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Legal Ethics Research - Getting Started
Specialized Research #3 - Dorraine Zief Law Library Handout
Contents
A Word About Lexis & Westlaw
This guide mentions
and links to various Lexis and Westlaw resources. The Zief Law Library's contracts
with Lexis and Westlaw limit our use of Lexis and Westlaw to current students,
faculty, and staff members of the University of San Francisco School of Law.
For information about who may use Lexis and Westlaw, how to arrange your own
subscription, and how to connect to Lexis and Westlaw via the Web, see the USF
Law Library's introduction to Lexis and Westlaw.
Authorized users
who follow a link to a Lexis or Westlaw resource will first need to sign on
to Lexis or Westlaw before coming to the search page for that resource.
[Return to Contents]
General Background
The following
are suggested sources that provide overviews of the law of professional responsibility,
and citations (or links) to primary materials, such as major statutes, rules,
and cases.
-
Hazard, Geoffrey C. & W. William Hodes, The Law of Lawyering,
3d ed. (Gaithersburg: Aspen Law & Business, c2001- ). Call number:
KF 306 .H33 2000 Law Stacks.
-
"Manual" volumes of the multi-volume ABA⁄BNA Lawyers'
Manual on Professional Conduct ([Washington, D.C.]: American Bar Association
and the Bureau of National Affairs, c1984- ). Call number: KF 305.A8 A23 1984
Law Open Reserve
The ABA⁄BNA
Lawyers' Manual on Professional Conduct is also available online.
(Remote access instructions. Access for USF law students,
law faculty and law staff.) The online "Practice Guides" section
is the equivalent of the "Manual" volumes.
-
FindLaw's
Ethics and Professional Responsibility Law resources (http://findlaw.com/01topics/14ethics/).
Links to rules, publications, discussion groups, agencies, and web sites.
-
Cornell's American Legal Ethics Library
(http://www.law.cornell.edu/ethics/). Links to state rules and ethics opinions.
-
Wolfram, Charles W., Modern Legal Ethics (St. Paul, Minn.: West Pub.
Co., c1986). Call numbers: Student edition KF 306 .W59 1986b Law Open Reserve; Practitioner
edition KF 306 .W59 1986 Law Open Reserve.
-
Vapnek, Paul W., California Practice Guide : Professional Responsibility
(Encino, Calif.: Rutter Group, c1997- ). Call number: KFC 76.5 .A2
V376 Law Stacks. (Also on Westlaw as the
Rutter Group, The - California Practice Guide: Professional Responsibility (TRG-CAPROFR)
database.)
-
Volume 1 ("Attorneys") of: Witkin, B. E. (Bernard Ernest), California
Procedure, 4th ed. (San Francisco, Calif. : Bancroft-Whitney, 1996- ).
Call number: KFC 995.W52 1996 Law Reserve & KFC 995.W52 1996 Law Stacks.
California Procedure is on Lexis as the source Witkin
California Procedure (CAL;WITPRO) and on Westlaw as the database
California Procedure (WITPROC).
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Topic Ideas & Current Issues
Browse or search the following sources to get an idea of what issues are currently being debated.
-
Most recent "Current Reports" volume of ABA⁄BNA Lawyers' Manual
on Professional Conduct (call number: KF 305.A8 A23 1984 Law Open Reserve),
for the latest developments in the area.
The "Current Reports" are available in the online
ABA⁄BNA Lawyers' Manual on
Professional Conduct. (Remote access instructions.)
-
Legal Ethics Forum
(http://www.legalethicsforum.com/). A blog by ethics experts covering new developments
in ethics and professional responsibility. Also links to other ethics sites and blogs.
-
Legalethics.com (http://www.legalethics.com/).
A respected blog "focused on ethical issues associated with the use of technology
by legal professionals."
-
ABA Journal. Many issues contain a brief column on an ethical issue or
problem. Call number K 1 .B2 Law Stacks.
USF law students may also search Lexis or Westlaw to retrieve columns from the ABA
Journal:
Lexis — Source:
ABA Journal (Short source name: ABA;ABAJNL). Follow this path in the
"Legal" tab of the "Look for a Source" directory: Secondary
Legal > Law Reviews & Journals > ABA Journals > ABA Journal.
To retrieve all ethics columns, search: section(ethics or "professional
conduct").
