Received document entitled: LETTER BRIEF

This book goes beyond the rules in teaching students the subtle differences between proper and improper conduct. The book’s balanced and engaging mix of materials supports its comprehensive coverage of professional responsibility issues. Refined through years of classroom use, this casebook offers: condensed coverage of professional responsibility issues in less space (about 120 pages shorter than the regular 10th edition); well-balanced mix of cases, secondary sources, timely materials (often drawn from recent headlines), engaging problems, and challenging notes; discussion beyond the rules and from different perspectives, to recognize that the law is not necessarily self-evident and covers many subtleties; excellent case selection; realistic, helpful, and abundant problems, many based on actual events, that facilitate class discussion and enable students to understand the rules and regulations that will govern their professional behavior; detailed notes which provide in-depth treatment of the issues; high-profile author (Gillers is a highly visible and recognized national authority on professional responsibility); and an accessible and engaging style which is characterized by variety, clarity, and humor.

How do lawyers resolve ethical dilemmas in the everyday context of their practice? What are the issues that commonly arise, and how do lawyers determine the best ways to resolve them? Until recently, efforts to answer these questions have focused primarily on rules and legal doctrine rather than the real-life situations lawyers face in legal practice. The first book to present empirical research on ethical decision making in a variety of practice contexts, including corporate litigation, securities, immigration, and divorce law, Lawyers in Practice fills a substantial gap in the existing literature. Following an introduction emphasizing the increasing importance of understanding context in the legal profession, contributions focus on ethical dilemmas ranging from relatively narrow ethical issues to broader problems of professionalism, including the prosecutor’s obligation to disclose evidence, the management of conflicts of interest, and loyalty to clients and the court. Each chapter details the resolution of a dilemma from the practitioner’s point of view that is, in turn, set within a particular community of practice. Timely and practical, this book should be required reading for law students as well as students and scholars of law and society.