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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

around the web (March 22, 2010)

Posted on March 22, 2010
Jim Mille explains why his PR course will emphasize scholarship on cognitive dissonance. . . . . . Main Justice has a long, detailed article about whether the Office of the Inspector General will, or should, take over the OPR's...

The Propriety of CYA Letters

Posted on March 22, 2010
I?m going to speak at an APRL conference on the proper nature and scope of CYA letters, and want to take it out of the context of the OLC lawyers and the emotion-charged context of the torture memos. Towards that...

"Eric Holder's Troubles Mount"

Posted on March 22, 2010
Holder's failures to disclose, contrary to what his affidavit said, may not have been done deliberately, but will nonetheless take a toll on his credibility.

Disposable income and a zeal to litigate = professional disaster

Posted on March 20, 2010
Story at Legal Profession Blog.

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IP Profs: Inequitable Conduct doctrine needs rethinking

Posted on March 20, 2010
Q: When does a lawyer's ordinary negligence, judged in hindsight by the client's enemy, constitute actual fraud? A: When the Federal Circuit is applying the "inequitable conduct" doctrine against patent prosecutors. Over at Patently-O (one of the great topic-specific law...

No Privacy in Emails?!

Posted on March 19, 2010
Posted On: March 17, 2010 by Kish & Lietz Eleventh Circuit Holds No Expectation of Privacy in Delivered Email Messages Last week in Rehberg v. Paulk, the Eleventh Circuit held that sending ?emails to third parties constitute[s] a voluntary relinquishment...

Prosecutors who do or don't seek publicity

Posted on March 17, 2010
Over at Huffington Post, Adam Goldberg and Joshua Draper have a run-down on prosecutors who've been conspicuous for seeking publicity.

Overlawyered at the SEC?

Posted on March 16, 2010
Over at Conglomerate, Gordon Smith comments on this NYT interview with a would-be whistleblower who says that the SEC is overlawyered -- that lawyers lack the technical competence in finance that is essential for sound regulation. The post ties together...

Paula Schaefer, "Harming Business Clients with Zealous Advocacy: Rethinking the Attorney Advisor's Touchstone.?

Posted on March 16, 2010
In the wake of the OPR report on John Yoo, we discussed whether the counselor/advisor rule (2.1) was too ?thin? or if it might be read holistically. Little did we know that Paula Schaefer had been nearing completion of this...

Richard Painter: "The John Adams Analogy"

Posted on March 15, 2010
Richard Painter has forwarded this post: In their rightful condemnation of a thoughtless vilification campaign, defenders of the DOJ lawyers who previously represented detainees point in their letter to a famed representation by John Adams ?The American tradition of zealous...

Richard Painter's Curious Letter to the NYT

Posted on March 14, 2010
In a letter to the New York Times today, Richard Painter, my friend and co-author on a law review article, argues that lawyers in the Justice Department who had represented accused terrorists in private life should not work on terrorism...

Paula

Posted on March 14, 2010

Susan Saab Fortney, "Leaks, Lies, and the Moonlight: Fiduciary Duties of Associates to Their Law Firms"

Posted on March 12, 2010
Article here. Abstract: This symposium article examines the fiduciary duties of law firm associates. After applying agency principles to the firm-associate relationship, the article analyzes specific duties and discusses cases involving alleged breaches of fiduciary duties by associates...

A lawyer provides bad advice and it works.

Posted on March 12, 2010
Thanks to Neil Wilson at The Court for highlighting this issue. Last week the Supreme Court of Canada issued a decision holding that the government of the Northwest Territories was not negligent when it failed to close down a mine...

NY Lawyer Advertising Restrictions Invalidated

Posted on March 12, 2010
Noeleen G. Walder, Media Watch, 03-15-2010 In rejecting the bulk of New York's content-based restrictions on attorney advertising, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit today held that a ban on the use of nicknames like "Heavy Hitters"...

Toyota's Alleged Litigation Misconduct

Posted on March 11, 2010
Last year, a former Toyota in-house lawyer, Dimitrios Biller, brought a well-publicized wrongful termination action against Toyota (here and here). At the time, the publicity was focused on Biller's claim that Toyota had failed to turn over damaging information in...

