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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

Richard Hasen and Dahlia Lithwick look at the worst ads in judicial campaigns

Posted on October 27, 2010
. . . over at Slate.

Steve Lubet, "Let Justices Be the Judge"

Posted on October 27, 2010
Steve Lubet's new article, Let Justices Be the Judge, argues that recusal decisions at the US Supreme Court should be made by the court and not by the individual, affected justices. Lubet notes, as we've discussed here, that it appears...

Immunity for public defender, in Connectitcut

Posted on October 26, 2010
Legal Malpractice Law Review analyzes a September 2010 case from Connecticut, Gombert v. Herzner, in which a PD was protected by absolute, quasi-judicial immunity.

Nine figure malpractice verdict against biglaw firm

Posted on October 26, 2010
News here and here. (h/t: ABA Journal) From the news accounts, it appears that the plaintiff's theory was that two businesses ran integrated operations and were both represented by the same firm (Baker & McKenzie) and the firm took steps...

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Informing your client of malpractice -- but misstating the accrual date

Posted on October 26, 2010
In Sowerby v. Doyal, from the Court of Appeals of Georgia, the lawyer clearly explained his malpractice to the client, but did misstate the accrual date. The client-plaintiff's claims were barred nonetheless, because she knew of the malpractice within the...

Legal Ethics Items (October 25, 2010)

Posted on October 25, 2010
Professional Responsibility blog (Prof. Alberto Bernabe): Tennessee's adoption of new rules does not include the rule banning sexual relationships withe clients or the rule permitting screening of laterals from private practice jobs. Legal Professions Blog ran this link to the...

Michael Hatfield, "Tax Lawyers, Tax Defiance, and the Ethics of Casual Conversation"

Posted on October 25, 2010
Article, with hat tip to Tax Prof Blog. Abstract: This Essay addresses the increasingly common social situation in which tax lawyers are confronted with tax protester arguments and similar anti-tax system comments. This Essay seeks to place these conversations in...

Chevron gets to depose the opposing plaintiffs' lawyer in the Ecuadorian environmental case; lawyer was acting as "political operative"

Posted on October 25, 2010
With a hat tip to Opinio Juris, here is the court's order, allowing Chevron's lawyers to depose the plaintiffs' lawyer in the Ecuadorian environmental case related to Lago Agrio.

Conference at CUNY (Oct 27) - Lawyering in the Age of Terror

Posted on October 25, 2010
News from Con Law Prof Blog.

Washington Post investigatory article on the New Black Panthers case

Posted on October 24, 2010
Article here. It seems to confirm, as one would have suspected from previous stories and perhaps from common sense as well, that some lawyers within the DOJ bring a race-conscious view to the enforcement of voting rights laws. But whether...

New case applying in pari delicto doctrine in NY

Posted on October 24, 2010
Get the full scoop at New York Attorneys Malpractice Blog, where the post begins "The Court of Appeals yesterday decided a case which limits potential liability, or more correctly put, continues a limit of potential liability of a corporation's outside...

Jeffrey Brand-Ballard, "Limits of Legality: The Ethics of Lawless Judging"

Posted on October 24, 2010
Jeffrey Brand-Ballard's book was chosen as this week's "bookworm" selection at Legal Theory Blog. The description, below, echoes themes we hear when we discuss the standard conception of lawyering. Judges sometimes hear cases in which the law, as they honestly...

Richard Ponser & Albert Yoon, "What Judges Think of the Quality of Legal Representation

Posted on October 24, 2010
Article. Abstract: Studying the legal profession poses several challenges. The evolution of law has moved lawyers away from a generalist practice towards increased specialization. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to compare lawyers across different practice areas meaningfully and...

Supreme Court of India cites Wikipedia entry for definition of "common law marriage"; (specifies search engine?)

Posted on October 23, 2010
Story here. Opinion here. We've been seeing wiki references creep into sophisticated articles and it's been reported that on technical subjects wiki can be remarkably accurate. Still, it's odd to see a judicial reference by a supreme court, especially regarding...

Legal Ethics bits and pieces (October 22, 2010)

Posted on October 22, 2010
Kachlon v. Dressler & Lavina LLP: unpublished California case. "Two attorneys in succession handled legal matters for plaintiffs. The attorneys were not affiliated with each other. Plaintiffs brought a legal malpractice action against the attorneys, alleging they breached their respective...

