Symposium: Nebraska and the Model Rules of Professional Conduct

• Publication year: 2021

81 Nebraska L. Rev. 1315. Symposium: Nebraska and the Model Rules of Professional Conduct

1315

Symposium: Nebraska and the Model Rules of Professional Conduct

Foreword(fn*)

On November 15, 2002, the University of Nebraska College of Law held an ethics conference to explore some of the important issues involved in replacing the Nebraska Code of Professional Responsibility ("Nebraska Code") with the Model Rules of Professional Conduct ("Model Rules").(fn1) Speaking at the conference were Professor Susan Martyn of the University of Toledo College of Law, Professor Bradley Wendel of the Washington and Lee University Law School, Professor Geoffrey Hazard, Jr. of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Professor Stephen Kalish and myself of the University of Nebraska College of Law.

Over the past few years, both the bench and bar in Nebraska have acknowledged that it may be time to replace the Nebraska Code with the Model Rules.(fn2) This Symposium Issue of the Nebraska Law Review is intended to facilitate the discussion and debate that will accompany this transition.

Nebraska is currently one of only four states that still uses a version of the 1969 Model Code of Professional Responsibility ("Model Code").(fn3) Joining the vast majority of other states would give Nebraska the opportunity to learn from those states' experiences with the Model Rules and would allow Nebraska to seek guidance in the ethics opinions of other states and of the American Bar Association ("ABA"). The Model Rules, adopted by the ABA in 1983, and recently

1316

revised in 2002, cover ethics issues in a clearer and more comprehensive way than the Nebraska Code, which is based on the 1969 Model Code. Furthermore, adopting the Model Rules would allow Nebraska to incorporate into its ethics jurisprudence some ethical rules and considerations that are simply absent from the Model Code. Finally, the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination ("MPRE"), which Nebraska requires bar applicants to pass in order to be admitted to the bar, is based on the Model Rules. Thus, at present, Nebraska lawyers must learn two sets of ethical rules those on which they will be tested and those governing their conduct as lawyers. Professors Kalish and Wendel discuss these and additional practical and pedagogical benefits that bolster the case for the Model Rules.(fn4)

Consideration of the Model Rules is particularly appropriate at this moment in time because the Model Rules were very recently revised. In 1997, the ABA created the Commission on Evaluation of the Rules of Professional Conduct ("Ethics 2000 Commission")...