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Ethics

Legal Ethics Forum

Covering Legal Ethics

Post Frequency: 11.2/day

Last Entry: August 14, 2020 at 13:23:48

Amy Bishop's lawyer suggests that she's insane

Posted on February 22, 2010
I'm certainly not being critical of the lawyer for Amy Bishop, who has publicly suggested that she is legally insane. It's almost surely the right defense and it's so important to get in front of the story. But it's interesting...

Two Arguments Plus Another Cert. Grant for Lawyering Cases on the Court's Docket

Posted on February 22, 2010
This week is big for lawyering cases on the Supreme Court's docket. The Court heard oral argument this morning in Astrue v. Ratliff, a case challenging the Eighth Circuit's determination that fees awarded to a prevailing party under the Equal...

David Hricik, "Communications and the Internet: Facebook, E-Mail, and Beyond"

Posted on February 22, 2010
Professor Hricik's paper on ethics and the Internet, which includes coverage of ethical issues created by use of social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, as well as linking by clients to lawyer webpages, and other issues, is available...

The Ethics of Advising: Are We All Formalists Now?

Posted on February 20, 2010
Thanks to John S. and his incredibly comprehensive list of resources on the newly released documents on the DOJ's internal investigation of the torture memos. (By the way, I had trouble printing and downloading the documents from the NYT website,...

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Update on Airgas - Air Product dispute over alleged conflict

Posted on February 19, 2010
WSJ law blog has an update, and links us to the opinion letter of Geoffrey Hazard, which concludes that a conflict exists.

News about succeeding in the legal profession

Posted on February 19, 2010
Here?s recent news about succeeding in the legal profession. . . . . Ms. JD points us to this article from the New York Times, about how women?s participation in sports correlates with (and perhaps causes) professional success. That?s not...

DOJ report on torture memos is finally out.

Posted on February 19, 2010
The DOJ?s report on the OLC torture memos is finally out. Here is the original report, dated 29 July 2009, finding ethical violations and recommending that Yoo be reported to the state bar. Here is the final report, signed by...

Chinese criminal defense lawyer in the dock

Posted on February 17, 2010
Amazing story at Balkinization about a criminal defense lawyer in China who was accused of criminal acts, who apparently confessed, but whose confession was written with a secret code claiming that he was being coerced.

Follow up on Justice Charron's remarks -- and whether a profit motive results in fewer women lawyers in private Canadian firms

Posted on February 17, 2010
I previously linked to an article about Justice Charron's recent speech, and here's a longer reaction piece. While I agree that the most financially aggressive corners of the profession take the biggest toll on family life, I am always wary...

The fledgling legal profession in China

Posted on February 17, 2010
This article in Forbes discusses the growing pains of the Chinese legal system, including "the lack of the infrastructure of a legal profession, which is only now being addressed through the opening of more courts and the training of more...

Conflict accusations fly in Air Products - Airgas dispute

Posted on February 17, 2010
Story here. Airgas claims that Cravath did its financing work for many years and therefore has a conflict in representing Air Products in the takeover battle.

Law review circulation numbers, cooking the books, and legal ethics

Posted on February 17, 2010
Ross Davies suggests that the puffing of law review circulation numbers is a symptom of a pervasive embrace of cooking the books at US law schools -- which, he suggests, undermines whatever is said in the professional responsibility classes.

Ethics as Business

Posted on February 17, 2010
In conjunction with Keith Swisher, I submitted an abstract of a paper to the forthcoming Fourth International Legal Ethics Conference at Stanford Law School. Our proposal was accepted ? "with enthusiasm,? we were told. Unfortunately, the emailed acceptance looked like...

Summaries of Recent Ethics 20/20 Commission Meetings

Posted on February 17, 2010
This week's issue of the ABA/BNA Lawyers' Manual on Professional Conduct offers some wonderful summaries of a couple of recent meetings of the Ethics 20/20 Commission. The meetings were part of the ABA's mid-year program at Disney World, where the...

Legal Zoom sued in class action for UPL

Posted on February 16, 2010
IP WatchDog discusses the Missouri-based class action against Legal Zoom for unauthorized practice of law, and it links to the complaint.

Indiana Center on the Global Legal Profession launches new web site (and call for list of centers about the legal profession)

Posted on February 16, 2010
Press release here; new site here. (Disclaimer: I'm teaching at IU this semester.) It seems to me that we've seen increasing numbers of these centers about the legal profession. Harvard has one, and so do Georgetown, Stanford, Akron, University of...

Judge Rakoff wants to know why BofA's general counsel was terminated

Posted on February 15, 2010
Article here. If all the information comes out, it might be an interesting peek into corporate politics.

around the globe (February 15, 2010)

Posted on February 15, 2010
In Australia, a call for more lawyers from indigenous communities. . . . . In Canada, discussions about the conflict between professional life and family life -- and especially how the conflict affects women. . . . . In India,...

Lance McMillian on Atticus Finch

Posted on February 15, 2010
As many of you know, two of our contributors, Monroe Freedman and Steve Lubet, revisited the iconic figure of Atticus Finch. More recently, Malcolm Gladwell criticized Finch and now Lance McMillian writes this article in Finch's defense, responding to the...

Anthony Alfieri's continuing debate with Anthony Davis on risk management

Posted on February 15, 2010
Anthony Alfieri replies to Anthony Davis on the sufficiency of risk management for ethical guidance. (Fwiw, I don't read Davis as claiming that the technical aspects of modern risk management are enough, by themselves, to promote an ethical life but....

around the web (January 12, 2010)

Posted on February 12, 2010
We've been discussing whether the demographics of the judge affect the rulings. A new study suggests a huge "yes," at least in certain kinds of cases. . . . . The ABA is worried that its dues have kept solos...

Conflict of interest costs firm entire fee in class action

Posted on February 12, 2010
Extraordinary result is discussed at the WSJ law blog.

odds and ends (February 11, 2010)

Posted on February 11, 2010
Law firm sues client for "success fee" . . . . Another clash between traditional norms and the first amendment: do lawyers have a first amendment right to interview jurors? . . . . Similarly, and from a Canadian perspective,...

IntLawGrrls: Legal ethics in international criminal law defense

Posted on February 11, 2010
Interesting post here.

ABA's new report on diversity in the profession

Posted on February 11, 2010
Available here. As we noted previously, the cost of law school is mentioned (but not really addressed, in my view).

Should we be concerned by the controversy over Judge Walker?

Posted on February 11, 2010
There has been a bit of controversy over the last couple of days regarding the revelation that Vaughn Walker, the federal judge presiding over the challenge to Proposition 8 (the California ban on SSM), is gay. Many have said, and...

Amicus brief by PR types opposed to John Yoo's appeal

Posted on February 11, 2010
The brief is here. Maybe it's just me, but I wasn't particularly impressed.

Jim Fisher on Unintended Disclosures of Privileged Information

Posted on February 10, 2010
Southwestern's Jim Fisher has posted this article on SSRN, which addresses the tricky problem of how lawyers should handle the receipt of inadvertently disclosed and possibly privileged information. Here's the abstract: The inadvertently sent email that contains opposing counsel?s settlement...

Bank Robber Applies to Law School

Posted on February 09, 2010
In light of our recent discussion about whether John Edwards is fit to practice law, this New York Times story caught my eye. It describes the remarkable transformation of a bank robber into a highly skilled author of legal briefs....

Connecticut Opinion on Pay-Per-Click Marketing

Posted on February 08, 2010
The Connecticut Grievance Committee issued an opinion this morning in the Total Attorneys matter, which we have discussed previously (here and here).

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