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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 Favorable Information

Posted on March 24, 2011
The Maryland Court of Appeals disbarred an attorney who had solicited, and then totally neglected, two client matters. In both cases before us, [the attorney] clearly neglected his clients, leaving one client to fend for himself at his own hearing...

Internet Posting Leads To Charge Of Confidentiality Breach

Posted on March 24, 2011
I regularly preach to law students about the danger of letting hurt feelings or anger govern one's behavior in the wake of being terminated by a client. The lesson comes in the discussion of Rule 1.16(d). A complaint filed recently...

Probation For Psychologist

Posted on March 24, 2011
The Delaware Superior Court affirmed a determination of the Bpard of Examiners of Psychologists to place a psychologist on six-months probation for his failure to meet CLE obligations and erroneous assestation that he had done so. He must be supurvised...

Shpoonkle

Posted on March 23, 2011
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw This is the dignified name of the online lawyer bidding service created by a New York Law School student, and which merited an article in today's Wall Street Journal. Back when I was in the business...

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Fee Misconduct Draws Suspension

Posted on March 23, 2011
The North Dakota Supreme Court has imposed a 30 day suspension of an attorney for fee-related misconduct: The Hearing Panel found subsequently that [the attorney] had no written fee agreement with [the client]. However, she had orally agreed to an...

Nine Tenths Of The Law

Posted on March 23, 2011
The Arizona Supreme Court imposed discipline (a one-year suspension with two-years probation on reinstatement) in a matter than we previously reported. The attorney's misconduct arose from her claims that she had been possessed by the spirit of the client's deceased...

Bite Is Worse

Posted on March 23, 2011
An attorney who defaulted on charges that he defrauded a company through a Ponzi scheme, issued bad escrow checks, defrauded a number of individuals out of substantial sums of money and failed to provide financial records in reponse to the...

Discipline Costs Discharged By Bankruptcy

Posted on March 23, 2011
A suspended attorney who had been ordered to pay the costs of the disciplinary proceeding appealed for relief from the assessed costs. He then filed for bankruptcy and obtained an order that discharged his pre-bankruptcy debts. The Tennessee Supreme Court...

Witness Advocate Rule Applied

Posted on March 23, 2011
The New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department affirmed an order disqualifying counsel in civil litigation: Plaintiff law firm demonstrated that defendant's counsel played a vital role in the final settlement negotiations flowing from a settlement offer that...

Katrina's Wake

Posted on March 22, 2011
A Louisiana hearing committee has recommended a public reprimand of an attorney who notarized four lawsuits initiated by a non-attorney "public adjuster" alleging insurance claims for damages sustained in Hurricane Katrina. The attorney was employed as a law clerk in...

"A Series Of Personal Crises"

Posted on March 22, 2011
The South Carolina Supreme Court imposed a definite suspension in a matter in which the attorney accepted a fee while serving an earlier suspension: Although Client's mother testified Respondent informed her that his license to practice law was suspended, he...

The Downside Of Flat Fees

Posted on March 22, 2011
The Indiana Supreme Court approved a consented-to public reprimand of an attorney on stipulated facts: A criminal defendant hired Respondent to represent him for a flat fee of $15,000. Respondent prepared for trial three times, filed a motion in limine,...

Advanced Reciprocal Discipline

Posted on March 22, 2011
The Maryland Court of Appeals has entered an order disbarring an attorney as reciprocal discipline based on a recent opinion imposing that same sanction in the District of Columbia. The attorney had failed to respond to Maryland's order to show...

The Answer Is No Answer (Respectfully)

Posted on March 22, 2011
The San Diego County Bar Association has a recent ethics opinion on the dilemma faced by a defense attorney questioned by a judge about a non-appearing client: Analyzing all of these rules and ethics opinions, we conclude that in California,...

The Letter And the Law

Posted on March 22, 2011
The New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department reversed the lower court and dismissed a claim against a law firm: Supreme Court denied defendants' motion based on its finding that the moving papers were deficient because a March...

