LAW5 687 - Lawyers and Justice: Ethics in Public Interest Lawyering

This seminar focuses on how ethical and moral considerations intersect with the practice and theory of law. Several categories of lawyering are covered, including “impact,” or class-action litigation in which lawyers seek to alter social and/or economic relations through test cases; government lawyering, where the relationship between policy and law is inextricable; lawyering for specific status groups, such as women or the poor; and legal services lawyering, which typically involves the representation of indigent clients. Using legal, historical, sociological, and philosophical readings as points of departure, the seminar explores questions such as: Whose conception of justice should control decision-making in public interest lawyering? How should cause lawyering be defined? What models of lawyering are most appropriate for advancing particular social causes? Who is the client in class-action litigation? How should inadequate representation be defined in the context of public interest law?

Credits: 3