This course examines the ethical and legal responsibilities of lawyers. We will focus on the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and Wisconsin’s Rules of Professional Conduct for Attorneys, but we will also study other sources of professional responsibilities, including judicial decisions, rules of civil procedure, the U.S. Constitution, and morality itself. We will cover topics such as lawyer fees and access to justice, paternalism and the allocation of authority between lawyer and client, conflicts of interest, confidentiality, zealous advocacy, and judicial conduct.

No matter what kind of law you practice and in what setting, the topic of this course will be relevant to your professional life. You will learn to recognize ethical problems that commonly arise in legal practice and will develop tools for addressing them.