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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

Legal Ethics Items (September 24, 2010)

Posted on September 24, 2010
People v. Sokolsky: California Court of Appeal holds that a sexually violent predator does not have a right to self-represent in the civil commitment hearing. Paul Kirgis (St. Johns) wrote this article disagreeing with Richard Susskind's "The End of Lawyers...

Main Justice: "DOJ Prosecutor Blasts Handling of New Black Panthers Case"

Posted on September 24, 2010
Details at Main Justice.

ABA Journal looks at legislators' attacks on law school clinics

Posted on September 24, 2010
We've covered a few of these disputes, but the ABA Journal's, Taking Their Pains to the Clinic, does a nice job pulling them together and providing some context. It seems that these attacks will keep coming and that the law...

DOJ's handling of voter intimidation case continues to draw scrutiny

Posted on September 23, 2010
Pajama Media: I've been watching this issue bubble for some time and still can't tell if there's any merit to it. But one of the career lawyers at DOJ will apparently testify despite earlier instructions that he not do so....

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Carolyn Elefant (My Shingle) on the new 20/20 issue papers

Posted on September 23, 2010
Carolyn's thoughts are here. [post by John Steele]

Conference on Aggregate Litigation (April 2011; Cincinnati)

Posted on September 23, 2010
Legal Scholarship Blog: Non-class aggregate litigation is one of the hottest and most difficult issues in legal ethics and CIncinnati Law will be holding a conference on it April 1, 2011. It doesn't seem to be focused on the ethics,...

Legal Ethics Items (September 23, 2010)

Posted on September 23, 2010
Voxy: New Zealand lawyers are working to find creative solutions to the legal problems arising from the earthquake. Foreign Corrupt Practice Act Blog: can concealing information from the company's lawyers be obstruction of justice? (I want to fight that possibility,...

USA Today's series on federal prosecutors

Posted on September 23, 2010
They've done a lot of reporting and fact gathering and some of the materials, including an interactive search function that lets you search type of prosecutor error, may be good for class discussion.

. . . and a few more (September 23, 2010)

Posted on September 23, 2010
There was widespread discussion about the law graduate denied admission because of his $430,000 in loans. He's correcting errors in his application, having delinquency fees removed, and trying again. Who knows, perhaps the denial has prompted him to get his...

Ethics and name-calling

Posted on September 22, 2010
"Have a nice day, you piece of shit." Can/should a lawyer be disciplined for that? Legal Profession Blog and The Ethical Lawyer discuss a recent matter.

Prosecutor ethics in Japan

Posted on September 22, 2010
This is a disturbing article out of Japan, dealing with prosecutors' ethics -- or lack thereof. I don't know if some of the observations are accurate.

Legal Ethics Items (September 22, 2010)

Posted on September 22, 2010
Theodore Olson to receive the Fordham-Stein Ethics Prize. Tipton v. Porter: in a case involving a real estate closing, Court of Appeals of Kentucky holds that plaintiff was not a client, yet reverses and remands because the plaintiff may have...

Copyright trolls, at Patently-O

Posted on September 22, 2010
At Patently-O, Robert Zelnick looks at copyright troll suits and explores whether the quick and dirty settlements for a couple of thousand dollars are just "gotcha" litigation.

ABA Ethics 20/20 Commission Releases Two Issues Papers

Posted on September 21, 2010
The ABA's Commission on Ethics 20/20 released two issues papers this afternoon. One deals with confidentiality-related ethics issues arising from lawyers' use of new technology, including cloud computing. The second paper identifies a variety of ethics issues arising from lawyers'...

Legal Ethics Items (September 21, 2010)

Posted on September 21, 2010
ABA Journal: Washington state settles with LegalZoom after agreement on a handful of UPL and advertising issues are resolved. The state believed that if LegalZoom wasn't doing legal work, it shouldn't offer price comparisons to legal work. (I'm not sure...

. . . and a couple more (September 20, 2010)

Posted on September 20, 2010
Law Firm Risk Management Blog looks back at the Hildebrandt/Hinshaw conference for law firm general counsel. There's a pdf of a list of "what keeps [law firm general counsel] up at night." One of the items is threats from successor...

