Professional Responsibility & Legal Ethics

Professional Responsibility is a required upper division course at Catholic University School of Law.  Professional Responsibility is also tested in most jurisdictions using the Multi-state Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE), which is administered separately from the rest of the bar exam (in the Spring, the Summer and the Fall).

The key to understanding how to research legal ethics is recognizing that most roads lead to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct (MRPC).  The overwhelming majority of the literature in this area is structured to some extent on the MRPC.  This simple statement, connecting the literature to the rules, can greatly help the researcher understand where and how to begin their research since it implies a ready-made methodology for approaching this subject.

Perhaps one of the most misunderstood resources by researchers are the ALI's Restatements.  To many they appear to fall in that grey area; somewhere between the mandatory authority of primary materials, and the persuasive authority of secondary sources.  The publication of the Restatement Third of the Law Governing Lawyers in 2000 was the American Law Institute’s first attempt to clarify and synthesize the current state of the law in this area, and is now considered an essential resource in legal ethics.  The Restatements are available on Westlaw Edge and Lexis+, in addition to the traditional hard-copy versions.  Additionally, HeinOnline provides access to the various drafts created in the Restatement drafting process.