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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

Nuremberg: Its Lessons for Today is re-released

Posted on October 18, 2010
The State Bar of Michigan blog alerted me to the restoration, enhancement, and re-release of the classic film Nuremberg: Its Lessons for Today.

Law school pedagogy: making it easy to learn the law vs. a defense of hiding the ball

Posted on October 18, 2010
For an argument in favor of the frormer, see Eric Johnson's A Populist Manifesto for Learning the Law. Abstract: In this article, I examine the questions above and conclude that there are intelligent, well-formed arguments for taking a more populist....

Legal Ethics Items (October 18, 2010)

Posted on October 18, 2010
ALM: "The Lawyer Who Reined in the Rubber Stampers and Robo-Signers" (i.e., the folks who were enforcing foreclosures with false documentation). A hat tip to Freivogel on Conflicts, where the "What's New" section brings news of Edelstein v. Optimus Corp...

An Economic Analysis of What Has Happened to Large Firms and What That Means for Everyone Else

Posted on October 18, 2010
My friend Bernie Burk and I have written Big But Brittle, a piece on the economic analysis of large firms. It surveys previous economic analysis of large firms and introduces an alternative explanation (new in the legal literature, so far...

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Steve Lubet's new book, Fugitive Justice"

Posted on October 18, 2010
Not strictly legal ethics, but co-blogger Steve Lubet has a new book out, Fugitive Justice. (h/t: Faculty Lounge)

California state bar to investigate 130 prosecutors following misconduct study by Innocence Project and Santa Clara law school

Posted on October 18, 2010
This is big news. The state bar discipline process, led by recently-appointed Chief Trial Counsel Jim Towery, is investigating 130 prosecutors who had been identified in a report by the Innocence Project and Santa Clara University law professors on instances...

Foreclosure law firms were paid for speed

Posted on October 17, 2010
Washington Post takes a look at the incentives and conduct of the firms pursuing foreclosures.

Trusts & estates lawyer didn't owe a duty to beneficiary

Posted on October 17, 2010
The unpublished Idaho decision, WIsdom v. Mallo, draws a distinction that left the plaintiff without a legal malpractice claim. Key passage: In this case, though Wisdom [plaintiff] is a named beneficiary in Steil's testamentary instrument, the trial court was correct...

Legal Ethics Items (October 17, 2010)

Posted on October 17, 2010
Newberg Graphic (Ore.): The Oregon State Bar dropped ethics charges against Judge Tichenor for his actions as a prosecutor. WCCO (Minn.): Minnesota lawyer agrees to disbarment. "The complaint alleges the [lawyer] set up appointments for prostitutes with men he claimed...

Bruce Green, "Beyond Training Prosecutors About Their Disclosure Obligations: Can Prosecutors? Offices Learn from Their Lawyers? Mistakes?"

Posted on October 17, 2010
Article. Abstract: The U.S. Department of Justice recently reevaluated its prosecutors? pretrial disclosure practices in light of its highly-publicized discovery failure in the prosecution of U.S. Senator Ted Stevens. Based on its working group?s recommendations, the Department undertook several new...

DQ a bridge too far in Nevada: Local Ad Link v. Adzzoo

Posted on October 16, 2010
Local Ad Link v. Adzzoo: The plaintiffs tried unsuccessfully to disqualify Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP because one of the plaintiffs had ties to the defendant's law firm. This passage sets up the issues, which resulted in denial of...

Indiana has new rule barring solicitation -- adds 30 day ban

Posted on October 16, 2010
The new rule is here. Here's an news account from the Journal Gazette (Fort Wayne): "The Indiana Supreme Court amended attorney conduct rules to prevent lawyers from contacting accident victims immediately after an accident, which is an already difficult time...

New York Times: "Legal Wrangling Over Defendant Interviews in Queens"

Posted on October 16, 2010
"[T]he Queens district attorney . . . is attempting to prevent a justice in State Supreme Court from issuing a ruling that may accuse his office of an ethics violation ? and possibly open the door to appeals and motions...

California Supreme Court releases videos of some oral arguments

Posted on October 15, 2010
News at At the Lectern, a blog focusing on California appellate law.

Legal Ethics Items (October 15, 2010)

Posted on October 15, 2010
ALM: Freezing the laterals. A firm has a 90 day notice provision for withdrawing from the partnership. I'd hate to see that game be played sharper and sharper. Sometimes the firm wants to instruct the departing lawyers to stay at...

