The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.

An unprecedented plunge into New York City's federal court system that gives us a revelatory picture of how our justice system, and the pursuit of justice, really works. A young Italian Mafioso helps get rid of a body in Queens. In Manhattan, a hedge fund portfolio manager misrepresents his company's assets to investors. At JFK International Airport, a college student returns from Jamaica with cocaine stuffed in the handle of her suitcase. These are just a few of the stories that come to life in this comprehensive look at the Southern District Court in Manhattan, and the Eastern District Court in Brooklyn--the two federal courts tasked with maintaining order in New York City. Johnny Dwyer takes us not just into the courtrooms but into the lives of those who enter through its doors: the judges and attorneys, prosecutors and defendants, winners and losers. He examines crimes we've read about in the papers or seen in movies and on television--organized crime, terrorism, drug trafficking, corruption, and white-collar crime--and weaves in the nuances that rarely make it into headlines. Brimming with detail and drama, The Districts illuminates the meaning of intent, of reasonable doubt, of deception, and--perhaps most important of all--of justice.

As one participant in the litigation noted, the controversy surrounding the Dalkon Shield constitutes the "largest product liability medical malpractice group of cases in 20th century America." This volume brings together the many complex facts of the Dalkon Shield story and the decade of litigation into a manageable, readable format. At the same time, Bacigal considers the role that a trial judge plays in such complex litigation. The traditional notion of detached and neutral judges seems inappropriate in resolving a legal dispute that involved hundreds of thousands of victims in a common disaster. The judicial roles played by Judge Lord and Judge Merhige have received both considerable praise and criticism from legal scholars and the general public. This volume goes beyond existing volumes dealing with the Dalkon Shield cases because it includes the bankruptcy proceedings. By "completing the story," Bacigal provides an overview of the controversy from the creation of the shield through the completion of the litigation, thus evaluating the legal and pragmatic difficulties encountered in utilizing bankruptcy as a means of resolving mass tort litigation.