for yourselves what it means to practice law with high integrity and professionalism.
The class will be highly interactive. I will guide class discussions to keep you on point and to make sure you learn the material, but active engagement in the material is the best way to learn, so, although I generally do not cold call, I expect active participation from all of my students.
Required casebook:
Lerman, Schrag, Rubinson, Hans, Luciani, Ethical Problems in the Practice of Law (7th ed. 2026) ISBN: Print: 979-8-8920-7442-1
Required rulebook:
You must have ready access, at home and in class, to the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, including the Comments thereto. The Rules and Comments are available for free on the ABA’s website, at: https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/model_rules_of_professional_conduct_table_of_contents/
But you will not have access to this website when taking the exam, so you should seriously consider purchasing an inexpensive paperback version of the Model Rules, e.g.: ABA, Model Rules of Professional Conduct (2026 ed.) ISBN: 978-1-6390-5788-7
Professional Responsibility and Ethics Learning outcomes: Demonstrate an understanding of how the law affects, and is affected by, the individual course topic; Perform legal analysis in the context of the individual course topic; Communicate effectively on the legal and other aspects of the individual course topic; Demonstrate the ability to use other disciplines to analyze legal issues relevant to the individual course topic, including economics, philosophy, and sociology, as appropriate.
Textbooks
"ABA, Model Rules of Professional Conduct" by Center for Professional Responsibility |