Professional Responsibility

Saturday mornings (except as otherwise notified)

September 20, 2025 – December 13, 2025 ~ 16:30 – 19:30 (Moscow time)

Professor Valeria Natsvina

Course Objectives

In this class, we will be studying the “law of lawyering” – the rules that govern the practice of law and establish professional responsibility for lawyers.Although often referred to as “legal ethics”, this course is not primarily about ethical questions of right and wrong or the fundamental bases of morality. What we will study are the methods of exploring ethical questions that are peculiar to the practice of law: using professional conduct canons, codes and rules, as well as case law, in order to resolve complex issues that often arise in legal practice. An understanding of lawyers’ professional responsibilities is perhaps the only legal knowledge a lawyer is likely to draw upon every day in his or her legal practice. The focus of this course is on the specific provisions controlling lawyers’ behavior within private legal practice; we will examine issues such as “proper” lawyer-client relationships, advertising and solicitation of legal services, handling of client’s confidential information and conflicts of interest. In considering these issues, we will often encounter “gray areas” where we will grapple with existing provisions and explore our own perceptions and beliefs, developing a better understanding of the current scope of law governing the legal profession, as well as our own expectations of professional behavior for lawyers regardless of applicable regulation.

While we will be focusing on U.S. conceptions of lawyers’ professional responsibility. However, as we study the rules applicable to U.S. lawyers, you will be encouraged to consider a comparative analysis of the legal profession in Russia and elsewhere, including proposals for reform and development. One of the main purposes of this course is to prepare you for interactions with lawyers practicing pursuant to regulation and rules different than your own; even if you never practice law outside of Russia, the mandatory rules covered in this class may affect you in other ways (for example, if you work in a global law firm, your actions may have consequences for the firm; and, if you work with foreign lawyers inany capacity, you may benefit from understanding the professional obligations those lawyers face).

COURSE MATERIALS:

Textbook: Professional Responsibility for Lawyers – Cases & Commentary on U.S. Practice (to be provided) Philip W. Webb, editor
Additional Materials: ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct Model Rules of Professional Conduct - Table of Contents

Other materials will be provided during the semester.

GRADING SYSTEM

Class Participation – 15%

Mid-Term Paper– 35%

Final Exam – 50%

CLASS PARTICIPATION:

Memorizing rule provisions or stated principles will not enable you to effectively solve ethical problems in your legal practice. To develop consistent professional behavior incomplex ethical situations and circumstances, you must understand the policies and reasoning underlying these rules andprinciples.
Throughout this course, we will beusing the Socratic method. This means that your contribution to classroom discussion is an essential part of the learning process for all students. Regular attendance and active class participation are mandatory. Full credit for class participation will be given only for punctual (students must join the class on time in order to receive full credit), thoroughly prepared and active participation. In addition, attendance of at least 3/4 of all class meetings is required (i.e., students are permitted to miss no more than 3 classes).

For each class, students will beexpected to have read the materials assigned and be prepared to discuss the issues raised in the assigned materials. From time to time, short written assignments will also be given, and completion of those assignments will count toward your participation grade.

MID-TERM EXAM:

Half-way through the course, you will be asked to prepare typed, written paper in response to exam-style essay questions that relate primarily to the issues covered in the first half of the course. In preparing your responses, you will be permitted to use any materials and discuss issues with other students in the class, but your paper must beyour own work andinclude proper citation of anyoutside sources. According to the current syllabus, the mid-term paper/exam topic will beassigned by October 29th and is due no later than 20:00, November 11th.

Any late paper will have 10 points (10% ) deducted for each day (24-hr. period) it is late.

FINAL EXAM:

A three-hour final exam will be administered at the end of the course. The final exam will be “open-book” – meaning you will be allowed to use reference materials while taking the exam. The exact format and details of the exam will be announced later in the course.

SYLLABUS

Below is a brief description of the topics and readings to be covered in each class. From time to time, this syllabus may be amended and supplemented with additional materials – articles, cases or other information that may be useful to consider in our examination of professional responsibility for lawyers.Students must be attentive to any such developments and review the most recently updated syllabus and course materials.

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