Nancy B. Rapoport

What are the most important things you are working on right now?

I am finishing the first edition of a new Professional Responsibility textbook with three co-authors. We are trying to dissect how and why it is that well-intentioned, good lawyers “go bad.” We are trying to use as few cases as possible to do this, relying more on case studies and stories. The publisher is excited about this book because it is irreverent, softcover, and should make for a fun class.

I continue to serve as the fee examiner in the Toys-R-Us bankruptcy. I just filed my report in the first week in October. The court accepted all of the recommendations, so that’s a milestone. I am also preparing two articles for symposia on legal fees. One, for the Georgia State Law Review, is on how to use big data to understand legal fees. The second is for the Fordham Law Review, and will help corporate counsel understand “legal spend” better.
 
What is the most significant issue facing your field and how should it be addressed?

Computers are much better at doing some of the law than we are. We need to figure out — soon — which things require the judgment of a human and which do not. Our question in legal education is: Are we training our law students for a world that will not longer exist? The more we let our students know which are the things that require high level judgment, the more we can help them find their places in their eventual careers.

What have you seen or read recently that has influenced you?

Hand down: "Bridge of Spies." Tom Hanks is superb in the role as the lawyer: no one wants him to represent the spy, but he must. There are some wonderful client confidentiality issues in the film, which I love to use in teaching Professional Responsibility.