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Legal Ethics Forum 

Covering Legal Ethics
Post Frequency: 11.2/day Last Entry: August 14, 2020 at 13:23:48 Recent Entries: 2870
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John Leubsdorf, "Conflicts of Interest: Slicing the Hot Potato Doctrine"
Posted on September 01, 2010Article. Abstract:The lawyer conflict of interest rules are more stringent when a firm represents two clients simultaneously than when it represents first one and then the other. Some law firms have tried to take advantage of this difference by ?firing?...
Video of Justice Sotomayor's recent talk on diversity in the profession
Posted on September 01, 2010Link to C-Span is here.
Legal ethics round up (September 1, 2010)
Posted on September 01, 2010From Legal Malpractice Law Review: more on Black v. California Appellate Project, an unpublished California decision from earlier this summer applying basic malpractice principles -- but against a public interest firm. From the Sun News (Myrtle Beach): a former government...
Our latest ethics scandal
Posted on September 01, 2010CBC's The National is running a story tonight on an ethics case out of Winnipeg, Manitoba involving some fairly sordid facts (print story here). A husband and wife were lawyers at one of - if not the - most prestigious...
More on the ethics scandal
Posted on September 01, 2010It now appears (see below) that the Law Society of Manitoba was aware of the incident with the client, but did not do anything, perhaps because the client had not brought a complaint? That may clear the law firm of...
Legal ethics bits and pieces (August 31, 2010)
Posted on August 31, 2010From Law of Criminal Defense: in Ohio, conflicts are not imputed from public defender trial lawyers to public appellate defenders if the appellate lawyers didn't work on the matter. In Arriola v. MBM, (unpublished) the California Court of Appeal dismissed...
Judges and umps/refs; Mitchell Berman's "?Let ?em Play?: A Study in Sports and Law"
Posted on August 31, 2010[by John Steele] I've previously defended the "judge as ump/ref" analogy, in part because the job of the ref/ump is far from mechanical. Mitchell Berman has written an interesting paper about reffing at the end of game -- specifically, on...
Zev Eigen & Yair Listokin, "Do Lawyers Really Believe Their Own Hype and Should They?: A Natural Experiment"
Posted on August 31, 2010Article. (h/t: Legal Theory Blog) Abstract: Existing research suggests that practicing litigators are too confident in the merits of their clients? cases. But practicing attorneys often self select (1) the area of law in which they practice, (2) the side...
Roger Clemens pleads not guilty
Posted on August 31, 2010Lots of coverage, including here. One aspect of this matter I'll be watching is the continuing criticism, mostly in hindsight, of Clemens's lawyers for "allowing" Clemens to testify before Congress. At White Collar Crime Prof Blog, Solomon Wisenberg offers his...
MacLawyer: "5 Essential iPad Apps for Students"
Posted on August 31, 2010Here's their list. Black's Law Dictionary is expensive, but the drawback to the book always was its heft and unportability.
More on Jean Galbraith's "The Ethic of High Expectations"
Posted on August 30, 2010I previously mentioned that Jean Galbraith's essay (link below), The Ethic of High Expectations, won the Burger Prize from the American Inns of Court. The chair of the prize committee, our own Steve Gillers, added this to the comments section....
Legal ethics stuff (August 30, 2010)
Posted on August 30, 2010From California Attorneys Fees Blog: if the local rules require that you show up at a settlement conference with someone who has authority to settle, you'd better do it. Even a public entity can be sanctioned for failure to abide...
Nunc pro tunc prospective client?
Posted on August 30, 2010A nunc pro tunc prospective client? In this disciplinary opinion, the Indiana Supreme Court conceded that the information that a woman shared with a lawyer had not been shared in the role of prospective client. Later, the woman asked the...
Trust and the Global Law Firm
Posted on August 30, 2010Readers might be interested in my new paper, Trust and the Global Law Firm: Are Relationships of Trust Still Central to the Corporate Legal Services Market? Here's the abstract: This article explores the concept of trust as it relates to...
Michael Hatfield, "The Ethics of Tax Lawyering: An Introduction"
Posted on August 29, 2010Article by Michael Hatfield. (h/t to Tax Prof Blog, via Jack Marshall) Abstract: This draft chapter?s objective is to raise interesting tax ethics issues in practical contexts. There are 43 notes and questions to prompt and guide discussions, and primary...
Lawyer bills more than 24 hours in a day
Posted on August 29, 2010Hilarity does not ensue. Story here.
Is This the Wild West of Ponzi Scheme Wind Down?
Posted on August 28, 2010The aftermath of a ponzi scheme is a lawyer's dream. Large amounts of money sit around with no clear owner. The government gets involved. Lots of people are upset and want to sue. Our Minnesota version (Tom Petters at $4...
David Van Zandt stepping down from Northwestern deanship
Posted on August 28, 2010He's heading to The New School. Van Zandt has been one of the most innovative, candid, and entrepreneurial deans. I hope that this departure does not signal the end of Northwesterns' distinctive approach. Leiter Law School Reports comments.
