Kimberly Kirkland
Professor of Law
Associate Dean of Faculty Research
Professor Kirkland teaches a variety of courses including Civil Procedure, Employment Law, Ethics, Morals and the Law and Professional Responsibility and the Legal Profession.
About teaching, she says: “My job is to help students develop and gain confidence in their lawyering skills and judgment. I love seeing students who were full of trepidation in my class on their first day of law school, leave here capable and excited about their futures as client counselors, advocates and professionals.”
Before coming to the University of New Hampshire School of Law, Professor Kirkland spent ten years litigating civil disputes including: employment, commercial and professional liability cases. She also counseled corporate clients on employment issues. She practiced at Goulston & Storrs in Boston and Upton, Sanders & Smith in New Hampshire.
The primary focus of Professor Kirkland’s research is the legal profession lawyers’ ethics in practice. She is the author of:
- Self Deception and the Pursuit of Ethical Practice: The Challenges Confronting Large Law Firm General Counsel, St. Thomas Law Review (forthcoming 2011)
- The Ethical Consciousness of the Corporate Litigator, chapter in Lawyers in Practice: Ethical Decision Making in Context, Leslie Levin and Lynn Mather editors, University of Chicago Press (forthcoming in 2012)
- Ethical Infrastructures and De Facto Ethical Norms at Work in Large Law Firms: The Role of Ethics Counsel, 11 Legal Ethics 181 (2009)
- Confessions of a Whistleblower: A Law Professors Reflections on the Experience of Reporting a Colleague, 20 Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, Vol. 20, pp. 1105-1131, (2007)
- Ethics in Large Law Firms: The Principle of Pragmatism, 35 Memphis Law Rev. 631 (2005)
Upcoming and recent presentations
Professor Kirkland speaks regularly about her research at conferences nationally and internationally.
- Teaching Integrity, May 3, 2011 Evaluating Lawyers’ Ethics Roundtable at the Australian National University College of Law, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
- The Ethical and Moral Consciousness of Corporate Litigators, May 6, 2011, Staff Seminar, the Australian National University College of Law, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
- Ethical Worldviews of Large Firm Lawyers in the United States, May 12, 2011 Staff Seminar, Monash University Law, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.
- Self Deception as an Impediment to Ethical Decision-making: Can we train Law Students and Lawyers to avoid Self Deception? May 12, 2011 Legal Ethics Network, hosted by Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, Victoria, Australia.
- The Ethics of Constructing Truth, the Job of the Corporate Litigator, July 16, 2010 Fourth International Legal Ethics Conference Stanford University, Palo Alto California.
- The Ethical Consciousness of the Corporate Litigator, May 28, 2010, Annual Meeting of The Law and Society Association and the Canadian Law and Society Association in Chicago Illinois.
- The Corporate Litigator, April 23, 2010 Lawyers in Practice Conference, Baldy Center SUNY Buffalo
On August 20, 2009, Professor Kirkland was interviewed on the Socrates Exchange on New Hampshire Public Radio. Listen
Professor Kirkland was elected “Teacher of the Year” by the student body in 2002.
Scholarship
- Self Deception and the Pursuit of Ethical Practice: The Challenges Confronting Large Law Firm General Counsel, St. Thomas Law Review (forthcoming 2011)
- The Ethical Consciousness of the Corporate Litigator, chapter in Lawyers in Practice: Ethical Decision Making in Context, Leslie Levin and Lynn Mather editors, University of Chicago Press (forthcoming in 2012)
- Ethical Infrastructures and Defacto Ethical Norms at Work in Large U.S. Law Firms, 11 Legal Ethics 181 (2008).
- Confessions of a Whistleblower: A Law Professor’s Reflections on the Experience of Reporting a Colleague, 20 Georgetown Journal & Legal Ethics 1105 (2007)
- Ethics in Large Law Firms: The Principle of Pragmatism, 35 U. Memphis Law Rev. 631 (2005)