Author Description

The 2012 Edition of the ABA Compendium of Professional Responsibility Rules and Standards gathers together for immediate reference the essential legal ethics materials needed by lawyers and judges in their daily practice, law students in their exploration of the standards of their new profession, and legal scholars in their analysis of the changing currents that influence professional regulation. The first section of the Compendium presents models for ethical and professional conduct and standards for enforcing that conduct that have been developed by the American Bar Association. These models have been used as the foundation for most state regulations and as interpretive guidance for the courts in their resolution of professional responsibility issues. Despite the local variations in the way they have been adopted (occasionally significant), they serve to familiarize the reader with the philosophy of lawyer regulation and can be used to initiate review of substantive issues unfamiliar to the lawyer, student or scholar. In addition, the Compendium contains a selection of federal Rules and Standards that are commonly needed in the general practice of law, and in practice before the SEC and IRS, and that impact upon a number of ethical rules of conduct, such as the rules regarding competence and meritorious claims and contentions. Information on the composition, jurisdiction and procedures of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility is included to explain how ABA ethics rules are formulated and interpreted. In addition, seven of the Committee's Formal Ethics Opinions that address important areas of lawyer conduct have been included.