Kimberly Kirkland
Professor of Law
Representative to the Board of Trustees
- BA, Williams College
- JD, Northeastern University School of Law
- kkirkland@piercelaw.edu
- (603) 513-5102
- Courses: Civil Procedure, Employment Law, Ethics Morals and the Law, Pretrial Advocacy, Contracts, Professional Responsibility
- Committees: Teaching Effectiveness and Technology, Trustees Rep. (Board), Chair of the Curriculum Committee
- Scholarship
Professor Kirkland teaches a variety of courses including Civil Procedure, Employment Law, Pre-trial Practice, Ethics, Morals and the Law, 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 and advocates and as representatives of the profession.”
Before coming to the Law Center, 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 Confessions of a Whistleblower: A Law Professor’s Reflections on the Experience of Reporting a Colleague, 20 Geo. J. Legal Ethics 1105 (2007) and Ethics in Large Law Firms: the Principle of Pragmatism, 35 U. Memphis Law Rev. 631 (2005). Professor Kirkland speaks about her research at conferences nationally and internationally.
Upcoming and recent presentations
Professor Kirkland spoke on a panel titled “Good Culture: Moving Beyond Loss Prevention in Law Firms”, on May 29th at the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility 34th National Conference in Boston, Massachusetts.
On June 1st Professor Kirkland presented a paper titled "Firm Management's Influence on Lawyers' Ethics in Practice" as part of a session on Micro and Macro Analysis of the Contemporary Legal Market at the 2008 Annual Meeting of The Law and Society Association and the Canadian Law and Society Association in Montreal, Quebec.
On July 16th, Professor Kirkland will present a paper titled “Designed and De Facto Implementation of Ethical Norms in Large Law Firms” at the Third International Legal Ethics Conference in Gold Coast, Queensland Australia.
Professor Kirkland was elected “Teacher of the Year” by the student body in 2002.
Scholarship
Ethics in Large Law Firms: The Principle of Pragmatism, 35 U. Memphis Law Rev. 631 (2005)
