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Academic

Legal Profession Blog

Cover legal ethics, bar discipline, business practice, the tension between the bar and the academy, ethical theory, and comparative legal professions.
By Alan Childress, Mike Frisch, and Jeff Lipshaw

Post Frequency: 40.3/day

Last Entry: May 21, 2013 at 15:06:51

General Denial

Posted on May 21, 2013
Last week, we posted charges filed by the Illinois Administrator arising out of an attorney's double murder conviction. The attorney's handwritten from prison answer has now been posted. He denies a sexual relationship with the adult victim, denies that the...

Inside Out

Posted on May 21, 2013
The Georgia Supreme Court accepted the voluntary license surrender of an attorney who was employed as in-house counsel for a corporation that allowed him to do outside work as long as he did not do so on company time and...

The Batter Is Out

Posted on May 21, 2013
The New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department has imposed an interim suspension based on the following: On January 19, 2010, respondent pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated harassment in the second degree (Penal Law § 240.30,...

Dirty Laundry

Posted on May 21, 2013
The Wisconsin Suprteme Court has ordered a suspension of two years of an attorney convicted of money laundering. The attorney's misconduct involved money due to a client pursuant to a marital settlement agreement. The attorney held payments while the client...

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Mandatory Pro Bono Proposed For New Jersey Bar Admission

Posted on May 20, 2013
The New Jersey Supreme Court has asked for comments on a report of a Working Group that calls for mandtory pro bono as a condition for admission in the Garden State. The report identifies three primary goals: increase pro bono...

A Hoosier Horror Story: The Fall Of The House Of Usher

Posted on May 18, 2013
The Indiana Supreme Court has imposed a suspension of at least three years without automatic reinstatement of an attorney named Arthur Usher. The court found he had "engag[ed] in a pervasive pattern of conduct involving dishonesty and misrepresentation that was...

Suspension For Failure To Return Unearned Fee

Posted on May 17, 2013
The Indiana Supreme Court has imposed a suspension of 30 days without automatic reinstatement in a case involving fee misconduct. The attorney charged a flat fee of $12,000 for a criminal matter and was paid $6,000 up front. After a...

Tailored Sanction

Posted on May 17, 2013
An attorney who had misappropriated funds held in connection with the sale of tailoring business was permanently disbarred by the Ohio Supreme Court. The attorney initially defaulted on the charges and then tried to resign. The court did not accept...

The 14 Percent Chance

Posted on May 17, 2013
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has reinstated an attorney suspended for two years in 2010 for possession of heroin and felony bail jumping. The court described the situation that led to the conviction Attorney C. began using illegal drugs around 2006,...

Suspended Despite A Great Lawyer Name

Posted on May 17, 2013
An attorney who had converted funds and failed to maintain required records had been suspended for nine months with reinstatement conditioned on probation by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Nothing particularly notable about the case other than the fact that...

No New Rule 8.4(h) For Tennessee

Posted on May 17, 2013
The Tennessee Supreme Court has entered an order denying the petition of its Board of Professional Responsibility to amend its Rule 8.4 to add a subsectuon (h) prohibiting engaging "in a professional capacity, in certain discriminatory conduct." The court concluded...

Driving Offenses Draw Suspension

Posted on May 16, 2013
From the web page of the Ohio Supreme Court: The Supreme Court of Ohio today imposed an indefinite suspension against the law license of Massillon attorney Dale Alan Zimmer for multiple violations of state attorney discipline rules. The court voted...

Judicial Candidate Sanctioned For False Statements

Posted on May 16, 2013
A judicial candidate has been publicly reprimanded and barred from judicial office for five years by the Indiana Supreme Court. The candidate ran for a circuit court judgeship against an incumbent. The judge had modified the sentence of a convicted...

Ethics Charges Filed After Murder Conviction

Posted on May 16, 2013
The Illinois Administrator has filed a complaint based on the following factual averments: On or before October 16, 2006, Respondent agreed to represent Nova Frances Henry ("Henry") in matters related to her pending paternity suit against the father of her...

Special Needs

Posted on May 15, 2013
The New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department has imposed a public censure of an attorney who had mishandled his escrow account. The facts: In 1981, approximately eight years after graduating from law school, respondent started his own...