ABA Opinion on confidentiality when a lawyer is accused of ineffective assistance (Op. 10-456; July 14, 2010)

Posted on September 20, 2010
I think I missed this interesting new ABA opinion when it was issued in July, but Law of Criminal Defense and Tigran Eldred brought it to my attention. Formal Opinion 10-456, discusses how a criminal defense lawyer should treat client...

Second Circuit enforces Rule 11 safe harbor protections: Lawrence v. Richman Group of CT LLC, F.3d , 2010 WL 3583415 (2d Cir. Sept. 16, 2010)

Posted on September 20, 2010
Details at California Attorney's Fees Blog, but the gist is that the safe harbors of Rule 11 really are safe harbors.

Legal Ethics Items (September 20, 2010)

Posted on September 20, 2010
Statesman (Tx): Even a commercial litigator may have to run from being labeled a "trial lawyer" when running for office. Clarion Ledger: Mississippi's high court is considering a proposal -- not popular with all lawyers -- requiring twenty hours of...

Does criminal defense advocacy permit, or even require, arguing about the fiscal impact of incarceration?

Posted on September 19, 2010
Jan Jacobowitz, at Ethics Emporium, looks at this article from the New York Times about a new approach in Missouri.

Lawyers, hypomania, and mood disorders

Posted on September 19, 2010
At The Faculty Lounge, Jeff Lipshaw has a post about hypomania and lawyering. Over the years, I've had quite a few discussions with risk management types about whether an inordinate number of highly successful lawyers have up-and-down mood swings that...

Legal Ethics Items (September 19, 2010)

Posted on September 19, 2010
Following a suspicious death, the widow subpoenas law firm emails and the law firm objects on the grounds of privilege. But if the emails were personal and were sent on a law firm's computer, do privilege and confidentiality apply? Unfortunately,...

Legal Ethics Items (September 18, 2010)

Posted on September 18, 2010
Strong v. Sutter County Board of Supervisors. A county assessor had a beef with the Board and wanted independent counsel appointed in an expeditious manner. In a split decision, the California Court of Appeal shot down the request and said...

Gregory Duhl & Jaclyn Millner, "Social Networking and Workers? Compensation Law at the Crossroads"

Posted on September 17, 2010
Article by Gregory Duhl (William Mitchell) and Jaclyn Millner (Fitch Johnson). Abstract & Keywords: Over the past decade, social networking has increasingly influenced the practice of both civil and criminal law. One way to illustrate those influences is to examine...

Law firm compliance culture driven by corporate client guidelines

Posted on September 17, 2010
I've presented on this topic, and I'm glad to see Law Firm Risk Management Blog address it: corporate clients are promulgating guidelines to law firms, regulating all sorts of behavior that one might have thought was the prerogative of the...

Kenneth Feinberg makes some mid-course corrections in the BP spill claims resolution process, including about his views on the usefulness of lawyers

Posted on September 17, 2010
ABA Journal, New York Times, and Press-Register are covering the story, in which Feinberg is quoted as saying that he thinks lawyers can play a useful role in the resolution of the BP spill claims. It was refreshing to see...

Legal Ethics Items (September 17, 2010)

Posted on September 17, 2010
Rogers v. Cape May County Office of Public Defenders, out of the appellate division of the Superior Court of New Jersey. The defendant waited too long to sue the defenders office for malpractice. In the underlying case, rather than identify...

Busy month for lawyers and sex with clients

Posted on September 17, 2010
What's going on? I'm hoping that we will quickly return to news of mere conflicts and such. We now have news of a Michigan discipline matter, Grievance Administrator v. Mikat, involving a lawyer who had sex with the client's spouse,...

Another Official Report on the Gideon Crisis

Posted on September 17, 2010
From NLADA: U.S. Department of Justice data confirms existence of public defender workload crisis. Twenty percent increase in new assignments over 8 years met by only 4% staffing increase concludes the Bureau of Justice Statistics in their just released Public...

Hodges v. Epps; death penalty vacated due to incompetent defense and to offering of false testimony by sitting state court judge

Posted on September 17, 2010
Ben Cooper sends along an eye-opening decision, Hodge v. Epps, from USDC for the Northern District of Mississippi. Not a pretty set of facts or holding. The sitting judge who was found to have testified falsely had been the prosecutor...

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