Lewis & Clark Law Review
First Page
473
Abstract
Professor Clare Huntington’s scholarship advances a theoretical “Reparative Model” of family law that seeks to deemphasize adversarial decision-making and decrease litigation. Building off that scholarship, this Article considers the family law attorney’s role and argues that the current Model Rules of Professional Conduct already support—and should be understood to require—a “reparative” advisory role for the family law attorney. Put simply, the harsh realities of the adversarial court system demand that family law attorneys presumptively provide information on litigation’s harmful impacts on families and children and encourage the possibility of pursuing goals via means less detrimental than litigation. To encourage a reparative practice norm-shift, comments to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct should include language addressing family law attorneys’ contextualized role. Although far from a panacea for the family court system’s shortcomings, a presumptive reparative advisory role, if widely adopted, would curb much of family law attorneys’ gratuitous contributions to the harmful dynamics facing clients and families in the court system, thereby protecting society and the legal profession, and fostering the possibility of a more satisfying legal practice for family law attorneys.
Recommended Citation
Daniel F. Bousquet,
Repairing the Family Law Attorney,
28
Lewis & Clark L. Rev.
473
(2024).
Available at:
https://lawcommons.lclark.edu/lclr/vol28/iss3/2