Ethics

There's an interesting discussion here on Carolyn Elefant's blog about that question. In part she writes:

On the one hand, the public has the right to learn about a lawyer's past disciplinary record. At the same time, with the advent of the Internet and powerful search engines, does continued posting of disciplinary matters after long periods of time unfairly prejudice lawyers who made past mistakes? Question: Should there be a date stamp on the amount of time that a disciplinary committee can retain decisions online and publicly accessible in search engines? What matters more -- the public's right to know or allowing lawyers who've committed ethical violations to have another chance to redeem themselves and rebuild their practice? And are these goals mutually exclusive -- in other words, is publication of an ethics violation always a death knell for a lawyer? Post your comments below.