"Street Thug" Argument Draws Reversal

Posted on May 15, 2013
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reversed a criminal conviction due to the prosecutor's improper closing argument: Early in his closing argument the prosecutor set the stage with this introduction: "I would suggest to you that the facts of this case...

Life Imitates Art

Posted on May 15, 2013
Two Fordham Law graduates opened their own firm in January 2008 with a concentration in personal injury matters. Both were suspended for nine months and until further order by the New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department. The...

Bookkeeper's Theft Leads To Attorney's Resignation

Posted on May 14, 2013
We are seeing a trend of cases involving discipline for failure to supervise non-lawyer employees. The New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department has accepted an attorney's resignation on these facts: In respondent's affidavit of resignation, sworn to...

Can State Get Access To Appointed Counsel Forms?

Posted on May 14, 2013
The New Jersey Supreme Court has held that the State's subpoena for an indicted defendant's application (with financial information) for court-appointed counsel was properly quashed. The defendant was was indicted for financial crimes. The State's investigation "suggested that defendant owned...

Arizona Supremes Read Twitter

Posted on May 14, 2013
In the first bar disciplinary case reviewed under its new procedures, the Arizona Supreme Court reduced a six-month and one day suspension imposed by a hearing panel and instead imposed a suspension of six months. The effect of the reduced...

Accusations Against Judges Draws Lengthy Suspension Recommendation

Posted on May 13, 2013
An Illinois Hearing Board has recommended a suspension of three years and until further order in a case involving an attorneys accusations against several judges. In one matter, the attorney filed an affidavit to disqualify the judge in a personal...

Democratic Conversion Alleged

Posted on May 13, 2013
The North Carolina State Bar has filed a complaint alleging misconduct by an attorney in his capacity as treasurer of a county Democratic Men's Club. He is alleged to have written a series of checks on the club's account without...

Asking Sherwin-Williams

Posted on May 13, 2013
A recent Rhode Island Supreme Court decision is summarized on the court's web page: Before this Court is the appeal of Sherwin-Williams Company (Sherwin-Williams) from an order denying its motion for a protective order to prohibit the disclosure of and...

Paralegal Supervisor Scheme Gets Parish Attorney Suspended

Posted on May 12, 2013
The Louisiana Supreme Court has approved a three-year suspension by consent in a case involving a former Jefferson Parish Attorney who pled to misprison of felony in connected with a scheme to allow the Parish President's ex-wife to be paid...

Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde

Posted on May 10, 2013
The Iowa Supreme Court has revoked the license of an attorney whose situation "mirrors the life of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." The attorney had been a police officer, youth sports coach and published novelist. He graduated with honors from...

"Floodgates" V. "Unduly Protectionist Of Attorneys"

Posted on May 10, 2013
The Connecticut Supeme Court has held that the litigation privilege provides absolute immunity to claims of fraud and intentional infliction of emotional distress brought by an unhappy litigant against opposing counsel. The suit was brought by a former husband alleging...

Late To Work And Not Pleasant When He's There

Posted on May 10, 2013
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ordered that the Barnstable Clerk-Magistrate be removed from office: The findings by the hearing officer, as adopted by the committee, provide sufficient cause for Powers's removal and we conclude, after considering the totality of...

New York Attorney Meets Requirements For Admission On Motion In Massachusetts

Posted on May 10, 2013
In appeal of the denial of admission by motion of an attorney, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court disgreed with the conclusion of the Board of Bar Examiners that the motion be denied. The applicant graduated from law school in 2004....

Former Magistrate Reprimanded, Posted Bond For Defendant

Posted on May 09, 2013
A magistrate who resigned from judicial office has been publicly reprimanded by the South Carolina Supreme Court. In one self-reported matter, the magistrate set bond in a criminal matter, reduced the bond to ten bucks and posted it with his...

Jailhouse (Disbarred) Attorney

Posted on May 09, 2013
A Florida attorney disbarred in 1991 has found the practice of law a hard habit to break. In 1995, on evidence of continuing practice, the Florida Supreme Court "permanantly and perpetually" restrained him from further practice. The medicine did not....

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