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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

No Boxes For You!

Posted on July 06, 2009
An opinion from the South Carolina Advisory Committee on Standards of Judicial Conduct: RE: Propriety of a probate judge seeking donations of cardboard boxes in order to facilitate the Probate Court's move to a new facility. FACTS The Probate Court...

Threat From Prosecutor Draws Reprimand

Posted on July 02, 2009
TwinCities.com reports: The Minnesota Supreme Court has publicly reprimanded Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom for discouraging a medical examiner from letting a co-worker to testify in a Washington County murder trial. Backstrom will pay a $900 fine...

Law School 4.0: Are Law Schools Relevant to the Future of Law?

Posted on July 02, 2009
[posted by Bill Henderson, crossposted to ELS Blog] Paul Lippe, a well-known Silicon Valley GC and founder of Legal OnRamp (LOR), recently posted an essay on the Am Law Daily that essentially argues that law schools, at least in their...

New Illinois Ethics Rules

Posted on July 02, 2009
The Illinois Supreme Court has issued a press release announcing that it has adopted new Rules of Professional Conduct effective January 1, 2010. Highlights in the new Rules include provisions setting forth ethical duties to prospective clients and a new...

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No Writ But Governor Ordered To Appoint Judge

Posted on July 02, 2009
A retiring Florida judge sought a writ of mandamus compelling Governor Crist to appoint his successor within 60 days from a list submitted by the Judicial Nominating Commission for the 5th Appellate District. The commission had submitted six names after...

Three Partners Suspended

Posted on July 02, 2009
In a lengthy and interesting decision, the Louisiana Supreme Court suspended three law firm partners for six months with three months stayed. The firm had represented the complainant in complex commercial matters since 1985. In 1996, the firm and client...

"See Y'all Later"

Posted on July 02, 2009
The Louisiana Supreme Court has suspended a judge for 30 days, rejecting as insufficient the public censure proposed by its Judiciary Commission. The judge was found to have "exhibited improper temperment and demeanor, as well as impatience and discourtesy" in...

Boo to Billable Hours

Posted on July 01, 2009
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw Appellate lawyer and author John Derrick has asked us to put in a link to his book Boo to Billable Hours: A Lawyer's Guide to Better Billing, the contents of which are available on his website...

Much Lesser Sanction

Posted on July 01, 2009
In a case decided today, the Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected proposed discipline of a lenghty suspension in favor of a 60-day sit down. the court explained its sanction decision as well as its analysis of the imposition of costs: The...

Decade Of Criminal Conduct Draws Disbarment

Posted on July 01, 2009
From the California Bar Journal: LOEL HARRIS SEITEL [#192999], 42, of New York was disbarred Jan. 9, 2009, and was ordered to comply with rule 9.20 of the California Rules of Court. Seitel was sentenced to five years in prison...

Personnel, Not Policy

Posted on July 01, 2009
The California Bar Journal has the following report: The State Bar Board of Governors declined last month to reappoint its chief trial counsel, Scott Drexel, but reconfirmed its support of the strong public protection measures that Drexel enforced. ?This was...

Power Of Attorney

Posted on July 01, 2009
The Illinois Administrator has filed disciplinary charges against an attorney alleging that he had notarized the signature of a client on a document granting power of attorney to her spouse that had not been signed in the attorney's presence. It...

Asserting Personal Knowledge

Posted on July 01, 2009
The web page of the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers reports on a public reprimand of a prosecutor: On November 13, 2003, a jury trial was commenced in Norfolk Superior Court in a first-degree murder case against two co-defendants. The...

No Disability Suspension

Posted on June 30, 2009
The New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department declined the implement the Departmental Disciplinary Committee's proposal to convert a suspension for failure to cooperate with a disciplinary investigation into a disability suspension...

Bad Ad

Posted on June 30, 2009
From the web page of the Virginia State Bar: On June 8, 2009, a Virginia State Bar Fifth District, Section I, Subcommittee imposed a public reprimand with terms on [an attorney] for violating professional rules that govern responsibilities regarding nonlawyer...

