LibGuides: Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility for Lawyers: ABA Model Standards

Introduction

Beginning with the 1908 Canons of Ethics, the American Bar Association has provided ethics guidance through the adoption of professional standards. Since that time, the standards have gone through two subsequent versions. In 1969, the Canons of Ethics were replaced by the Model Code of Professional Responsibility, and thereafter by the Model Rules of Professional Conduct in 1983. [1]

The ABA model standards themselves are not enforceable; however, almost every state court has adopted a form of the model standards (codes or rules). Most states have adopted the format of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct.

[1] American Bar Association Center for Professional Responsibility, ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, http://www.abanet.org/cpr/mrpc/model_rules.html (last visited December October 2, 2011)

Online Sources

ABA Center for Professional Responsibility This link opens in a new window
ABA/Bloomberg Law Lawyers' Manual on Professional Conduct This link opens in a new window

Manual on Professional Conduct archive
for pre-2000 MOPC,. Link goes to Bloomberg Law. Best to log into Bloomberg Law before using link.

Lexis This link opens in a new window
Westlaw This link opens in a new window

Print Sources

ABA compendium of professional responsibility rules and standards. by Center for Professional Responsibility (American Bar Association)
Call Number: lrsv KF305 .A3
Annotated Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Tenth Edition by Ellen J. Bennett (Editor); Helen W. Gunnarsson (Editor); Nancy G. Kisicki (Editor)
Call Number: lrsv KF305 .A2
ISBN: 9781639052882
An essential resource on lawyer ethics - revised and updated: The Annotated Model Rules of Professional Conduct is the ABA's definitive single-volume resource for information about how courts, disciplinary bodies, and ethics committees apply the lawyer ethics rules. This includes a discussion of ethics issues relating to remote work, virtual law practice, fees paid in cryptocurrency, and recent efforts by some states to allow limited practice by nonlawyers. Comprehensive and authoritative: Each chapter begins with the rule and its comment, a link to charts comparing each state's rule with the Model Rule, and then presents a detailed discussion of how the rule has been applied. The book gives citations to thousands of court cases, ethics opinions, law review articles, and internet resources, as well as treatises, the Restatement (3rd) of the Law Governing Lawyers, and the legislative history of the Model Rules. For all jurisdictions and practice settings: All state jurisdictions base their ethics rules on the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Most federal courts use a variant of either the Model Rules or the home state's version of the Model Rules as the basis for lawyer discipline. Most specialty tribunals exercising their own disciplinary powers also look to the ethics rules, whether or not they have formally adopted them. State and federal courts constantly turn to the ethics rules when deciding disqualification motions, motions for sanctions, motions to suppress, motions to quash, and disputes over fees and fee division, discovery, class certification, and pro hac vice admission status. Suits involving lawyer malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty now routinely invoke the ethics rules, sometimes even in the jury instructions.
Model Rules of Professional Conduct by Center for Professional Responsibility (American Bar Association)
Call Number: KF306 .A4
Current print edition on Reserve. Older editions in Law Main
Professional Responsibility Standards, Rules and Statutes by John S. Dzienkowski
Call Number: KF305.A29 S45 Law Reserve
ISBN: 0314179801
Includes the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, the Model Code of Professional Responsibility and the Model Code of Judicial Conduct.
Regulation of Lawyers: Statutes and Standards by Stephen Gillers and Roy D. Simon
Call Number: KF306.A4 G554 Law Reserve
ISBN: 0735590567
Includes the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, the Model Code of Professional Responsibility and the Model Code of Judicial Conduct. Also includes commentary, legislative history, and selected state standards. The library keeps the current edition on reserve and previous editions in the classified section.