You may also add date restrictions and key terms, e.g.,
section(ethics or "professional conduct") and date aft 2005
or
section(ethics or "professional conduct") and confidential!
or privilege*
Westlaw —
ABA Journal (ABAJ) database
To retrieve all "Ethics" columns, search: prelim(ethics or
"professional conduct").
You may also
add date restrictions and key terms, e.g.,
prelim(ethics or "professional conduct") and date(after 2005)
or
prelimn(ethics or "professional conduct") and confidential!
or privilege*
-
For more in-depth, scholarly articles, recent issues of: Georgetown Journal
of Legal Ethics (Call number: K 7 .E47 Law Stacks); Journal
of the Legal Profession (K 10 .O731 Law Stacks); Notre Dame
Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy (K 14 .O86 Law Stacks).
USF law students may also search recent volumes of these journals on Lexis or Westlaw:
Lexis — Sources:
Georgetown
Journal of Legal Ethics (LAWREV;GJNLE). Coverage: from vol. 9 (Winter
1998) to the present.
The Journal of the Legal Profession (LAWREV;JLPROF). Coverage: from
vol. 19 (1995) to the present.
Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy (LAWREV;NTDJLEPP).
Coverage: from vol. 10 (October 1996) to the present.
Westlaw — Databases:
Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics (GEOJLE). Selected coverage: from
vol. 1 (1987). Full coverage: from vol. 7 (1994) to the present.
The Journal of the Legal Profession (JLEGPRO). Selected coverage: from
vol. 16 (1991). Full coverage: from vol. 18 (1993) to the present.
Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy (NTDJLEPP). Selected
coverage: from vol. 5 (1990). Full coverage: from vol. 8 (1994) to the present.
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California Rules of Professional Conduct & Statues
The State
Bar of California (http://www.calbar.ca.gov/) offers the
Rules of Professional Conduct and related rules and statutes on the
Ethics Information portion of site. This site includes
Publication 250 which contains all of the Rules of Professional Conduct, plus
other selected rules and regulations related
to the practice of law. (Statutes regulating California attorneys are also in the annotated codes.)
Annotated rules are included in West's and Deering's annotated code sets.
-
West's Annotated California Codes. (Call number: KFC 30.5 .W4 Law Stacks.)
The Rules of Professional Conduct are at page 181 of the "Court Rules - State Bar"
volume (vol. 23, part 5), shelved between the Code of Civil Procedure and the Commercial Code.
West's Annotated California Codes are on Westlaw as the
California Statutes - Annotated (CA-ST-ANN) database.
To restrict your search to the Rules, add the following to your other search
terms: and prelim("rules of professional conduct")
-
Deerings California Codes Annotated. (Call number: KFC 30.5 .D4 Law Stacks.)
The Rules are in the "Rules of Court: State Bar Rules" volume at page 3.
Deerings California Codes Annotated. are on Lexis in the source
Deering's California Codes Annotated, Court Rules, and ALS, Comb. (CAL;CACODE).
To restrict your search to the Rules, add the following to your other search
terms: and heading("rules of professional conduct")
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ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct
The ABA's Center for Professional Responsibility
site includes the Model
Rules (with comments) at http://www.abanet.org/cpr/mrpc/model_rules.html.
For print sources:
ABA Compendium of Professional Responsibility Rules and Standards, 2006 ed.
(Chicago, Ill.: American Bar Association, c2006). Call number: KF 305 .A21 2006
Law Open Reserve. Annotated Model Rules of Professional Conduct, 5th ed.
(Chicago, IL: Center for Professional Responsibility, American Bar Association, 2003).
Call number: KF 305 .A2 2003 Law Open Reserve.
The Model Rules are also reprinted in the front of the "Manual" volume of the ABA⁄BNA
Lawyers' Manual on Professional Conduct. (Call number: KF 305.A8 A23
1984. Law Open Reserve.)
The Model Rules are in the online
ABA⁄BNA Lawyers' Manual on Professional Conduct. (Remote
access instructions.) The "Ethics Rules" section contains the ABA Model Rules.
For a "legislative history" of the Model Rules, see:
A Legislative History: The Development of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, 1982-2005 (Chicago: Center for Professional Responsibility, American Bar Association, c2006). Call number:
KF 306 .L453 2006 Law Stacks.
[Return to Contents]
Books
To find books on legal ethics, professional conduct, and the regulation of attorneys, try
searching by "Subject" in Ignacio,
the USF online catalog. Some useful subjects are listed below. For more advice,
see a reference librarian, or call 415-422-6773.
