Professional Responsibility

This unique professional responsibility textbook is focused upon the practical and ethical challenges of representing modern business organizations. All topics are organized around problems that require the exercise of sophisticated professional judgment. While the text covers the ethical standards addressed in typical professional responsibility courses, it also gives particular attention to the increasingly important interaction of ethical rules and other sources of law that define the lawyer's duties in representing business organizations in an increasingly complex world. In addition, the book serves as the first major casebook that can be used for a course on in-house legal practice, which one of the authors has taught for fifteen years. Chapters that can be used in such a course include those that cover communicating outside the company, dealing with employees and auditors, shareholder derivative demands, whistleblowers, multinational regulation, employment rights of inside counsel, overseeing the defense of criminal investigations, selection of outside counsel, and other topics. A detailed Teacher's Manual provides guidance on how to organize and teach the material in a two- or three-credit course, as well as instruction on how to use a hands-on exercise organized as a moot board meeting as the basis for the final exam. The book is co-authored by a nationally recognized litigator who is experienced in legal ethics and a leading scholar in the field.