The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "legal ethics" ...
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The Puddingstone Group
The Puddingstone Group is a real estate investment company started in 1999 by a judge, a banker, and a real estate developer, which has become involved in dozens of lawsuits arising from alleged predatory practices, breaches of legal ethics, campaign contributions, and collusion with businesses, banks, and politicians.
Tags: Real Estate; Legal Ethics
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Brian Ross Investigates: Conduct Unbecoming
"In a year-long series of stories for World News and Nightline, ABC News' chief investigative correspondent and his team reported on a pattern of unbecoming and unethical behavior in offficial Washington that culminated in the revelation's of Congreeman Mark Foley's sexually-explicit internet messages with high school students who served as Congressional pages." Stories in the series also examine some of the consequences from the lack of an ethics code for the Supreme Court and a probe of unethical behavior of a retired U.S. General.
Tags: broadcast; financial disclosure forms; lobbyist Jack Abramoff; Congressman Tom Delay; Congressman Mark Foley; instant messaging; Congressional Pages; House Ethics Committee; Kyle "Dusty" Foggo; CIA; Air Force; Department of Defense Inspector General's Office; Federal Election Commission; Political Money Line; Federalist Sociey; legal ethics; Supreme Court; Congress; Pentagon; influence peddling; FBI; IRS; Brent Wilkes; Taxpayers for Common Sense; Keith Ashdown; Porter Goss; Thunderbirds; General T. Michael Mosely; Senator Tom Coburn; General Hal Hornburg; Project on Government Oversight; Danielle Brian; U.S. Trademark Office; General John Jumper; Blue Angels; midterm elections; access; Campaign Legal Center; Gerry Hebert; pay to play; House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children; sexually explicit messages; sexual exploitation; graphic language; solicitation; Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert; Internet sex; FBI investigation; Congressman Tom Reynolds
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Governor John G. Rowland
This ongoing investigation into corruption within the Rowland administration revealed a number of gifts to the governor from state employees and major state contractors. Among the findings: A contractor who renovated the governor's cottage and gave him use of vacation homes at nominal prices had received preferential treatment in obtaining state contracts; a businessman who made millions leasing office space to the state had paid his niece to rent a condo owned by the governor for three times the market rate; a law firm that gave Rowland free legal services had performed millions of dollars in work for the state. The governor resigned July 1 and on Dec. 23 pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge.
Tags: Governor John G. Rowland; no-bid; contracts; state government; pay to play; political ethics; conspiracy; gifts; FOIA
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The high cost of disclosure: Violating client privilege in order to accuse a judge exacts a big price.
The National Law Journal tells the story of Doug Schafer, a Tacoma, Wash. lawyer who blew the whistle on a Superior Court judge after a client gave him information that implicated the judge in a dishonest business deal. "A reasonable person might conclude that Mr. Schafer did a good thing, using information learned from a client to blow the whistle on a dishonest judge. But not in the state of Washington, one of almost 40 states where it is a violation of lawyer ethics to disclose client's confidential communications, even to help provide a remedy to the victim of a client's crime or fraud."
Tags: judge; Doug Schafer; Tacoma; Washington; disclosure; judges; law; legal
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Governor's Club
"The Governor's Club, a legally and ethically dubious fundraising practice carried out by South Dakota Governor Bill Janklow and the state Republican Party, raises several questions. Most notably, Janklow probably owes taxes on at least $400,000 he has collected in recent years, according to several campaign finance and tax experts.
Tags: Governor's Club; South Dakota Governor Bill Janklow; political fundraising; Janklow; South Dakota Republican Party; South Dakota Secretary of State; campaign finance
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Private Justice
Over the past 20 years, corporations have started to impose arbitration on the public as a condition to doing business, a quasi-legal process that allows private individuals to pass final judgement on the disputes of the parties who hire them. Several cases are presented with emphasis on the difference between court and arbitration , conflicts of interests, ethical aspects proposed reforms of the system.
Tags: Arbitration; Supreme Court; justice; litigation; rights; court; corporation; contract; AT&T; General Electric; ethical codes.
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Scarce Goods: Justice, Fairness and Organ Transplantation
Koch's book examines the origins of scarcity of blood and graft organs. The main finding is that the problem has existed at least since a famous legal case of U.S. v. Holmes, 1842, which dealt wit the question of lifeboat ethics - "who should die so that others might survive?" Koch looks at the lifeboat ethics' modern application to the distribution of transplantable organs. Using mapping software, the author reveals that "the scarcity of organs is exacerbated, where not created, by racial and regional inequalities inherent in the American health care and transplant system."
Tags: BOOK; Department of Health and Human Services; United Network for Organ Sharing; race; ethnicity; minorities; National Organ Transplant Act; justice; poverty; health insurance; GIS
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Yucca Mountain Conflict of Interest
A Las Vegas Sun investigation reveals that the law firm hired by the Energy Department to do legal work on the Yucca Mountain repository has been lobbying to get the project built. The Energy Department manages the proposed Yucca Mountain project, a federal proposal to bury tens of thousands of tons of nuclear waste at the site about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The plan is controversial, environmentalists say its a bad idea, the nuclear energy industry says its needed. The Energy Department hired Chicago-based Winston & Straw to "independently review Yucca documents and impartially advise the DOE about possible flaws." But the Las Vegas Sun learned that Winston & Straw also does lobbying work for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the energy industry's top trade group and the "most vocal Yucca proponent in Washington." Nevada lawmakers contend that Winston & Straw involvement with the NEI and DOE presents a dangerous conflict of interest.
Tags: conflict of interest; ethics; Winston & Shaw; lawyers; federal government; Energy Department; Department of Energy; Yucca Mountain; nuclear waste; nuclear energy; Nuclear Energy Institute; lobbying; big money; politics; environment
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How public is losing legal rights
San Francisco Chronicle investigates the loss of civil rights, resulting from mandatory arbitration imposed on employees. Many workers sign their employment contracts without reading the text in fine print, which binds them to accept the arbitration clause, the story reveals. Under the court rulings, arbitrators can be "wholly unqualified" to decide civil right cases, and "are rarely required to follow the law." Other flaws of the system include prohibitive filing fees, limited size of awards, and reluctance by most arbitration firms to enforce ethics codes.
Tags: Federal Arbitration Act; conflicts of interest; judges; courts; business; fairness standards; labor; Supreme Court; civil rights; discrimination; wrongful firing
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Money Trouble
The Legal Times reports on proposed changes to financial disclosure in the executive branch. "The tiny agency that serves as the financial disclouse gatekeeper for many senior officials is asking Congress to 'streamline' the process," the Times reported. "The ethics law proposal likely to draw the most attention would reduce the amount of detail that appointees need to disclose about their income and various assests and liabilities," the Times reported.
Tags: 1978 Disclouse Law; Office of Government Ethics; Ethics In Government Act