Legal Ethics Forum

The Loss of Deborah Rhode

I am devastated to share with you the tragic news that Stanford Law School Deborah Rhode passed away Friday. She has been a trusted friend, mentor, colleague, role model, sounding-board, and so much more to me and to many others. An extraordinary scholar and an inspiring leader, her loss is immeasurable to the field of legal ethics, gender studies, and leadership.

We honored her legacy at the final Professional Responsibility Section event at the AALS Annual Meeting yesterday, and I know there will be many opportunities to remember her going forward.

Here is information from her faculty bio page at Stanford:

Deborah L. Rhode is the Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law and the Director of the Center on the Legal Profession. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude from Yale College and received her JD from Yale Law School. She clerked for United States Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1979.

She is the founding chair of the Section on Leadership of the Association of American Law Schools and was the founding president of the International Association of Legal Ethics, a former president of the Association of American Law Schools, a former chair of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession, a former founding director of Stanford’s Center on Ethics, a former director of Stanford’s Institute of Research on Women and Gender, a former director of Stanford’s Program on Social Entrepreneurship, and a former trustee of Yale University. She worked as counsel to the House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee during the impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton.

She is the nation’s most frequently cited scholar on legal ethics. She is the author of 30 books in the fields of professional responsibility, leadership, and gender, law and public policy. She has received the American Bar Association’s Michael Franck award for contributions to the field of professional responsibility; the American Bar Foundation’s W. M. Keck Foundation Award for distinguished scholarship on legal ethics, the American Foundation’s Distinguished Scholar award, the American Bar Association’s Pro Bono Publico Award for her work on expanding public service opportunities in law schools, and the White House’s Champion of Change award for a lifetime’s work in increasing access to justice.

 

Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting Professional Responsibility Section Events Today

The final PR Section event happens today, starting at 4:15 Eastern. These papers are both terrific—hope you will join us!

Section on Professional Responsibility: Works In Progress Workshop

This workshop pairs two scholars with two more senior scholars to comment on and discuss promising works in progress. The first article is entitled "Future-Proofing Against the Inevitability of Intrusive Lawyer Marketing" and is written by Seth Katsuya Endo, Assistant Professor, University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law. It will be commented on by Rebecca Aviel, Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty Scholarship, University of Denver Sturm College of Law. The second article is entitled "The Color of Leadership in Public Interest Law" and is written by Atinuke (Tinu) Adediran, David and Pamela Donohue Assistant Professor, Boston College Law School. It will be commented on by Elizabeth Chambliss, Henry Harman Edens Professor of Law and Director of the NMRS Center on Professionalism, University of South Carolina School of Law. The panel will be moderated by Benjamin Edwards, Associate Professor of Law University of Nevada, Las Vegas, William S. Boyd School of Law.

Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting Professional Responsibility Section Events Today

Attending AALS? Today is jam-packed with excellent sessions, including the PR Section's Main Program:

2:45-4PM Eastern Section on Professional Responsibility Main Program: Legal and Judicial Ethics in the Post-#MeToo World

In 2016, the ABA amended Model Rule 8.4(g) clarifying that professional misconduct includes sexual harassment and discrimination, though few jurisdictions adopted this change, and some explicitly rejected it on First Amendment grounds. In 2019, the federal judiciary amended the Code of Conduct for U.S. Judges to address sexual misconduct, but some argue the reforms do not go far enough. Headlines regularly feature attorneys and judges involved in sexual misconduct, whether as bystanders, facilitators, or perpetrators. Panelists will discuss ethics as a means to address these issues. Jaime Santos, founder of Law Clerks for Workplace Accountability, will speak along with presenters selected from a competitive call for papers.

