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.