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The Foreseeable Consequences of Ending Race-Based Admissions Policies
Get PDFAffirmative Action is on the chopping block. SCOTUS has historically refused to recognize the intrinsic educational value of racial diversity as a compelling interest. Was it designed to fail
The Overreach of Limits on Legal Advice
No full textNonlawyers, including court personnel, are typically prohibited from providing legal advice. But definitions of “legal advice” are unnecessarily broad, creating confusion, disadvantaging self-represented litigants, and possibly raising due-process concerns. This Essay argues for a narrower, more explicit definition of legal advice that advances, rather than undercuts, access to justice
Why $73 Million Sandy Hook Settlement is Unlikely to Unleash a Flood of Lawsuits Against Gun-Makers
No full textLawyers\u27 Duty of Confidentiality and Clients\u27 Crimes and Frauds
Get PDFLawyers’ ethical duty of confidentiality is a fundamental aspect of the attorney-client relationship. It is also an extraordinarily broad duty; indeed, it is broader than the attorney-client privilege. So extensive a duty of confidentiality is necessary to encourage clients to trust their lawyers and to be candid with them. The public also benefits from lawyers’ duty of confidentiality, as a comment to Rule 1.6 of the ABA’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct explains: “Almost without exception, clients come to lawyers in order to determine their rights and what is, in the complex of laws and regulations, deemed to be legal and correct. Based upon experience, lawyers know that almost all clients follow the advice given, and the law is upheld.”
As broad as lawyers’ duty of confidentiality may be, however, it is not absolute. There are times when the usual public interest in lawyers’ preservation of client confidentiality may yield to a greater interest in preventing, mitigating, or rectifying clients’ unlawful conduct. Model Rule 1.6(b)(2) accordingly permits a lawyer to disclose a client’s information “to prevent the client from committing a crime or fraud that is reasonably certain to result in substantial injury to the financial interests or property of another and in furtherance of which the client has used or is using the lawyer’s services.” Model Rule 1.6(b)(3) permits a lawyer to reveal a client’s information “to prevent, mitigate or rectify substantial injury to the financial interests or property of another that is reasonably certain to result or has resulted from the client’s commission of a crime or fraud in furtherance of which the client has used the lawyer’s services.”
Lawyers’ ability to disclose information related to clients’ representations where they reasonably believe or even know that the clients are planning, engaging in, or have committed financial crimes or frauds is an incredibly important issue. Absent the ability to make such disclosures, lawyers may face significant civil and criminal liability, as well as professional discipline, arising out of clients’ dishonest schemes. At the same time, the circumstances in which lawyers may disclose clients’ malfeasance are narrow, often difficult to appreciate, and require lawyers to make nuanced judgments. This Article examines in practical fashion lawyers’ critical but limited ability to disclose clients’ information to prevent, mitigate, or rectify clients’ financial crimes and frauds
Women, Retirement, and the Growing Gig Economy Workforce
Get PDFGig work—the selling or renting of labor, effort, skills, and time outside of traditional employment—is a long-standing feature of the U.S. economy. Today, millions of “online gig workers” sell goods and services, or rent rooms, houses, vehicles, and other assets using app-online and app-based platforms (for example, Uber, Lyft, Rover, DoorDash, eBay, Etsy, Postmates, VRBO, and Airbnb) to connect with customers. Millions more of “offline gig workers” run errands; walk dogs; care for children and the elderly; do housework, yardwork, and other occasional jobs; rent rooms; and sell goods at outdoor markets and roadside stands—without using online platforms to connect with their customers. This Article focuses on gig work in terms of what it means for women, their work, and their retirement income security. In particular, this Article (1) reviews the existing measures of gig work to determine any relevant data gaps; (2) summarizes the tax and retirement rules for gig workers; (3) considers the major factors that contribute to the gender retirement wealth gap; (4) identifies the challenges for gig workers in saving for retirement, including the extraordinary economic circumstances presented by the COVID-19 pandemic; and (5) discusses some federal tax, retirement, and financial literacy policy proposals that could help gig workers better support themselves in retirement
Growth Management\u27s Fourth Wave, Revisited
Get PDFIn this article we provide an update to Timothy S. Chapin’s article, “From Growth Controls, to Comprehensive Planning, to Smart Growth: Planning\u27s Emerging Fourth Wave,” published in 2012 in the Journal of the American Planning Association. It takes advantage of a decade of insight into national planning and development trends, as well as our experience with growth management in Florida to rethink this fourth wave. Notably, forces have emerged to fight centralized, state and local-directed land planning, led by a powerful development industrial complex. We conclude that growth management may struggle to remain a centerpiece of the planning profession unless it embraces some new ideas and new policy models
Adventures in Land Use Dispute Resolution: Utah\u27s Innovative Program to Provide Free Legal Advice to Local Government, Neighbors, and Property Owners
Get PDFUtah may have the nation’s most robust process allowing citizens to question local government land use decisions. This exists in the Office of the Property Rights Ombudsman (OPRO), created in 1997 and charged to assist in land use disputes in 2006. In three parts, this article divides an overview of the history of that office into two eras, evaluates one of the key functions of the current era—the preparation of advisory opinions (AOs), and suggests that Utah’s OPRO is a useful model for other states to consider. Most of this article focuses on the debates leading to the second era and the role of AOs in resolving disputes