Sally Soprano/Diego Primadonna for Real

If negotiation professors ever need to argue to their students that their negotiation scenarios are realistic, here is a nice article to share.  A few weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal covered the story of Ronaldo, the Brazilian soccer star, who is interested in making a comeback.  The truth is remarkably similar to the case of Diega Primadonna, offered as a negotiation case in our casebook on dispute resolution, and similar to the case of Sally Soprano, offered by the Program on Negotiation and other textbooks.  Aging star, sidelined by injury, returns to game with creative contract to meet both parties’ needs. 

In March, after 384 days off the field, Ronaldo entered a soccer stadium again, this time wearing the shirt of São Paulo’s Corinthians for a match in an agricultural town of 95,000 deep in Brazil’s interior. Despite lumbering back some 20 pounds overweight, Ronaldo has scored five goals in seven appearances and tapped into a huge fan base in a nation where soccer is called a second religion. There’s already talk about putting the striker back on Brazil’s national team.

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In America You Can’t Buy Justice. But You Can Rent It.

In our final Law Governing Lawyers class, we had an extended discussion of proposed ABA rules strongly encouraging—if not requiring—minimumpro bono work by members of the bar (or law school students). What prompted this was our reading on the unmet need for legal services.  Among the indigent, those seeking immigration or asylum, and the mentally ill, legal services are virtually unobtainable. 

This is especially true for civil actions; at least in criminal actions an attorney can be appointed for an indigent client.  Civil representation for disadvantaged clients, in contrast, is often unaffordable.  When they can afford it, the lawyer is usually one whose entire client base is barely able to afford any fee.  Such attorneys mean well but be struggling with humongous case loads and limited resources.  My basic legal processes are infeasible for them, especially a thorough investigation or discovery.  While trying to help so many in need, they may be unable to provide any client with truly competent or adequate representation. 

Legal clinics (such as our own venerable Marquette Volunteer Legal Clinic) try to fill the gap, but often such clinics can only offer advice and direction.  They cannot or do not provide representation.

Against this backdrop, the ABA House of Delegates has considered and rejected changes to Model Rule 6.1 that would require lawyers to provide at least 50 hours of pro bono work per year, with a relatively cheap hourly buy-out.  There are of course, always mechanistic complaints: how would compliance be recorded? how would the requirement be enforced? what would the penalty be?  These can be worked out.

The real problem seems to be other complaints that are more philosophical.  What can a lawyer accomplish in 50 hours per year?  Would forced-labor representation be substandard?  Shouldn’t lawyers be able to avoid practicing in skill-areas they don’t want to practice in?  And why are we picking on lawyers?  Do doctors or plumbers have to do pro bono work?

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U.S. News Rankings

According to versions of the 2010 U.S. News and World Report Law School rankings reported on various blogs this morning, Marquette’s overall ranking has risen from 95th to 87th among the 184 ABA accredited law schools.  Furthermore, its peer rating by law professors increased from 2.3 to 2.4 (out of a possible score of 5.0).  Although the reliance of the applicant pool on these rankings is much deplored within the legal academy, there is no doubt that it is better to be going up in the rankings rather than down.

The overall ranking of “tied for 87th” places Marquette in exactly the same spot in the rankings as its two Catholic peers to the South, DePaul and Loyola of Chicago. Also tied for spots 87 through 93 are Rutgers-Newark, IU-Indianapolis, South Carollina, and St. John’s.  For all practical purposes, Marquette remains squarely in the middle of the ratings.  Although the peer rating rose from 2.3 to 2.4 the median for peer ratings also rose from 2.3 to 2.4.

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