State Bar of California changes evidence rules in discipline matters; moves from civil practice evidentiary standards to administrative standards

Posted on October 22, 2010
I don't know why this development hasn't generated more discussion, but the State Bar of California is changing the evidentiary standards in discipline cases from the ones that apply in civil matters to the ones that apply in administrative matters.....

Philippines: Court orders law school faculty to justify criticism of justice's plagiarism

Posted on October 21, 2010
This story is hard to understand from a US perspective. But according to the article, and taking it at face value, law school faculty criticized what they viewed as plagiarism in a court opinion denying relief to so-called "comfort women,"...

New York Times: "The Justices and Decorum outside the Courtroom"

Posted on October 21, 2010
The NYT continues to push the story. It asks whether the justices are showing enough decorum outside the court and mentions that Virginia Thomas has come under the "spotlight" for her political activities. Three professors are asked to comment. Prof....

Legal ethics items (October 21, 2010)

Posted on October 21, 2010
Williams v. Commonwealth: a new Virginia Court of Appeals case affirming the denial of a motion to disqualify the entire prosecutors office because one of them had previously repped the defendant. US v. Matsa: USDC for the Southern District of...

Jenkins & Gilchrist partner pleads guilty

Posted on October 20, 2010
WSJ Law Blog has the details.

US Supremes to review (and presumably reverse) Ninth Circuit on former AG Ashcroft's personal liability

Posted on October 20, 2010
The story's being carried widely, including at Volokh and Blog of the Legal Times. I don't suppose it will directly control the case that Jose Padilla has pending against John Yoo, but both cases involve lawyer liability for lawyering.

The saga of Stephen Yagman continues . . .

Posted on October 20, 2010
Legal ethicists will recall that Stephen Yagman, a civil rights lawyer of the gadfly type, was the test case for how nastily one may publicly speak of judges. Yagman's in jail for tax evasion, but, according to Forbes, the IRS...

Margaret Tarkington, "A First Amendment Theory for Protecting Attorney Speech"

Posted on October 20, 2010
We recently mentioned Renee Knake's article on "Attorney Advice and the First Amendment." Some of these new cases are being driven by Congressional regulations of general applicability. In a similar vein, Margaret Tarkington has uploaded A First Amendment Theory for...

Legal Ethics odds and ends (October 20, 2010)

Posted on October 20, 2010
ABA Journal: Legal aid lawyers claimed that they were wiretapped by their boss. There are a variety of ethics opinions and statutes that can forbid that. Using a recent appellate opinion, Matter of Cousins, as an illustration, New York Attorney...

Huffington Post claims "mild debate" has arisen over judicial ethics of Justice Scalia and Thomas for attending events

Posted on October 20, 2010
Sam Stein's article at the Huffington Post is titled, "Justices Scalia and Thomas's Attendance at Koch Event Sparks Judicial Ethics Debate." Quoted are Steve Lubet and Steve Gillers. I'm making this post not because I see any ethics violation so...

Larry Ribstein, "The roots of foreclosure-gate: incentives and lawyers"

Posted on October 19, 2010
Ribstein comments on the Washington Post editorial we mentioned below and links to his recent paper, The Death of Biglaw. Abstract: Large law firms face unprecedented stress. Many have dissolved, gone bankrupt or significantly downsized in recent years...

"Mexico needs independent justice system"

Posted on October 19, 2010
Radio Netherlands has the news on a new report.

Referral fees not banned in UK, but will be studied more closely

Posted on October 19, 2010
Matt Packer looks at what the Legal Services Board will be taking a closer look at -- but it appears that referral fees will not be absolutely banned.

Endorsements of judge lead to his recusal

Posted on October 19, 2010
In a Florida murder trial, the judge informed defense counsel that the Fraternal Order of Police and the head of the prosecutor's office had endorsed the judge. The defense moved for recusal, which the judge granted. I suppose that in...

Legal ethics odds and ends (October 19, 2010)

Posted on October 19, 2010
A Louisiana lawyer blew a statute, but by not advising the client managed to convert negligence to disciplinary charges. ALM: Judge Sharon Keller speaks out. A happy first birthday to Legal Malpractice law Review. [edited] Brian Tamanaha at Balkinization on...

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