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Center for Legal Ethics and Professionalism
About the Center
On December 31, 1999, Judge Hugh Lawson of
the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia
signed a Consent Order and Final Judgment that settled allegations
of litigation misconduct involving E.I. Du Pont Nemours &
Company and its counsel. That order provided that Du Pont would
provide the funding to endow a professorial chair at each of the
four ABA-accredited law schools in Georgia, including the Walter
F. George School of Law of Mercer University. The court's order
provided that the chairs "shall be devoted to fostering and
teaching professionalism and ethics in the practice of law."
The faculty and administration of the Walter F. George School
of Law chose to implement that order by creating the William Augustus
Bootle Chair in Ethics and Professionalism in the Practice of
Law and by directing that the primary responsibility of the holder
of the Bootle Chair would be to direct the operation of the Mercer
Center for Legal Ethics and Professionalism.
In July, 2000, Professor Patrick Longan became
the first holder of the Bootle Chair and the Director of the new
Center. Professor Longan's charge as Director of the Center has
been, and is, to engage in a variety of in-house and outreach
educational activities with the purpose of improving the professionalism
of students, lawyers and judges. Those activities are detailed
elsewhere on this site. Professor Longan welcomes your suggestions
and can be reached by telephone at 478-301-2639 or by e-mail at
longan_p@mercer.edu.
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