Grease Is The Word

Posted on June 30, 2009
An Arizona hearing officer rejected a number of ethics charges filed against an attorney by a former client and recommended an informal reprimand for failing to provide the client with a written retainer agreement. The rejected charges involved the following:...

"Stun Belt" Reversal

Posted on June 30, 2009
The New York Court of Appeals has reversed a criminal conviction of a defendant charged with the murder by strangulation of a 14 year old victim. The trial court had ordered the defendant to wear a "stun belt" restraint during...

CLE-Related Judicial Misconduct

Posted on June 30, 2009
A South Carolina magistrate judge was sanctioned for misconduct relaing to fulfilling his CLE obligations. The South Carolina Supreme Court described the misconduct as follows: In this judicial disciplinary case, respondent Magistrate Judge...admits altering a court order and a letter...

No Sanction For Judge

Posted on June 29, 2009
The Louisiana Supreme Court agreed with a finding of its Judiciary Commission that a judge had violated the Code of Judicial Conduct but rejected the proposed public censure sanction because the "wrongdoing does not rise to the level of misconduct...

A Comment on Law School 4.0

Posted on June 29, 2009
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw An op-ed by Paul Lippe (no relation) at the Am Law Daily on what law schools ought to do to cure THE PROBLEM has gotten a fair amount of buzz in the blogosphere, including from our...

Drinks At Shanghi Red's Leads To Judge's Resignation

Posted on June 29, 2009
WGRZ.com reports on a judicial misconduct matter: Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita says State Supreme Court Judge Joseph Makowski and local attorney Anne Adams conspired to try and make a DWI case against Adams go away. Last September, Makowski...

The End of an Era: the Bi-Modal Distribution for the Class of 2008

Posted on June 29, 2009
[posted by Bill Henderson, crossposted to ELS Blog] NALP has just posted its entry-level starting salary for class of 2008--i.e., the lawyers who started their jobs just as Bear Sterns and Lehman Bros unraveled and the credit markets completely froze...

No Reciprocal Discipline

Posted on June 29, 2009
Adhering to the reasoning of a recent opinion that we posted, the Georgia Supreme Court dismissed a reciprocal discipline matter involving the suspension of an attorney in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia. The court...

Trucking To Suspension

Posted on June 29, 2009
An attorney who engaged in multiple instances of driving under the influence exacerbated by flight from the scene and a false claim that his car was being driven by a stripper was suspended for three years by the Louisiana Supreme...

Louisiana Disbarment

Posted on June 29, 2009
The Louisiana Supreme Court Court disbarred and revoked the license of an attorney for misconduct in several matters. In one case the attorney made a false representation to a court in the course of representing her sister in a domestic...

Substantial Threat

Posted on June 29, 2009
The North Dakota Supreme Court imposed a suspension pending the disposition of disciplinary proceedings in a case where the lawyer has been charged with, but not convicted of, criminal charges. The court describes the charges: The Application [for suspension] states...

Rehearing Denied

Posted on June 26, 2009
The District of Columbia Court of Appeals entered an order yesterday that denied a motion for rehearing or rehearing en banc in a case where the court had not imposed an interim suspension for a felony conviction. Bar Counsel had...

No Right To Rummage

Posted on June 26, 2009
The New Jersey Appellate Court has issued a decision concerning an employee's rights with respect to emails sent to her attorney on a computer provided by the employer: ...we address whether workplace regulations converted an employee's emails with her attorney--...

Advertising Issue, Other Misconduct, Draws Suspension

Posted on June 26, 2009
The Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered a six-month suspension of an attorney for ethical violations in a number of matters. One case involved the attorney's submission of an expert's bill for payment by the State. The State paid the bill but...

Federal Law Preempts Unauthorized Practice Rules

Posted on June 26, 2009
The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska ("Tribe") filed a motion to intervene in an appeal of a child custody matter involving two children who are members of the Tribe. The lower court had denied the motion because it was not signed...

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