Judge Chatigny's nomination is held up

Posted on March 11, 2010
Here's a collection of article about Judge Robert Chitigny, who's been nominated for the Second Circuit. The main opposition against him seems to be purely political, but there's an interesting issue in his past that touches on legal ethics and...

Should NJ relax the rule against contingency fees in criminal and quasi-criminal matters?

Posted on March 11, 2010
George Conk takes a look at the issue.

yet more op-eds and posts on the DOJ lawyers who represented detainees

Posted on March 10, 2010
Predictably (yes, I'm referring to our commenter extraordinaire, Patrick O'Donnell), Liz Cheney's attacks on the DOJ lawyers who formerly represented detainees have generated a large backlash, including from conservative members of the bar, in defense of the role of lawyers...

Judging Liz Cheney's Values

Posted on March 10, 2010
Critics of Liz Cheney's silly campaign have emphasized that lawyers should not be criticized for representing unpopular clients. For example, ABA President Carolyn Lamm cites ABA Model Rule of Professional Conduct 1.2(b), which states that a "lawyer?s representation of a...

Explaining the Importance of Legal Representation

Posted on March 09, 2010
In another string, I reiterated my position that the Bar has not done an adequate job of explaining the importance of the lawyer's role in fulfilling the constitutional rights of all of us. I welcomed the criticism by the Liz...

Thoughts on the Supreme Court's Bankruptcy Decision, Attorney Advice, and the Law of Lawyering

Posted on March 09, 2010
As John noted yesterday, the Court has issued its opinion in Milavetz, Gallop & Milavetz, P.C. v. U.S. and the decision has generated a fair amount of commentary (see, for example, here, here, here, and here). In my mind, the...

Jim Fischer on unintended disclosures; Gregory Duhl on the ethics of contract drafting

Posted on March 08, 2010
How Should Lawyers Handle the Unintended Disclosure of Possibly Privileged Information, by Jim Fischer. Abstract: The inadvertently sent email that contains opposing counsel?s settlement strategy, the opposing party?s client opinion letter negligently included in a discovery response, and the opposing...

Updates: SCOTUS rules that bankruptcy law covers lawyers; torture suit against Rumsfeld proceeds to discovery

Posted on March 08, 2010
The SCOTUS opinion is here (nod to Legal Profession Blog, and expect a fair bit of blawgospheric commentary). The news about the suit against Rumsfeld is here and the opinion is here.

Is the judge an umpire? Or maybe the commissioner.

Posted on March 08, 2010
We've previously had discussions on whether a judge is like a baseball umpire. (I acknowledge that my views are in the minority.) Over at the Yale Law Journal Online, Aaron Zelinsky gives us a history of the metaphor (which I...

Thoughts on yesterday's MPRE?

Posted on March 07, 2010
Any thoughts? I thought it tested doctrine more deeply than last year's test. Reasonable people might disagree on whether we should emphasize (1) the areas of ethics that lawyers get wrong to the detriment of clients, or (2) a broad...

California case: recorded statements from witnesses aren't work product; are discoverable

Posted on March 05, 2010
Decision here in Coito v. Superior Court, disagreeing with existing California case law in Nacht & Lewis Architects, Inc. v. Superior Court, 47 Cal.App.4th 214 (1996).

Conference Announcement

Posted on March 05, 2010
Lawyers in Practice: Ethical Decision Making in Context Hosted by the Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy in Buffalo NY, and co-sponsored by the University of Connecticut, this one-day conference will address the following: How do lawyers resolve ethical...

The Situationist Perspective on the Torture Memos

Posted on March 05, 2010
Cyberspace is already full of excellent commentary about the torture memos, so I've been reluctant to add another two cents. I was struck, however, by John Yoo's recent live Q&A at the Washington Post's web site, where he said the...

Book about Eliot Spitzer and Client Confidences

Posted on March 05, 2010
I was reading an article in the NYT about a new book on the Spitzer scandal (here) , written by his former employer/mentor/friend/employee Lloyd Constantine. The book details various incidents about Spitzer's downfall, and details of conversations with the then...

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