Reading 2 Reading The firm and it s attorney o Corporate Legal Strategy Preventive strategy Enforce Strategy Creative strategy Active strategy Employs attorneys to review new programs and documents with an eye t avoiding legal problems Uses legal activity to protect a company against patent infringement and other violations of its rights employs legal counsel to help formulate corporate goals Brings the manager and the attorney together to explore various ways of achieving those goals through for example a merger with another corporations o Lawyer Roles Represent their clients as advocates Counsel the firms managers regarding transactions compliance with regulations and similar matters Draft and review legal documents Negotiate to settle disputes with other parties Represent their clients before courts Present the facts and argue the law in the light for most favorable to client Investigate relevant facts o Communicating with Lawyers Attorney Client Privilege Law protects confidential communications between the attorney and client from disclosure to a third person May be waved Corporations speak through their employees where does the privilege stop o Was the employee directed by his or her superiors to speak with o Was the communication to enable the firm to get legal advice o Did the communication concern matters within the score of the counsel employee s job o Did the employee know thte reason for the communications o Was the communication confidential Work product Doctrince Any materials that have been prepared in anticipations of a lawsuit falls under this doctrince and are priviiledged o Codes of Progression Conduct Reading 2 The model rules of professional conduct Require the lawyer to provide competent representation to a client Requires the legal knowledge skill thoroughness and preparation reasonable necessary for the representation The Court System o There are more than 50 distinct judicial systems o Jurisdiction The power of court to hear and defend a case Serving the defendant with notice of suit within the state in which the court is location called a summons Long arm statute means of gaining service over an out of state defendant Must be distinguished from venue Concerned with the geographic locality within the jurisdiction where and action should be tried Forum non convenien permits a defiant to transfer the case to another geographic location where venue is proper District courts Federal question jurisdiction o Any claim arising under federal statute Diversity Jurisdiction o Citizens of different states where suit is over 75 000 Court of Appeals US Supreme court o 11 of them in the federal system o Certiorari parties seeking review must request that the Court hear the case by filing a petition for certiorari The Civil Process o Pleading Stage Class action suit Motions Suit on behalf of a class of people who have been similarly injured Motion to dismiss Motion for judgment on the pleadings May attack any number of deficiencies in a pleading o Remedies o Discovery Injunction an order compelling the defendant to do something or to refrain from doing something Refers to the process where each party attempts to learn what the other part knows Interrogatories Reading 2 Motions o Pretrial Conference Motion for summary judgment Court will seek out ways to decrease the length of the trail Encourage settlement o Trial Stage Motions Motion for directed verdict Motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict o Appellate Stage Res judicata matter has been decided Appellate courts Does not hold a new trial nor does it hear additional evidence it merely review the records of the trial and listens to the arguments of the party claiming some serious error in that trial o Abuse of the System Requires that party or lawyer sign every document filed in the lawsuit and attest that to the best of singer s knowledge after reasonable inquiry the document is well grounded in facet and law and is not being filed for an improper purpose Alternative dispute Resolution o Two problems plague our civil justice system Delay Expense o ADR techniques Mediation Minitrails Summary Jury Trial Arbitration Intermediary to assist the parties in resolving the conflict Early Neutral Evaluation Submit written memos detailing their positions to a neutral evaluator Procedure structured to convert a legal dispute into a business problem Each side is given a limited time to present its best case to a jury Replaces the judge and jury with a private arbitrator who holds a hearing and decides the disputes Lecture 10 17 2012 Page 97 is an outline for the chapter Lawyer Client Relations o How to pick a lawyer Focus of knowledge and experience Reading 2 If you are forming an LLC would be good to get an attorney who has formed LLC in the past o Attorney Client Privilege Applies when you have an attorney client relationship To obtain legal advice Doesn t make difference if there is a fee Applies from client to attorney attorney to client Promotes compliance with the law There are exceptions with the privilege o Things you have done in past is under privilege o Things that you plan to do that are illegal are not under privilege Trouble of telling who is client when the client is the corporation o Employees Senior Management Upper management o A lot of times employees think that corporation attorney is their attorney This is the corporations attorney It is like anything you say to attorney you are saying to upper management It is a relationship between client and attorney Client is corporation o Employee and Upper Management both fall under corporation Privilege can be waved o If conversation is intentionally in front of third parties privilege o Corporation can wave privilege even though they have told you is waved it is confidential 5th amendment still applies in court but government will have access o Long arm statute State may have jurisdiction over something that occurred in the that state o Court System Two Systems in every state State Court Federal Court o Civil Process Litigation Figure 4 3 Pleading Stage o Piece of paper filed with court Complaint Answer o Get an attorney Reading 2 o When you have been served o Response Discovery Stage Where parties discovery information about eachother for the case Motions made Request reasonable documents Time set could be 6 months o Trying to conclude the case Summary Judgement If no settlement sent to trial