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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: 40.8/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 14:56:26

Voicemail Threats

Posted on April 01, 2011
Another California disciplinary summary: [An attorney] was suspended for two years, stayed, placed on probation for two years with an actual suspension of 90 days and he was ordered to comply with rule 9.20 of the California Rules of Court...

From Divorce Cases To Disbarment

Posted on April 01, 2011
A recent disbarment is summarized in the April 2011 online California Bar Journal: The State Bar Court found that [the attorney] committed numerous acts of misconduct in two client matters, including misappropriating more than $200,000. A client who was going...

No Discipline For Record Company Executive

Posted on April 01, 2011
A California attorney who sent two cease-and-desist letters on company stationary while on inactice status did not engage in conduct involving moral turpitude, according to a recent decision of the State Bar Court Review Department. The "recipients of these two...

Up Against A Wall

Posted on April 01, 2011
The New Jersey Supreme Court has imposed a censure of an attorney with a significant record of prior discipline. He had been privately reprimanded in 1990, reprimanded in 2001 and 2004 (in separate matters) and suspended for three months in...

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Iowa Stubborn

Posted on April 01, 2011
The Iowa Supreme Court revoked the licenses of two attorneys who are husband and wife. The court reected the sanction of an indefinite suspension of no less than six months as proposed by its Grievance Commission. The conduct involved the...

The Joy Of Self-Regulation

Posted on April 01, 2011
A Louisiana hearing committee has recommended disbarment of an attorney convicted in federal court of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. The two attorney members of the committee declined to propose that the disbarment be permanent. Worthy of note is...

Disclose, Disclose, Disclose

Posted on March 31, 2011
An attorney admitted in 2009 resigned from and was disbarred by the New York Appellate Division for the Third Judicial Department. He had been "charged with failing to fully disclose his criminal record on his application for admission, among other...

Censure Too Light

Posted on March 31, 2011
The New Jersey Supreme Court rejected a proposed censure recommended by the Disciplinary Board in favor of a three-month suspension. The attorney had negligently misappropriated entrusted funds. Bad enough. He had compounded the misconduct by submitted false evidence about the...

Gender-Based Epithet Draws Censure

Posted on March 30, 2011
An attorney who, among other things, referred to a female judge with a four-letter word that begins with a "c" and ends with a "t" in the course of negotiating a plea deal with prosecutors, was publicly censured by a...

Eight Is Enough

Posted on March 30, 2011
A Colorado hearing board imposed a two-year suspension of an attorney who had "failed to comply with a court order to pay 'retroactive child support' and post-majority child support to his son over a period of approximately eighteen years." He...

Privilege And Girl Scouts

Posted on March 30, 2011
The Oklahoma Supreme Court has held that the attorney-client privilege did not prohibit disclosure of otherwise confidential information from counsel to an entity client to an entity created by a merger. The facts: The defendant/appellant Marilyn Barringer-Thomson (Attorney) is an...

Cocaine, Cooking And Reinstatement

Posted on March 29, 2011
The New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department imposed a three-year suspension of an attorney, with credit for time served since 2004. As a result, the attorney was reinstated. The misconduct: In 1999, while still practicing law, respondent...

Judge Charged With Forgery In Nominating Petition

Posted on March 29, 2011
The web page of the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board reports that an attorney was suspended on an interim basis as a result of a criminal conviction. DailyTimes reports on the charges: Magisterial District Judge David J. Murphy was arrested Monday on....

Jail Time Sufficient

Posted on March 29, 2011
The New York Appellate Division for the Fourth Judicial Department vacated an order imposing a 30 day imprisonment for criminal contempt of court. The attorney had continued to practice while suspended. The reason for the court's decision was not forgiveness...

No Liability For Failure To Train

Posted on March 29, 2011
A 5-4 United States Supreme Court has held that the New Orleans District Attorney's office cannot be held liable for failure to train prosecutors in their Brady obligations when there is a single violation of disclosure obligations. The unethical behavior...

New Ohio Reinstatement Rule

Posted on March 29, 2011
The web page of the Ohio Supreme Court reports: The Supreme Court of Ohio has adopted amendments that will allow suspended attorneys, in limited circumstances, to apply for reinstatement while subject to probation or other post-conviction sanction. The amendments become...

