Ethics in Practice Lawyers' Roles, Responsibilities, and Regulation

Lawyers' ethics have been condemned for centuries, but they received little scholarly scrutiny until the last few decades. Ethics in Practice brings together leading experts in the emerging field of legal ethics to discuss the central dilemmas of practicing law. This collection cuts across conventional disciplinary boundaries to address the roles, responsibilities, and regulation of contemporary lawyers. Contributors address common concerns from diverse perspectives, including philosophy, psychology, economics, political science, and organizationalbehavior. Topics include the nature of professions, the structure of practice, the constraints of an adversarial system, the attorney-client relationship, the practical value of moral theory, the role of race and gender, and the public service responsibilities of lawyers and law students. Unique in both its breadth and its depth, this book redefines debates that are of enduring significance for both the profession and the public.

Deborah L. Rhode is the McFarland Professor of Law and Director of the Center on Ethics at Stanford University. She has served as president of the Association of American Law Schools and Chair of the American Bar Association's Commission on Women in Profession, and as senior counsel for the House Judiciary Committee on impeachment issues. She is the author or coauthor of eleven books and over one hundred articles, and has received the Keck Foundation Award for Distinguished Scholarship on Ethics by the American Bar Foundation, as well as the Pro Bono Publico Award from the American Bar Association.