Stephen Gillers

Courses

• Evidence

  Trials are often described as a competition between the opposing parties' narratives. This course examines the rules that govern how those narratives are told. Our focus will be the Federal Rules of Evidence, the Confrontation Clause, and common law, and we will consider the text, history, policies, and application of evidentiary rules. Topics will include relevance, hearsay, character evidence, and impeachment, among others.

• Law and Literature Seminar

  This course is based on the proposition that not all wisdom about the law and justice is in the U.S. Reports. Questions we may ask: How does literature use law, indeed depend on law, as a source of structure and theme? How does literature view law and legal institutions? How does literature explore people, from all circumstances, who are caught up with the law and legal procedures? Can literature provide "poetic justice" when those procedures fail? What can literature and literary imagination bring to performance of legal tasks, including "telling stories" about cases? What different (or similar) interpretative rules do lawyers and literary critics employ in construing a text? How are human passions and the human condition differently described and treated? --- We will read the following works in the order listed plus some materials we will distribute. We suggest you buy them now. --- ANTIGONE (Sophocles)(Ruby Blundell trans. recommended), MERCHANT OF VENICE (Shakespeare), GROSS INDECENCY: THE THREE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE (Moises Kaufman) and Gross Indecency (excerpts), IN THE PENAL COLONY (Kafka), IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK (James Baldwin), THE READER (Bernard Schlink), THE ISLAND (Athol Fugard),, HOME FIRE (Kamila Shamsie) and THE CUTTING SEASON (Attica Locke). IN THE PENAL COLONY may be available free on line. --- These works will be grouped in 9 assignments out of 13 classes, so in some weeks there will be no additional reading. Students are required to write SEVEN 3-page papers (of 900-1000 words each), out of the 9 assignments, on any aspect of the work they choose. There are no prompts. Papers are due Monday noon before the Tuesday class for which the work first appears on the syllabus. To ensure we have time to read the papers before class, we ask that you observe this deadline. We don't grade the papers but we use them to organize class discussion. Active class participation and regular attendance is REQUIRED. A detailed syllabus will be sent to registered students before the first class. You MUST be present at the first class to remain in it or gain admission. Laptops may be used in class ONLY to access your paper or the work under discussion. Phones must be turned off and hidden.

• Media Law

  The class addresses First Amendment and state tort and other law in relation to the mass media (including new media). Expected topics will chosen from the following: constitutional protection for and elements of defamation; journalist-source privileges and shield laws; rights of privacy and false light torts; liability for breach of contract or deception in news gathering; domestic enforceability of foreign libel judgments; prior restraint; and criminal liability for revealing information in stolen or classified government documents or protected by fiduciary duty. David McCraw, a vice president and assistant general counsel at the New York Times, will co-teach the class. Students will be required to write THREE response papers of 500-600 words (2 pages) each. These can respond to any assignment between the 2nd and 13th class inclusive. They will be due by 6 p.m. of the Monday before the particular class. Final grades will be based in part on the papers.

• Professional Responsibility and the Regulation of Lawyers

  In 2020, the ABA, which accredits American law schools, required that they offer “opportunities … for the development of a professional identity,” with a focus “on what it means to be a lawyer and the special obligations lawyers have to their clients and society.” This is class very much about your identity as a lawyer. Other classes teach knowledge about substantive or procedural law. This class (like clinics) also explores ways to be in the law. Who are you as a lawyer? These are questions you should ask throughout your career. Among topics for individual lawyers are the rules governing privilege and confidentiality, the duty of loyalty, conflict rules, rules that apply in matters before tribunals, special duties of prosecutors, admission to the bar and discipline, rules forbidding harassment and discrimination in practice, negotiation ethics, the particular issues that confront lawyers for organizations, and malpractice. The course considers realistic problems, many based on real events, as a way to learn the rules. You can contribute examples from your own work. Structural questions about the administration of justice are : Is the bar morally compromised when lawyers have no duty to pursue justice or fairness and may even have a duty to impede it? Or does that role actually serve justice? Has money distorted the profession’s ideals? How successful has the profession been in ending bias and harassment in its ranks? Is it fair to criticize lawyers for their choice of clients or how they represent them? Or does the status of acting for a client immunize lawyers from criticism? Can we say that the U.S. is a nation of laws when (depending on the legal service) between 50 and 80 percent of civil legal needs are unmet? Can we defend an adversary system where wealth significantly improves the likelihood of success?