[Return to Contents]
Law Review Articles
Two especially comprehensive resources for finding citations to law review articles are LegalTrac⁄Legal
Resource Index or Index to Legal Periodicals.
LegalTrac⁄Legal Resource Index
LegalTrac
is available via workstations in the library and on the web (for current USF
students, faculty, and staff only) via the link at http://www.usfca.edu/library/databases/legaltrac.html.
USF law students may use Legal Resource Index on Lexis or Westlaw. The Lexis source
is
Legal Resource Index (LAWREV;LGLIND). The Westlaw database is
Legal Resource Index (LRI).
Try these subjects as search terms in LegalTrac⁄Legal Resource Index. For more advice, see
a reference librarian or call 415-422-6773.
- Ambulance Chasing
- Attorney and Client
- Attorneys - Malpractice
- Attorneys - Moral and Ethical Aspects
- Barratry
- Client Security Funds
- Clients' Funds
- Confidential Communications - Attorneys
- Conflict of Interest - Attorneys
- Judges - Discipline
- Judicial Corruption
- Judicial Ethics
- Legal Ethics
- Legal Etiquette
- Maintenance and Champerty
- Multidisciplinary Law Firms
- Unauthorized Practice of Law
Use the following templates for searching Legal Resource Index by subject on Lexis
and Westlaw
Lexis's Legal
Resource Index source — sample searches:
term("attorney and client")
or
term("confidential communications attorneys")
These searches may be combined with other key terms or date or geographic restrictions, e.g.,
term("legal
ethics") and jurisdiction(california) and date aft 2005
or
term("confidential communications attorneys") and email or e-mail
Westlaw's
Legal Resource Index (LRI) database — sample searches:
index("attorney and client")
or
index("confidential communications attorneys")
These searches may be combined with other key terms or date or geographic restrictions, e.g.,
index("legal ethics") and summary(california) and date(after 2005)
or
index("confidential communications attorneys") and e-mail
Index to Legal Periodicals
Index to Legal Periodicals ("ILP") is available in print at K33 .I54
Law Reference.
Index to Legal Periodicals is also available via workstations
in the law library and on the web (for current USF students, faculty, and staff
only) via the link at http://www.usfca.edu/library/databases/legalindex.html.
USF law students may use Index to Legal Periodicals on Lexis or Westlaw. The Lexis
source is
Index to Legal Periodicals (LAWREV;ILP). The Westlaw database is
Index to Legal Periodicals (ILP).
Try these subjects as search terms on Index to Legal Periodicals. For more advice,
see a reference librarian or call 415-422-6773.
- Admission to the Bar
- Attorney Advertising
- Attorney-Client Privilege
- Attorneys
- Attorneys' Fees
- Champerty and Maintenance
- Ethics
- Law Firms
- Law Office Management
- Legal Ethics
- Legal Malpractice
- Legal Profession
- Prosecutorial Misconduct
- Unauthorized Practice of Law
Use the following templates for searching Index to Legal Periodicals by subject on
Lexis and Westlaw
Lexis's Index
to Legal Periodicals source — sample searches:
descriptors("legal ethics")
or
descriptors("attorney client privilege")
These searches may be combined with other key terms or date or geographic restrictions, e.g.,
descriptors("legal
ethics") and calif! and date aft 2005
or
descriptors("attorney client privilege") and email or e-mail
Westlaw's
Index to Legal Periodicals (ILP)
database — sample searches:
index("legal ethics")
or
index("attorney client privilege")
These searches may be combined with other key terms or date or geographic restrictions, e.g.,
index("legal ethics") and calif! and date(after 2005)
or
index("confidential communications attorneys") and e-mail
[Return to Contents]
Ethics Opinions
See the USF law library research guide Finding Ethics Opinions
for advice on finding ABA and state ethics opinions.
[Return to Contents]
Additional Research Guides
For a short guide to legal ethics research, see:
-
Peoples, Lee F., Legal Ethics: A Legal Research Guide (Buffalo, NY: W.S.
Hein & Co., c2006). Call number: KF 306 .G73 2006 Law Stacks
There are brief bibliographies lists of relevant books and articles) at the end of
almost every chapter of the "Manual" volume of ABA⁄BNA Lawyers'
Manual on Professional Conduct (Call number: KF 305.A8 A23 1984 Law Open Reserve).
In the online ABA⁄BNA Lawyers'
Manual on Professional Conduct (remote access instructions),
these bibliographies are in the "Practice Guides" section.
[Return to Contents]
Go to Law Library Research Guides
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