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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

A Conference Sponsored by the Center

Posted on July 16, 2009
A Conference Sponsored by the Center for the Study of the Legal Profession Georgetown University Law Center March 22-23, 2010 Law firms have been affected to an unprecedented degree by the current economic downturn. Many have made deep cuts in...

Undercover UPL Investigations

Posted on July 15, 2009
The Virginia State Bar is accepting comments on a proposed ethics opinion that considers the propriety of the use of undercover tactics by officials responsible for the regulation of unauthorized practice. The opinion is summarized as follows: This opinion addresses...

For Naught

Posted on July 14, 2009
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court accepted a consent disposition of a three year suspension in a matter in which the attorney pled guilty to felony mail fraud. The criminal case involved an FBI sting operation in which the agents set up...

Third Party Liability

Posted on July 14, 2009
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has held that a lawyer who had drafted a series of wills for his client that contravened a judgment in a prior divorce case may be liable to third party beneficiaries who did not benefit from...

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Non-Cooperation Results In Greater Sanction

Posted on July 14, 2009
The South Carolina Supreme Court imposed a nine-month suspension in a bar discipline matter involving a series of ethics violations in a number of matters. Among the violations was the failure to pay a fee arbitration award to a client...

Gifts From Client Improper But Not Venal

Posted on July 14, 2009
An Illinois hearing board has found that an attorney had breached fiduciary obligations in accepting a series of gifts from a now-deceased client with whom she had developed a close friendship. The hearing board, however, rejected the Administrator's proposed one-year...

Advice From Inactive Lawyer Draws Suspension

Posted on July 14, 2009
Pennsylvania is a jurisdiction that takes a particularly dim view of the unauthorized practice of law by inactive attorneys. A case in point involves a consent suspension for six months approved by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The attorney had been...

No Violations In Billard Parlor Investment

Posted on July 13, 2009
The Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board agreed with a hearing committee that charges of ethics violations had not been proven. The Office of Disciplinary Counsel had appealed the proposed dismissal of charges that the attorney had violated the business transaction with...

Tickets To A Disbarment

Posted on July 13, 2009
The Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board has recommended permanant disbarment of a former judge of the Civil District Court of Orleans Parish. The judge had been convicted of conspiracy to commit public payroll fraud and claimed that the disciplinary system did...

Motion To Sever Bar Charges Properly Denied

Posted on July 13, 2009
The Tennessee Supreme Court rejected a variety of procedural and substantive objections and suspended a lawyer admitted in 1990 for two years. The court summarized the contentions: In this direct appeal of a lawyer disciplinary proceeding involving three separate complaints,...

Power Of Attorney

Posted on July 13, 2009
A petition for reinstatement of an attorney who had been suspended for a year and a day in 2006 was denied by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The "essence of [the] misconduct was a conflict of interest with her client," a...

The Importance Of Being Active

Posted on July 12, 2009
From the California Bar Journal: [An attorney] was suspended for one year, stayed, placed on two years of probation with an actual 60-day suspension and he was ordered to take the MPRE within one year. The order took effect Dec....

Reinstatement Recommended

Posted on July 09, 2009
Notwithstanding the objections of the Administrator, an Illinois hearing board has recommended that a petition for reinstatement be granted. The attorney had been suspended in 2006 for a year and a day for a bizarre scheme to induce fellow members...

"The Provence Of Licensed Attorneys"

Posted on July 09, 2009
The Florida Supreme Court denied the reinstatement petition of an attorney who had been suspended for two years in 2006 for negligent misappropriation. The court agreed with the Bar that the petitioner had not been in strict compliance with the...

Threats Draw Sanction

Posted on July 09, 2009
A District Committee of the Virginia State Bar has imposed a public reprimand in a contested matter where an employee of the attorney had confided to her that she had never divorced her third husband before marrying husband number four....

