Code of Silence

To read the literature on professional responsibility is to inhabit a world focused on what is said explicitly about what it means to be a lawyer: the aspirations of the canons, the commands of the Model Rules of Professional Responsibility, the clarifications of court and ethics opinions, and the guidance of the Restatement. However, it often neglects what is not said: spaces where silence reigns. This Article takes a different approach; it listens to the taciturn. This Article draws insight… Read More

The Uncertain Path of Class Action Law

For the past ten terms the Supreme Court has increased its focus on the law of class actions. In doing so, the Court has revised the law to better accord with a view of the class action as an exception to an idealized picture of litigation. This “exceptional” view of the class action has had a profound impact not only on class action law, but on procedural and substantive law in general. However, in the October 2015 term the Court… Read More

Civil RICO: An Effective Deterrent to Fraudulent Asbestos Litigation?

In January 2014, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge George Hodges, presiding over the asbestos-related bankruptcy of Garlock Sealing Technologies, LLC, a manufacturer of gaskets containing asbestos, issued an order estimating Garlock’s liability for pending and future mesothelioma cases.

The Courtroom Turned Classroom: A Model Procedure for Educating the Gatekeepers of Expert Evidence in Complex Toxic Tort Cases

During his State of the State Address shortly after taking office, Missouri Governor Eric Greitens discussed some of the problems in Missouri’s judicial system that he believed contributed to its classification as “the worst judicial hellhole in America.” Governor Greitens promised to address these problems, which he claimed were driving businesses and jobs out of the state. One critical step, according to his proposal, was to adopt the Daubert standard for expert witness testimony.

The SEC’s Part 205.3(d)(2) and Wadler v. Bio-Rad Labs. Should Be Revisited: The SEC Exceeded Authority in Creating a Reporting Out Provision for In-House Attorneys

Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 in response to corporate and accounting scandals, including those at Enron and WorldCom. When the fraud and accounting scandals came to light, the share prices of these companies plummeted, costing investors billions of dollars. The rules the Sarbanes-Oxley Act directed were not limited to those addressing accounting practices. Some provisions were aimed at attorney practices.

Are Police Obsolete? Breaking Cycles of Violence Through Abolition Democracy

There is a pressing need for alternatives to policing, but to meet that need, we must also lower the perceived need for police themselves. This may mean decriminalizing some or all drugs and re-framing addiction as a public health issue. It may mean intervening in cycles of violence through strategic work informed by epidemiology.

Pretext and Justification: Republicanism, Policing, and Race

This Article reveals why policing reform cannot be achieved by piecemeal alteration of case law or even by focusing on doctrinal law alone. First, the Article makes clear why the racial harms of contemporary policing are borne by individual persons of color, unravel communities of color, and change the very social meaning of race.

Defending White Space

Self-defense evolved to protect the right of White men to defend their bodies, homes, families, and honor. Against this tilted backdrop, state legislatures strengthened and expanded the private right of self-defense by adding presumptions that relax its basic substantive requirements and alter the common law procedural approach to insulate more cases from judicial scrutiny.

Re-Examining Custody and Incarceration Requirements in Postconviction DNA Testing Statutes

Removing incarceration requirements from PC DNA statutes would increase access to justice while likely implicating none of the rationales often espoused for limiting the availability of PC DNA testing: state repose, victim closure, and judicial or prosecutorial costs. In fact, it may actually save jurisdictions money to remove exonerees from state sex offender registries, especially if the actual culprits are already in the registries for other sexual offenses.