Legal Ethics
Academics Give Bad Advice for the Right Price, Angry Law Prof Says
Posted May 30, 2008, 09:58 am CST
By Martha Neil
In a highly unusual upcoming Stanford Law Review article, an angry academic criticizes colleagues by name for allegedly giving bad legal advice when the price is right.
"The Market for Bad Legal Advice," a "take-no-prisoners" article by Columbia Law School professor William Simon, criticizes noted academics as "enablers of pernicious ... practices," intending to publicly shame them for their bad behavior, reports Fortune.
Legal ethics expert Stephen Gillers of New York University, who is not among those criticized for their work as writers of opinion letters and expert witnesses, tells the magazine he hasn't seen another article like it in 30 years as a law professor. "It's unique for law professors to so aggressively criticize the behavior of other law professors—not their intellectual positions," he says. "This is about character and integrity."
For specific examples of those criticized by Simon, read the complete Fortune article.
Smith's article does not yet appear to have been posted on the Stanford Law Review site. However a December draft of the article (PDF) is provided by the Social Science Research Network.
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