Bruce Green & Karen Bergreen, "The Civil Government Litigator: A View from the Jury Box"

Posted on October 15, 2010
Article. Abstract: This article examines the role and responsibilities of the government?s civil trial lawyers from the perspective of two jurors, one a law professor and the other a novelist and self-described recovering lawyer. It begins by telling the story...

Attorney Advice and the First Amendment

Posted on October 14, 2010
As some readers of this blog may know, I've been working on a project since last winter that focuses on the Supreme Court's recent decisions Milavetz, Gallop & Milavetz v. U.S. and Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project in the context...

New cases useful for teaching PR?

Posted on October 14, 2010
Brad asked below about the canonical cases for PR. In the comments, Jeremy Feinberg suggests a new case, In re Reynolds, 762 N.W.2d 341 (2009). In general, I'm more oriented toward the problem approach to teaching ethics, but I can...

Stanford Financial defendants lose insurance coverage for defense counsel fees

Posted on October 14, 2010
ALM (opinion here): The syndicates at Lloyd's were able to establish that money laundering -- an excluded event -- was a substantial part of the financial scandal. Once the insurer stops paying defense fees, it becomes very difficult to defend...

New California case: arbitrator must disclose defense practice

Posted on October 14, 2010
The arbitrator in an attorney-client fee dispute should have disclosed his defense-oriented practice, says the the California Court of Appeal in Benjamin, Weill & Mazer v. Kors. I wonder how far this reasoning goes. Almost all lawyers have a practice...

Defense advocacy on the costs of the death penalty

Posted on October 14, 2010
We had earlier commented on the new practice in Missouri of informing the judge of the costs of various criminal sentences. Howard Bashman at How Appealing has news of a death penalty case where the judge must decide whether to...

Legal Ethics Items (October 13. 2010)

Posted on October 13, 2010
ALM: The malpractice suit by the Disciples of Christ against Weil has bounced around again -- this time from federal court (bankruptcy) back to state court. The case involves the church's bond structuring and subsequent bankruptcy. New York Times" The...

Lawrence Solan, "Lawyers as Insincere (but Truthful) Actors"

Posted on October 13, 2010
A link to the paper, which is being presented at Columbia today, can be found at Legal Scholarship Blog.

Sherrilyn Ifill, "Why We Ignored the Supreme Court's Review of Connick v. Thompson"

Posted on October 13, 2010
Here's Sherrilyn Ifill's column. We previously mentioned the case -- which deals with civil liability for prosecutors who fail to comply with their Brady duties -- here.

Journal of the Professional Lawyer's Symposium edition on the Financial Action Task Force

Posted on October 12, 2010
Lots of great articles here. The foreward, by Laurel Terry, is here. The Financial Action Task Force is an intergovernmental agency that has developed recommendations for tracking and preventing money laundering and the funding of terrorism. The recommendations do impact...

Legal Ethics Items (October 12, 2010)

Posted on October 12, 2010
Given the holiday, the legal ethics news from the US isn't plentiful. Bench & Bar of Minnesota looks at cy pres recoveries. I understand the importance of cy pres when treated in an appropriate way, but have seen some cases...

Should Lawyers Be Disciplined For Inducing Breach of NDAs?

Posted on October 12, 2010
If a lawyer asks a witness (or even a client) a question calling for information within the scope of a former employer's non-diclosure agreement, should the lawyer be subject to discipline? That question is posed by language in proposed California...

The PR Canon

Posted on October 12, 2010
I've been going through the page proofs of the 3d edition of my Examples & Explanations textbook, and it occurred to me that there are some cases a PR book just couldn't do without. Has anyone ever compiled a list...

Another plea for safety of lawyers in Iran

Posted on October 12, 2010
I'm still waiting to hear back from Advocaten voor Advocaten, an organization that makes public appeals for lawyers being mistreated for being lawyers, but in the meantime wanted to mention another appeal for help, this time pertaining to lawyers in....

Public Reprimand of Judge Sharon Keller reversed

Posted on October 12, 2010
We reported on this story back when it was alleged that Judge Sharon Keller refused to accept filings from a condemned man and when she was publicly reprimanded. Now, a review court has reversed the reprimand and, if her lawyers...

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