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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

Failed Conditional Admission

Posted on February 05, 2009
The recent trend toward conditional bar admission of applicants with a history of substance abuse problems raises interesting questions concerning the appropriate response to post-conditional admission problems. A recent report of an Arizona hearing officer recommends suspension of a year...

Rat As Free Speech

Posted on February 05, 2009
A municipal ordinance that prohibited balloon-type inflated displays for the purpose of attracting the attention of pedestrians and motorists was held to be an unconstitutional infringement of free speech rights by a unanimous New Jersey Supreme Court as applied to...

Some Real-World Pedagogy for Agency Law and Other Social Disabilities Arising Out of "Thinking Like a Lawyer"

Posted on February 05, 2009
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw In an effort to demonstrate what "thinking like a lawyer" means (for better but, more likely, for far worse) to my agency, partnership, and LLC class, I sent the following e-mail today:I don't usually obsess on...

TurboTax Error on Form 4562 Calculating Maximum Section 179 Expensing Depreciation Limitation?

Posted on February 04, 2009
Posted by Alan Childress Wildly off topic but hopefully helpful to someone, as I am finding nothing on this by googling turbotax error form 4562 (or as Turbo Tax.) I want someone to be able to find this post if...

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Judge Not

Posted on February 04, 2009
The Florida Supreme Court has issued an opinion advising Governor Crist that he may not issue a commission to a suspended lawyer for the position of circuit court judge. The suspended lawyer had been elected to the judgeship. In order...

Stealing From Humane Society Draws Suspension

Posted on February 04, 2009
From the web page of the Ohio Supreme Court:In a per curiam decision announced today, the Supreme Court of Ohio adopted findings by the Board of Commissioners on Grievances & Discipline that [the attorney] misappropriated funds from the Greene County...

Dangers Of Suing A Client

Posted on February 04, 2009
A Maryland lawyer retained to handle a custody suit filed suit against the client for unpaid fees. The client counterclaimed alleging that the lawyer had breached the retainer contract by failing to properly represent him and sought the return of...

Suspension For Suggestion that Judge Was Racist

Posted on February 04, 2009
This seems to be the season of sanctioning lawyers for alleged false statements about judges. A Louisiana Hearing Board found that a lawyer had stated or implied that a judge was a racist in a recusal motion. The focus of...

Inconsistent Contentions

Posted on February 04, 2009
The Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board recommends the disbarment of an attorney who had taken for himself $50,000 of a personal injury settlement due to his firm. He had also violated the duty to appropriately safeguard entrusted funds and lied to...

A Clear Conflict

Posted on February 04, 2009
A report and recommendation filed last week in Arizona raises interesting questions concerning the level of appropriate sanction. The lawyer was retained by a client who operated a small day care out of her home. While in her care, her...

File The Appeal

Posted on February 03, 2009
The West Virginia Supreme Court denied habeas corpus relief to a convicted criminal defendant where disagreements with counsel had delayed the submission of an appeals brief: After sentencing, the Petitioner and his attorneys...have had communication problems and disagreements over how...

Loss Of Objectivity Leads To Censure

Posted on February 03, 2009
A lawyer who had asserted in his reply brief in a will contest appeal that the decision below was "politically motivated" was censured by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The court followed the recommendation of its Disciplinary Board. The complaint was...

Unauthorized Practice

Posted on February 03, 2009
In separate opinions, the Ohio Supreme Court sanctioned non-lawyers for the unauthorized practice of law. In one matter, the court's web page summmarizes the findings:In a decision announced today, the Supreme Court of Ohio agreed with a holding by the...

Not Privileged

Posted on February 03, 2009
A case decided today by the North Carolina Court of Appeals considers attorney-client privilege in the following context: The lawyer represented the client in a criminal matter leading to a guilty plea. The client had buyer's remorse and sought to...

Accusations Against Judge Lead To Five Year Suspension

Posted on February 03, 2009
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court (with one justice dissenting) adopted the Disciplinary Board's proposed five year suspension of a 73 year old attorney with no prior discipline. The misconduct involved false allegations of criminal conduct on the part of as judge...

