Legal Malpractice and Ethics Bibliography

TLIE provides a subjective list of major legal malpractice and legal ethics publications. If you have any suggestions for additional legal malpractice publications that should be listed, please contact us.

Books

The ABA has a number of books relating to legal malpractice issues. They include:

• Lawyer's Desk Guide to Legal Malpractice: This book includes practical ideas and form for avoiding legal malpractice
• Lawyer's Professional Liability Update: A compilation of articles presented at semi-annual conferences sponsored by the ABA Lawyers' Professional Liability Subcommittee.
• Profile of Legal Malpractice Claims 2004-2007: Legal malpractice claims data from insurance carriers across the United States and Canada.

These publications and ordering information are described at www.abanet.org/legalservices/lpl/publications.html.

A Practical Guide to Achieving Excellence in the Practice of Law: Standards, Methods, and Self-Evaluation (American Law Institute-American Bar Association Committee on Continuing Professional Education 1992). This is an excellent indepth analysis of ways attorneys can create and maintain a quality practice. There are exhaustive checklists included. A shorter companion book, Skills and Ethics in the Practice of Law, is intended for lawyer training programs and law schools. Professor Nancy Moore at Rutgers and Professor Michele S. G. Hermann are the primary reporters on this work. Professor Moore is often seen on the ethics maillist.

Hazard & Hodes, The Law of Lawyering: A Handbook on the Model Rules of Professional Conduct (2 vols., Prentice Hall Law & Business 1994 with supplement). A definitive work. Professor Hazard was a key member of the drafting team for the Model Rules. Professor Hodes is well respected in the ethics field as well, and is often seen on the ethics maillist.

Herring, Legal Malpractice in Texas (Texas Lawyer Litigation Series 1992): A very thorough hornbook on legal malpractice and ethics law in Texas.

Mallen & Smith, Legal Malpractice, 4th Edition (4 vols., West Publishing 1996): A thorough hornbook on the law of legal malpractice. This book includes good basic information on avoiding malpractice exposure. Also published by these authors is The Law Office Guide to Purchasing Legal Malpractice Insurance. Web pages describing these books appear at http://west.thomson.com/productdetail/160169/17730896/productdetail.aspx.

Schuwerk and Sutton, A Guide to the Texas Disciplinary Rules, 27A University of Houston Law Review (October 1990): This is a comprehensive analysis of the Texas Disciplinary Rules written by a committee of the premiere ethics professors in the state. This book compare the Texas Disciplinary Rules to the ABA Model Rules.

Schuwerk and Hardwicke, Handbook of Texas Lawyer and Judicial Ethics, WestGroup, 2002: This book covers attorney and judicial behavior with case and opinion annotations and comparisons to the ABA rules.

Periodicals

Lawyers' Liability Review: This is a monthly reporter on legal malpractice and ethics cases around the country. Also includes reports of verdicts that have not necessarily made the standard reporters, and has articles on malpractice and ethics.

Professional Liability Reporter (Prentice Hall): A monthly reporter of professional liability cases of many types of business professionals. The reporter goes beyond simply reporting the cases to describing the law in other jurisdictions as to the points raised in cases. Attorneys cases appear almost every month.

ABA/BNA Lawyers' Manual on Professional Conduct: A comprehensive reporter of current material on lawyer conduct and ethics. Available in print and electronically - click here to read now.

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