Louisville Courier Journal: "Judge assailed for fraud in Kentucky fen-phen case"
Posted on August 28, 2010Story here.
California clarifies legal standard for defendant seeking post-conviction discovery of documents
Posted on August 27, 2010If you ask criminal defense lawyers what bothers them most about prosecutors' ethics, it won't be long before they mention production of Brady materials. A California appellate court, in Barnett v. Superior Court has clarified the post-conviction standard for obtaining...
Ethics and rebellious lawyering regarding Arizona (but held in New Mexico)
Posted on August 27, 2010From Immigration Law Prof comes news of a Rebellious Lawyer Conference in New Mexico. The term, "rebellious lawyering" comes from the influential (but, sadly, hard to find and now quite expensive) book by Prof. Gerald Lopez. Ethics issues will include:...
Testimony you'd never like to give in a discipline matter
Posted on August 27, 2010From the Maryland case of Attorney Grievance Commission of Maryland v. Nwadike: [BAR COUNSEL]: If you look at the second page of the document [the contract], did you sign on behalf of . . . Ivo Njosa?[RESPONDENT]: Yes, I did.[BAR...
Bruce Winick, founding figure in therapeutic justice movement, dies
Posted on August 27, 2010Jonathan Simon, at Prawfsblawg, has news of Bruce Winick's passing. Winick was a founding figure in the therapeutic justice (TJ) movement. Here is the site for the International Network on Therapeutic Justice -- which offered a practical alternative and theoretical...
Cross-professional comparison: doctors and religious faith
Posted on August 27, 2010From Practical Ethics: a new study in the UK suggests that a doctor's religious beliefs, or lack thereof, may affect end of life treatment decisions, and Dominic Wilkinson asks whether doctors ought to discuss or disclose their beliefs to patients.
Legal ethics items in the news (August 27, 2010)
Posted on August 27, 2010In Gere v. Louis, the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey affirmed dismissal of legal malpractice claims against a matrimonial lawyer, declaring that the suit was filed too late and that the plaintiff's endorsement of the settlement...
More on New Jersey's Gere v. Louis
Posted on August 27, 2010We mentioned the case briefly, but Vorhees' New Jersey Legal Malpractice Blog has a full discussion. The interesting wrinkle is that a party's expression of satisfaction with a settlement in the underlying case -- routinely sought in NJ divorce cases...
Pro-life group loses challenge to Indiana judicial ethics rule
Posted on August 26, 2010From ALM. The group wants Indiana judges to be able to answer questionnaires regarding their views on abortion issues. The Seventh Circuit finessed the constitutionality of the judicial ethics rule so the case may come back around in the future.
Recap on California's proposed new treatment of imputation
Posted on August 26, 2010Over at The Ethical Quandary: the proposal is to leaving screening issues for the courts to decide case by case.
Using the closing argument to fight the in limines and to suggest what had been excluded
Posted on August 26, 2010In STATE v. CIFUENTES-VICENTE, the Court of Appeals of Washington upheld two $250 sanctions against criminal defense counsel for suggesting to the jury what they might have heard if the judge hadn't excluded certain lines of questioning and for speaking...
Legal ethics (August 26, 2010)
Posted on August 26, 2010From Medical News Today: "Kentucky attorney Amelia Adams could face six months in jail for contempt of court after refusing to reveal the name of a 17-year-old client who sought judicial permission to have an abortion without her parents' consent,...
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Did I harass someone?
Oh, yes. This can be taken in as so many things, especially since you had testif...
How to evict a roommate?
First, in most jurisdictions "self-help" is not a remedy available to any party ...
I have worked for this employer for only three weeks. The employer makes up his own rules as to what he chooses to report for the purpose of property taxes. He tells me to "let them come after us". He defines Entertain
He arrogantly insists, "let them come after us." Well, if you are invo...
This has happened 3 or 4 times a month now- they have turned the electric off 2 days consecutively, the water off about 9 or 10 times now, and our heat has broken 5 times (once it would not shut off, and we were forced t
i say stick with the apartment. eventually, everything possible will be replaced...
The company I worked for forced me to quit instead of dealing with someone harassing me, what can I do?
Look up CONSTRUCTIVE DISCHARGE...................this looks like what happened t...

Did I harass someone?
Oh, yes. This can be taken in as so many things, especially since you had testif...
How to evict a roommate?
First, in most jurisdictions "self-help" is not a remedy available to any party ...
I have worked for this employer for only three weeks. The employer makes up his own rules as to what he chooses to report for the purpose of property taxes. He tells me to "let them come after us". He defines Entertain
He arrogantly insists, "let them come after us." Well, if you are invo...
This has happened 3 or 4 times a month now- they have turned the electric off 2 days consecutively, the water off about 9 or 10 times now, and our heat has broken 5 times (once it would not shut off, and we were forced t
i say stick with the apartment. eventually, everything possible will be replaced...
The company I worked for forced me to quit instead of dealing with someone harassing me, what can I do?
Look up CONSTRUCTIVE DISCHARGE...................this looks like what happened t...