• Moderator Renee Knake Jefferson Joanne and Larry Doherty Chair in Legal Ethics, Professor of Law University of Houston Law Center
• Speaker Call for Papers Susan S. Fortney Professor of Law; Director, Program for the Advancement of Legal Ethics Texas A&M University School of Law
• Speaker Call for Papers Jon J. Lee Professor of Practice University of Minnesota Law School
• Speaker Call for Papers Samuel J. Levine Dir., Jewish Law Institute and Professor of Law Touro College, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center
• Speaker Jaime Santos, Partner Goodwin Procter

Other events of interest happening today include:

• Thursday 1/7 11-12:15PM Eastern Section on Leadership, Co-Sponsored by Professional Responsibility and Pro Bono & Public Service Opportunities: Never Let A Good Crisis Go To Waste; The Pedagogy of Leadership During Crisis—Student Engagement

• Thursday 1/7 1:15-2:30PM Eastern Hot Topic Program: Breaking News in U.S. Legal Regulatory Reform Was 2020 the year that changed the practice of law forever? This panel of experts in legal regulatory reform will discuss recent and upcoming changes in legal services regulation, including: The relationship between regulatory reform and access to justice; the status of regulatory reform efforts around the country and the driving forces of these changes; what we can we learn from legal regulation in other countries; the status of evaluation efforts; an update on efforts to eliminate the bar exam as a barrier to entry for the legal profession; and what these changes mean for the future of legal education.

• Thursday 1/7 4:15-5:30PM Eastern Author Meets Reader Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows Of the Supreme Court—A Conversation with Justice Goodwin Liu 
  Join California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin Liu along with the authors of the book Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court, Renee Knake Jefferson and Hannah Brenner Johnson, to hear the untold story of nine women considered for the Court before Sandra Day O'Connor became the first female Justice. The discussion will include lessons learned from this extraordinary history that can be applied today to address enduring gender disparity in positions of leadership and power, as well as observations about recent appointments to the Court. NYU Press is offering book purchasers a 30% discount + free shipping with code shortlisted30 here.
  

Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting Professional Responsibility Section Events Today

Greetings on Day One of AALS!

For those attending, hope you’ll make time today for the PR Section’s pedagogy program, which is new addition this year. Here’s the full description:

4:15-5:30PM Eastern. Section on Professional Responsibility: Bright Ideas and Best Practices for Online Teaching in Professional Responsibility Courses. This program features a panel of prominent professional responsibility scholars who will share bright ideas and best practices for teaching the topic online.

• Moderator Susan S. Fortney Professor of Law; Director, Program for the Advancement of Legal Ethics Texas A&M University School of Law
• Speaker Alberto Bernabe Professor UIC John Marshall Law School
• Speaker Susan D. Carle Professor of Law American University, Washington College of Law
• Peter Joy Henry Hitchcock Prof.; Vice Dean for Academic Affairs; Director, Criminal Justice Clinic Washington University in St. Louis School of Law
• Speaker Margaret C. Tarkington Professor of Law Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law

Other events co-sponsored by our Section happening today include:

• 2:45-5PM Eastern Section on Litigation, Co-Sponsored by Professional Responsibility: The Growth of Third-Party Litigation Finance: Opportunities and Challenges

And then please be sure to save time Thursday afternoon for other events, especially for our Section Main Program, as well as our final event of the week, Saturday’s Works-in-Progress Session.

• Thursday 1/7 11-12:15PM Eastern Section on Leadership, Co-Sponsored by Professional Responsibility and Pro Bono & Public Service Opportunities: Never Let A Good Crisis Go To Waste; The Pedagogy of Leadership During Crisis—Student Engagement

• Thursday 1/7 1:15-2:30PM Eastern Hot Topic Program: Breaking News in U.S. Legal Regulatory Reform 

• Thursday 1/7 2:45-4PM Eastern Section on Professional Responsibility Main Program: Legal and Judicial Ethics in the Post-#MeToo World

• Thursday 1/7 4:15-5:30PM Eastern Author Meets Reader Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows Of the Supreme Court—A Conversation with Justice Goodwin Liu Special update: one of the women profiled in Shortlisted is Judge Joan Dempsey Klein, who passed away on December 24, 2020, at the age of 96. This session will now include a tribute to her in addition to the discussion planned.

• Saturday 1/9 4:15-5:30PM Eastern Section on Professional Responsibility: Works-In-Progress Workshop

To join the conference, you need to have already registered at AALS.org, then create a profile for eventpower.com via the personalized link sent by email in order to access the main event website: https://event-app.eventpower.com/event_app/user/login/21AALS If you have problems, this contact is great for help: [email protected]