Ethics

• Voxy: New Zealand lawyers are working to find creative solutions to the legal problems arising from the earthquake.
• Foreign Corrupt Practice Act Blog: can concealing information from the company's lawyers be obstruction of justice?  (I want to fight that possibility, but if the feds "deputize" the company lawyers and get them to pull the oars for the government . . . ) 
• Associated Press: Attorney General Holder used the 50th anniversary of To Kill a Mockingbird to speak in Alabama about the state of today's civil liberties.  As ethicist aficionados know, Alabama played a pivotal role in the developments of US legal ethics.
• The Northwestern: The facts surrounding Wisconsin DA Ken Kratz -- who sent suggestive texts to victims -- are getting worse. And the Journal Sentinel looks at the confidentiality that applies to Wisconsin discipline cases.
• Holvenstot v. Nusbam: New Jersey appellate case affirms summary judgment for trusts & estate lawyers because no duty was owed to plaintiff.
• If I'm reading this job posting correctly, the Department of Homeland Security is looking for s Director of its Office of Professional Responsibility.
• Supreme Court of Indiana: In re Termination of Parent-Child Relationship of I.B.

Parents have a statutory right to appellate counsel to appeal an order terminating their parental rights. This right to appeal can be waived. And it is improper for a parent's trial lawyer, after the lawyer has exercised due diligence to determine the parent's wishes with respect to an appeal, to pursue an appeal without the parent's authorization.

The judgment of the juvenile court denying appointment of appellate counsel to represent Mother in an appeal of the involuntary termination of the parent-child relationship order is affirmed.