Eighth Sanction Still Not Disbarment

Posted on March 21, 2011
A majority of the New Jersey Disciplinary Review Board posed the following question: What discipline is appropriate for an attorney who does not learn from prior mistakes and who refuses to conform to the standards of the profession? As noted...

Highs and Lows

Posted on March 21, 2011
A former Massachusetts probate judge stipulated to a one-year suspension for misconduct summarized on the web page of the Board of Bar Overseers: In 1986, the respondent and a business partner formed, and were the sole general partners in, a...

The Hills Of Madison County

Posted on March 21, 2011
An attorney who was arrested for operating a vehicle while intoxicated when employed by the Madison County prosecutor's office as a deputy prosecutor was publicly reprimanded by the Indiana Supreme Court. The attorney had resigned the position and completed a...

Malpractice Award Upheld

Posted on March 21, 2011
The Idaho Supreme Court affirmed a judgment for legal malpractice in a case brought against a lawyer who represented the wife in a divorce matter. The attorney was found to have engaged in malpractice in that he had failed to...

The "Inexplicable" Ninth Circuit

Posted on March 21, 2011
The United States Supreme Court today issued a per curiam decision reversing the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit's finding that a trial prosecutor had struck two members of the jury venire for race-based reasons. The court...

Multiple Representation Results In Habeas Relief

Posted on March 21, 2011
The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed the grant of habeas corpus relief to a defendant who had been charged with kipnapping and pled guilty to false imprisonment. After serving a sentence of probation, the defendant (a lawful permanent resident from Uzbekistan)...

Malpractice Claims Go Forward

Posted on March 20, 2011
The New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department held that a trial court had properly denied a motion to dismiss a legal malpractice action: This action alleging legal malpractice arose out of defendants' representation of plaintiff in a...

And new hardbacks

Posted on March 19, 2011
Three of the books previous mentioned (e.g., Rosen on ethics and roles of lawyers who advise corporations, inhouse and outside) are in hardback now (and also at Ingram or Baker & Taylor catalogs), the first most relevant to this blog:...

Some Quick Book Notes on a Weekend

Posted on March 19, 2011
Posted by Alan Childress Brief update to book project: Jerome Skolnick's Justice Without Trial is now out in a 4th edition, with his new preface and new foreword by Candace McCoy. New cover but with those iconic handcuffs. As ebook...

Destination Hawaii

Posted on March 18, 2011
A District of Columbia Hearing Committee has recommended that a petition for reinstatement be denied: Petitioner was convicted of crimes that strike at the very integrity of the legal profession and judicial system. As a court-appointed attorney, he was given...

Hold On A Minute

Posted on March 17, 2011
The Florida Supreme Court has held that an order compelling production of the defendant insurance company entire litigation file by a trial court invaded the attorney-client privilege. The suit was initiated by a medical doctor after the insurance company had...

Ineffective Assistance

Posted on March 17, 2011
The Supreme Court of the State of Washington has held that a defense attorney's erroneous advice to a non-citizen regarding the deportation consequences of a guilty warranted reversal of the ensuing conviction. The court's majority opinion framed the issue: The...

Hair Condition

Posted on March 17, 2011
A Tennessee attorney has been reinstated from a temporary suspension resulting from non-compliance with a monitoring agreement with the Lawyers' Assistance Program. A hearing panel had recommended reinstatement with a condition that he "submit to hair tests at least every...

No Reinstatement

Posted on March 17, 2011
The Wisconsin Supreme Court denied a petition for reinstatement based on findings of an appointed referee: The referee found that Attorney...has practiced law during her suspension; has failed to fully comply with the terms of the order of her suspension;...

What's In A Name?

Posted on March 17, 2011
The Illinois Administrator has filed a three count complaint alleging misconduct by an attorney with the rather unusual last name of Cahnmann. Count One alleges that the attorney copied a judge's calender without permission and falsely denied that he had...

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