Tax Lawyer In Tax Trouble

Posted on March 29, 2011
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the conclusion that an Indiana couple fraudulently understated their 2001 income. The court forewarns the reader of the opinion: Appellants [husband and wife] (a married couple from Brownsburg, Indiana)...

Refit

Posted on March 28, 2011
The Georgia Supreme Court granted an application for certification of fitness of an attorney who had voluntarily surrendered his license in 1993 after pleading guilty to manufacturing marijuana. The Office of Bar Admissions supported the application on review of letters...

Employee "Cloaked With...Apparent Authority;" Firm May Be Sued

Posted on March 28, 2011
The New York Appellate Division for the Second Judicial Department affirmed an order denying a defendant law firm's motion to dismiss claims of fraud and negligent hiring: In May 2008, the plaintiff Robin Shimoff, through her attorney, tendered a check...

Recycled Boilerplate Gets Attorney Reciprocally Suspended

Posted on March 28, 2011
An attorney who had been sanctioned by the Second and Ninth Circuits has been suspended for six months as reciprocal discipline by the New York Appellate Division for the Second Judicial Department. The court describes the misconduct found by the...

Last call for the Tulane Spetses Greece summer school, open to students at all law schools

Posted on March 28, 2011
Posted by Alan Childress Regarding our Greek summer abroad law program June 19-July 8 on which I blogged before (and my class in Comparative Legal Profession), it looks like April 1 is the hard deadline for the administration's deciding whether...

Not The Attorney's Fault

Posted on March 28, 2011
The New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department affirmed the dismissal of a legal malpractice action: The documentary evidence conclusively disposed of plaintiff's legal malpractice claims. The hearing court found that plaintiff's disobedience of the so-ordered stipulation directing...

Another Prosecutor On Drugs

Posted on March 28, 2011
The Indiana Supreme Court suspended an attorney for 180 days, with an actice suspension of 60 days and the remainder stayed suject to probation of 18 months. The attorney suffered from migrane headaches and began taking a schedule III contolled...

Shots In the Dark

Posted on March 28, 2011
The Illinois Administrator has filed a two-count complaint alleging ethics violations against an attorney. Count One involves allegations of criminal misconduct: At approximately 1:30 a.m. on March 14, 2004, Respondent and John Zonzo ("Zonzo"), were arrested in Berwyn, Illinois, after...

A Potent Mix Of Alcohol And Drugs

Posted on March 27, 2011
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court imposed a six-month suspension and immediately reinstated an attorney who already had been suspended for a criminal conviction. The attorney was serving as a deputy district attorney at the time of the incident that resulted in...

Lake Effect

Posted on March 25, 2011
An Illinois Hearing Board has recommended that an attorney be suspended for 90 days based on misconduct relating to a bounced check for a vacation rental, the ensuing criminal charges and the failure to report the outcome of the criminal...

Address Unknown, Attorney Suspended

Posted on March 25, 2011
The New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department has ordered the immediate suspension of an attorney who was the subject of complaints from immigration clients. The court explained: The [Departmental Disciplinary] Committee's investigation into respondent's conduct began when...

No Nexus Between Firearms Offense And Fitness As an Attorney

Posted on March 25, 2011
The Iowa Supreme Court has dismissed ethics charges against an attorney, rejected the recommendation of its Attorney Disciplinary Board. The board had sought a suspension of no less than nine months. The attorney was admitted in 1972. He had previously...

Stanford Law Review's March Edition Features Shari Motro on 'Preglimony'

Posted on March 25, 2011
New issue is out in ebook formats, beating the print edition to the streets. Features articles on such diverse topics as ?preglimony,? derivatives markets in a fiscal crisis, corporate reform in Brazil, land use and zoning, and a student Note...

Profanity, Threats In Court Leads To Proposed Suspension

Posted on March 24, 2011
The Arizona Disciplinary Commission has recommended a six-month suspension and two years of probation of an attorney who had been censured in 2005 and 2007 for, among other things, engaging in profanity and name-calling to express his disagreement with a...

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