Return To Sender

Posted on July 08, 2009
In Hawaii, when the Supreme Court orders an attorney to surrender their law license, they literally mean that you are supposed to return the original. Hence, the following order: Upon consideration of J. Michael Dwyer's June 1, 2009 Letter to...

Public Information Promotes Public Protection

Posted on July 07, 2009
Here's a nice new feature of the web page of the Michigan Attorney Discipline Board-- petitions for reinstatement to practice law are now posted on line. The petition has notice that persons interested in either supporting or opposing the application...

Well-Intentioned Neglect Results In Suspension

Posted on July 07, 2009
The New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department resolved a disagreement over the appropriate sanction by imposing a three month suspension in a matter involving two instances of client neglect. A hearing panel had recommended a six month...

OK To Serve

Posted on July 07, 2009
The Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee of Florida has rendered an opinion on the following question: The Inquiring Judge?s synagogue has a committee comprised of several members of the synagogue that review applications submitted by prospective members who assert that they...

Probation Failures Lead To Disbarment

Posted on July 07, 2009
The California State Bar court recently granted a motion to publish a 2007 decision alerting the Bar to the consequences of non-cooperation with the disciplinary process. The attorney has almost no California practice; rather, he practices in Washington State...

Malpractice Findings Do Not Bind Disciplining Court

Posted on July 07, 2009
The Wisconsin Supreme Court imposed a 60 day suspension in a matter involving sloppy trust account administration and other misconduct: Here, eight of the alleged counts of misconduct involved sloppy and careless trust account violations. Accurate trust account records are...

Serious Allegations

Posted on July 07, 2009
The Illinois Administrator has filed a complaint based on an attorney's conviction after jury trial of felony aggravated driving under the influence and failure to report an accident involving death. The complaint alleges the following factual predicate of the conviction:...

Misconduct:The Movie

Posted on July 06, 2009
A Louisiana hearing committee has recommended the permanent disbarment of a lawyer as a result of his federal conviction for bribery and conspiracy in connection with a program that received federal funds. The attorney was the director of the Louisiana...

Rule Violation By Disciplinary Counsel No Basis to Dismiss Misconduct Findings

Posted on July 06, 2009
The New York Appellate Division for the Fourth Judicial Department has censured an assistant district attorney who violated a court order that prohibited him from speaking to a testifying expert witness during a recess. He also had initially denied doing...

Both Sides Now

Posted on July 06, 2009
A Louisiana hearing committee has recommended a six month suspension with two months deferred in a matter where an Orleans Parish Assistant District Attorney continued to represent criminal defendants in the Parish after taking his oath of office as a...

Improper Remarks No Basis For Reversal

Posted on July 06, 2009
The Delaware Supreme Court found that a prosecutor had crossed the line into improper closing argument by mocking the defendant's testimony as "ridiculous," "cute," and a "sales pitch" but declined to find reversible plain error and affirmed a second degree...

Regret Is Not Enough

Posted on July 06, 2009
An attorney who had failed to file a personal injury suit and allowed the statute of limitations to expire was suspended for five months. The Tennessee Supreme Court reviewed and affirmed the sanction, rejecting the attorney's appeal seeking a public...

"No Other Appropriate Sanction"

Posted on July 06, 2009
The District of Columbia Court of Appeals heaped praise on a hearing committee for its "meticulous findings and exlemplary analysis" and disbarred an attorney for a laundry list of seroius violations that included seeking to have his own mother declared...

Disclose, Disclose

Posted on July 06, 2009
From the California Bar Journal: [An attorney] was suspended for one year, stayed, placed on two years of probation and was ordered to take the MPRE within one year. The order took effect Jan. 3, 2009. In 2005, [he] represented...

Suing The Dead

Posted on July 06, 2009
An attempt to substitute a law firm for a deceased defendant was rejected by the New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department: In December 2006, just before the statute of limitations expired (CPLR 214[5]), plaintiff commenced this action...

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