The Perils Of Fee Arbitration

Posted on February 03, 2009
The Alaska Supreme Court affirmed a fee arbitration award in favor of an attorney. The client had retained the attorney in a criminal case and paid for most of the services. He fired the lawyer when plea negotiations broke down,...

Fifth Amendment In Bar Discipline

Posted on February 02, 2009
The Illinois Review Board has recommended a two year suspension with reinstatement conditioned on further court order in a case involving possession and use of cannibis and cocaine. The board denied a motion to submit the case as an agreed...

The New Era Begins In D.C.

Posted on February 02, 2009
Linked here is the very first hearing committee report from the District of Columbia approving an agreed disposition. The hearing committee accepts as proven (after a proceeding that looked a lot like a criminal plea) a laundry list of ethics...

Reduction Denied

Posted on February 02, 2009
The New Jersey Appellate Division affirmed a finding of the trial court that denied a downward modification of a father's alimony and child support "rendered after a multi-day plenary hearing approximately one year earlier-- that defendant's claim of his law...

State v. Federal Bar Discipline

Posted on February 02, 2009
The difference between federal and state court bar sanctions is on display in a recent report and recommendation of the Illinois Review Board. The attorney had failed to provide competent representation, advanced unwarranted claims and defenses and attacked the integrity...

"Blessing Of The Bikes"

Posted on February 02, 2009
The Pennsylvania Court of Judicial Discipline ordered that a Philadelphia traffic court judge be reprimanded and placed on probation for his seeking finiancial support in his campaign for office at a biker's rally. According to the court's findings, the judge...

Explanation and Meaning in the Merrill Lynch/Bank of America Transaction

Posted on February 01, 2009
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw The ongoing contretemps involving John Thain's recent dismissal from Merrill Lynch is once again (and unfortunately) an object lesson for corporate insiders and outsiders in the subtleties of judgment. I am, as Ronald Gilson observed of...

An Offer To Refuse

Posted on January 31, 2009
The Missouri Supreme Court indefinitely suspended an attorney for a minimum of six months for misconduct committed during his representation of a defendant on felony forgery charges. The lawyer advised the prosecutor that his client was the godchild of Terry...

Deceit, Deception And Lies

Posted on January 31, 2009
The Florida Supreme Court upheld the decision of its Board of Bar Examiners to refuse to process the application for readmission of a disbarred lawyer. The court declined the applicant's plea to "extricate and rescue him from the web of...

Credit For Time Served

Posted on January 31, 2009
The Louisiana Supreme Court imposed a suspension of two years in a matter where the attorney had been convicted of felony unauthorized entry into an inhabited dwelling stemming from a dispute with his former fiancee. After he was suspended on...

Evidence Of Malice

Posted on January 30, 2009
In a civil case brought by the victims of an attorney who had misappropriated entrusted funds, the Vermont Supreme Court reversed and remanded a jury award to consider additional damages based on the lawyer's malice. The key facts: Here, plaintiffs?....

Less Than Disbarment

Posted on January 30, 2009
An attorney was suspended for two years (which requires that he petition for reinstatement) by the Kansas Supreme Court. The attorney engaged in misconduct in three client matters, failed to respond to disciplinary counsel and provided false testimony in the...

Rumors of the Death of the Billable Hour Continue to Be Exaggerated

Posted on January 30, 2009
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw I can't let it pass without comment when a front page story in the New York Times claims "Billable Hours Giving Ground at Law Firms." I don't need to call my friend and empirical guru Bill...

Daily Grind

Posted on January 30, 2009
A case decided today by the Nebraska Supreme Court analyzes the question of the extent to which an attorney can competently represent clients in an area of practice where the attorney has little or no prior experience. The attorney has...

Reprimand With CLE Requirements

Posted on January 30, 2009
An attorney who had mishandled a civil appeal was publicly reprimanded by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.The factual predicate: On January 2, 2004, Attorney Mulligan filed a cross-appeal seeking reversal of the jury's finding that a breach of contract had occurred...

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