Teaching attorney advertising? This clip from attorney Stephen L. Snyder is a great conversation-starter. You might show it immediately before or after discussing Matter of Zang, page 201. “Wherever justice and large jury awards are needed, Snyderman won’t be far away!”
Ever since I began teaching Professional Responsibility several years ago I’ve suggested to my students that they have an implicit ethical duty to consider how technology plays a role in their law practice. (Indeed, a student of mine published her recommendation that the Model Rules incorporate a duty to keep abreast of technology advances in the Professional Lawyer in 2010—take a look here.)
The ABA recently incorporated this obligation explicitly into the comments accompanying Model Rule 1.1 Competence. Comment 8 now provides:
To maintain the requisite knowledge and skill, a lawyer should keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology, engage in continuing study and education and comply with all continuing legal education requirements to which the lawyer is subject.
In the spirit of the ABA’s recognition of the importance of technology to law practice, we will be revising Chapter 3 of the casebook to cover not only finding and billing clients, but more broadly the business, technology, and marketing of legal services. Everything that current adopters appreciate about the existing Chapter 3 will remain, but we are shortening some of the excerpted cases and articles to make room for new content addressing ways lawyers can leverage technology in delivering legal services and in reaching clients. Possible topics may include virtual law practice, use of social media tools, cloud computing, and links to innovative examples of technology and law. We welcome your feedback about this change. Do you agree that technology should be addressed in this way within the casebook? What other information about technology would you like to see in the casebook or in the teacher’s manual?
As a supplement to materials on the special role of judges in Chapter 7, I show this Nightline clip on Don Blankenship’s role in the Massey Coal case and the profile on Greg Wersal from Duke Law’s film on White v. Republican Party of Minnesota. For videos I show with the material on special duties of prosecutors, see this post.
This PDF contains my slides from teaching the duty of competence, allocating the decision-making between the lawyer/client, finding and billing clients, the duty of confidentiality, and part of conflicts of interests. More to come soon! Knake PR Slides Classes 4-12
This Chapter 3 ABA Revisions Memo lists updates to Chapter 3 based upon revisions to the ABA Model Rules that recently became effective.
If you’re teaching Chapter 3 on Finding & Billing Clients, you (and your students) might enjoy these resources:
1. Here is an ad from Alexander & Catalano, complete with the “wisps of smoke, blue electrical currents, and special effects” described by Judge Calabresi in Alexander v. Cahill on page 223 of the casebook. (Click the image to play the ad). 
2. This video clip, just out from the recently-formed, British-based law firm (and ABS–alternative business structure–ala the UK’s Legal Services Act) Riverview Law, spoofs the hourly rate. Riverview operates on a model of exclusively fixed-fee pricing. (Click the image to play the clip).
3. Vivia Chen asks whether hourly billings are making lawyers anxious and depressed in this July 2012 article in The Careerist.
4. If you don’t know about LawZam yet, check this out…the new lawyer-finding service has been compared to online speed dating. (Click the image to play a promo video).
By Renee Knake
Here is my syllabus along with PowerPoint slides for the first three classes I’ve taught this semester. Feel free to use any of my materials that might be helpful in your teaching, though I ask if you publish them in some form, please give credit to the source. (And keep checking back for more slides; I’ll add them as I move through the casebook this semester.)
Syllabus: Knake PR Fall 2012
PowerPoint Slides:
Professional Responsibility: A Contemporary Approach 