The American Legal Profession in Crisis : Resistance and Responses to Change

Throughout history, the American legal profession has tried to hold tight to its identity by retreating into its traditional values and structure during times of self-perceived crisis. The American Legal Profession in Crisis: Resistance and Responses to Change analyzes the efforts of the legal profession to protect and maintain the status quo even as the world around it changed. Author James E. Moliterno, consistently argues that the profession has resisted societal change and sought to ban or discourage new models of legal representation created by such change. In response to every crisis, lawyers asked: "How can we stay even more 'the same' than we already are?" The legal profession has been an unwilling, capitulating entity to any transformation wrought by the overwhelming tide of change. Only when the shifts in society, culture, technology, economics, and globalization could no longer be denied did the legal profession make any proactive changes that would preserve status quo. This book demonstrates how the profession has held to its anachronistic ways at key crisis points in US history: Watergate, communist infiltration, waves of immigration, the explosion of litigation, and the current economic crisis that blends with dramatic changes in technology, communications, and globalization. Ultimately, Moliterno urges the profession to look outward and forward to find in society and culture the causes and connections with these periodic crises. Doing so would allow the profession to grow with the society, solve problems with, rather than against, the flow of society, and be more attuned to the very society the profession claims to serve. This paperback version includes a commentary on the prevailing crisis in legal education. Throughout history, the American legal profession has tried to hold tight to its identity by retreating into its traditional values and structure during times of self-perceived crisis. **__The American Legal Profession in Crisis: Resistance and Responses to Change__** analyzes the efforts of the legal profession to protect and maintain the status quo even as the world around it changed. Author James E. Moliterno, consistently argues that the profession has resisted societal change and sought to ban or discourage new models of legal representation created by such change. In response to every crisis, lawyers asked: "How can we stay even more 'the same' than we already are?" The legal profession has been an unwilling, capitulating entity to any transformation wrought by the overwhelming tide of change. Only when the shifts in society, culture, technology, economics, and globalization could no longer be denied did the legal profession make any proactive changes that would preserve status quo. This book demonstrates how the profession has held to its anachronistic ways at key crisis points in US history: Watergate, communist infiltration, waves of immigration, the explosion of litigation, and the current economic crisis that blends with dramatic changes in technology, communications, and globalization.Ultimately, Moliterno urges the profession to look outward and forward to find in society and culture the causes and connections with these periodic crises. Doing so would allow the profession to grow with the society, solve problems with, rather than against, the flow of society, and be more attuned to the very society the profession claims to serve.This paperback version includes a commentary on the prevailing crisis in legal education. La 4e de couverture indique : "Throughout history, the American legal profession has tried to hold tight to its identity by retreating into its traditional values and structure during times of self-perceived crisis. The American Legal Profession in Crisis: Resistance and Responses to Change analyzes the efforts of the legal profession to protect and maintain the status quo even as the world around it changed. James E. Moliterno argues that with striking consistency, the profession has resisted societal change and sought to ban or discourage new models of legal representation created by such change. In response to every crisis, lawyers asked: "How can we stay even more 'the same' than we already are?" The legal profession has been an unwilling, capitulating entity to any transformation wrought by the overwhelming tide of change. Only when the shifts in society, culture, technology, economics, and globalization could no longer be denied did the legal profession make any proactive changes that would preserve status quo. This book demonstrates how the profession has held to its anachronistic ways at key crisis points in US history: Watergate, communist infiltration, waves of immigration, the explosion of litigation, and the current economic crisis that blends with dramatic changes in technology and communications and globalization. Ultimately, Moliterno urges the profession to look outward and forward to find in society and culture the causes and connections with these periodic crises. Doing so would allow the profession to grow with the society, solve problems with, rather than against, the flow of society, and be more attuned to the very society the profession claims to serve." Central To The Identity Of The American Legal Profession Are Its Systems Of Self-regulation. Throughout History, The Legal Profession Has Tried To Hold Tight To Its Traditional Values And Structure During Times Of Self-identified Crisis. This Book Analyzes The Efforts Of The Legal Profession To Protect And Maintain The Status Quo Even As The World Around It Changed. The Book Argues That With Striking Consistency, The Profession Has Resisted The Societal Change Happening Around It, And Sought To Ban Or Discourage New Models Of Legal Representation Created By Such Change. What Crisis? : Who Speaks For The Profession? -- Immigration In The Early 20th Century -- Communist Infiltration -- A New Kind Of Lawyering : The Civil Rights Movement -- The Deepest Embarrassment : Watergate -- The Litigation Boom -- The Loss Of Civility -- The Fear Of Sharing Power : Mdps And Abs -- Multijurisdictional Practice, Globalization, Technology, And Economic Crisis -- Changing The Change-game. James E. Moliterno. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Cover 1 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Preface 12 1. What Crisis? Who Speaks for the Profession? 14 2. Immigration in the Early 20th Century 31 3. Communist Infiltration 60 4. A New Kind of Lawyering: The Civil Rights Movement 76 5. The Deepest Embarrassment: Watergate 109 6. The Litigation Boom 121 7. The Loss of Civility 144 8. The Fear of Sharing Power: MDPs and ABS 175 9. Multijurisdictional Practice, Globalization, Technology, and Economic Crisis 191 10. Changing the Change-Game 228 Index 254 A 254 B 255 C 256 D 257 E 257 F 257 G 258 H 258 I 259 J 259 K 259 L 259 M 260 N 261 O 262 P 262 R 262 S 262 T 263 U 263 V 264 W 264 Y 265 Z 265