Telling stories about cases and clients: The ethics of narrative

190. See Chavkin, supra note 186, at 1508 n.l. This written tradition includes contributions to the newsletters published by the Section on Clinical Legal Education of the AALS and the Clinical Legal Education Association ("CLEA"). For an argument that the frequency of clinic conferences has slowed the creation of scholarly writing, see Dinerstein, supra note 50, at 469-70.

191. See Chavkin, supra note 186, at 1509 n.5 (distinguishing the career routes of clinical teachers and their non-clinical colleagues). As an aside, I also find it interesting that while clinical teachers often reveal their practice backgrounds in their scholarly writings, nonclinical teachers rarely do, even when it is relevant to the substantive scope of the article. Compare Miller, Voting Rights, supra note 6, at 131 n. 152 (explaining relevance of work as a voting rights attorney to voting rights theory articulated in article) with Pamela S. Karlan, Politics by Other Means, 85 VA. L. REV. 1697 (1999) (omitting reference to former employment as a voting rights attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in article discussing electoral reapportionment). There seems to be an explicit exception where authors are concerned about conflict of interest issues, see Pamela S. Karlan, Undoing the Right Thing: Single-Member Offices and the Voting Rights Act, 77 VA. L. REv. 1, 3 n.10 (1991) (noting that "in the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I have represented Mr. Whitfield [the plaintiff in a the cited case] throughout the pendency of this litigation"), but no acknowledgment of the importance of perspective. Indeed, at the recent discussion of scholarly ethics at the 2000 AALS Meetings, see supra note 25, many participants argued that this type of background information was irrelevant. A notable exception was Carrie Menkel-Meadow, a law professor who identifies as a clinical teacher.

192. See Chavkin, supra note 186, at 1509 n.5; Dinerstein, supra note 50, at 470 & n.3. The practice backgrounds of law professors are included in the Directory of Law Teachers, published annually by the AALS, where each full-time faculty member at member law schools is listed alphabetically by last name and described in a bio. For example, a reader who looked me up in the current directory would learn that I clerked for a federal

judge for two years and practiced as a voting rights attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice before I became a law professor. The AALS Directory of Law Teachers 717 (1999-2000).

193. See Chavkin, supra note 186, at 1509 n.5; Dinerstein, supra note 50, at 470.

194. Examples of organizations of lawyers that share a common practice area are the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, National Legal Aid and Defenders Association, and Employment Lawyers Association.

195. Not long ago one of my clinical colleagues invited a friend, who is a prosecutor, to speak as a guest lecturer in one of our classes. The subject was defense advocacy and the need to see advocacy as extending beyond the courtroom. The prosecutor, who is a former defense attorney, spoke about how defense attorneys can be effective advocates for their clients with prosecutors. In passing, he mentioned the importance of sharing stories with defense counsel with whom he shares a good relationship, and explained that defense counsel who practice in different jurisdictions from where he practices often discuss their cases and clients with him, changing only names.