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Ethics

Legal Ethics Forum

Covering Legal Ethics

Post Frequency: 11.2/day

Last Entry: August 14, 2020 at 13:23:48

The Assisted Suicide Lottery

Posted on September 25, 2009
Advising Clients About Law Enforcement Practices Tax attorneys debate informing clients about the ?audit lottery.? The Restatement of the LGL, section 94, cmt. (f) suggests that it?s wrong to tell a client that the likelihood is that he won?t be...

One article request

Posted on September 25, 2009
In my section on "government lawyers" I teach the students a little about the torture lawyers. These are relatively well informed Canadian law students, which means they mostly only have some general knowledge of the issues. I want to give...

No constitutional right to court room slobbery...

Posted on September 25, 2009
An attempt to argue for a constitutional right to wear jeans and a baseball cap in court failed: here

"Law" within the Bush administration: too little, too much, the wrong kind?

Posted on September 24, 2009
The role of lawyers in the Global War on Terrorism remains the dominant legal ethics issue of our time. We frequently hear criticism of the Bush administration for abandoning the rule of law. Here's an interesting post from Mary Dudziak,...

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Discovery sanctions affirmed for game playing; lawyer claims duty to be zealous -- "even at peril to myself."

Posted on September 24, 2009
The opinion's here. It deals with all-too-typical petty game playing during discovery, and the opinion is appropriately dismissive of the behavior of plaintiff's counsel. (For example, when hit with an interrogatory requesting a statement of "economic damages" -- which is...

ABA strikes back at FTC regulation of lawyers as "creditors"

Posted on September 24, 2009
The ABA has filed for partial summary judgment (brief here) in its lawsuit (complaint here) against the FTC for regulating lawyers as "creditors." The ABA argues that the FTC exceeded its Congressional mandate on this issue. This type of federal...

Steve Gillers' new book

Posted on September 23, 2009
I just received in the mail, and am looking forward to reading, Steve Gillers' new one-volume treatise, Regulation of the Legal Profession. It's in the Essentials series published by Aspen.

Corporations as Persons

Posted on September 22, 2009
With regard to an issue raised earlier, the NYTimes says in an editorial today that corporations shouldn't be treated as real persons for all speech purposes because corporations can't vote, run for office, or bear arms. However, that is true...

Renee Knake on the Supreme Court's docket of law of lawyering cases

Posted on September 21, 2009
Renee Knake sends along this post: Thanks both to John Steele, who recently featured my article on the Supreme Court?s increased attention to the law of lawyering during the upcoming term, and to Andrew Perlman for presenting me with the...

Slate on the Hood Case

Posted on September 21, 2009
Slate has posted an excellent story (here) about the recent developments in the Charles Hood case.

Inaugural Symposium of Akron Law School's Miller-Becker Institute

Posted on September 21, 2009
Akron Law School's Miller-Becker Institute for Professional Responsibility is holding a symposium on October 8th and 9th. The themes include ?Lawyers Beyond Borders? and ?Practicing Law in the Electronic Age.? More details are here.

Berkeley Conference on Social Networks -- Legal and Ethical Issues

Posted on September 21, 2009
Panels here; description of conference here. I'll be on this panel: Can Lawyers ?Tweet? About Their Work? Confidentiality & Legal Professionalism in the Age of Social Media Lawyers? uses of social media tools and networks raise distinct challenges to the...

Is a congressional witness entitled to attorney-client privilege?

Posted on September 21, 2009
As the Times story today signals, a House committee is prepared to require Bank of America to reveal information it has withheld from the SEC and AG Cuomo on grounds of privilege. The privilege doesn't apply in Congress, says the...

Salon on the Hood Case

Posted on September 21, 2009
Salon.com has posted an excellent story (here) about the recent developments in the Charles Hood case. Correction: As originally posted, I had mistakenly said that the story was on slate.com.

McAfee's former GC sues corporation's lawyers. Do we need a bill of rights for corporate officers/agents?

Posted on September 18, 2009
Story here. In the wake of financial scandals, we are seeing a lot of this -- corporate officers claiming that the corporation's counsel threw the officers under the bus. Sometimes the officers claim that they were a co-client (as in...

Do we need ethics rules?

Posted on September 18, 2009
I know it's been asked before, but if we assume for a moment that there are no professional conduct rules, wouldn't the courts, via caselaw, and perhaps the legislatures, fill the void; and might we not expect the product that...

"Hood"winking in Texas

Posted on September 17, 2009
Readers may recall Charles Hood, who faces execution even though the prosecutor and judge in his case have admitted to having had a secret affair prior to his trial. (Links to previous coverage and commentary are here.) Unfortunately, but not...

The Supreme Court and the law of lawyering

Posted on September 15, 2009
PR is hot, hot, hot. Renee Knake's new article alerts us to six -- count'em six -- pending cases at the Supreme Court dealing with the law of lawyering. In Prioritizing Professional Responsibility and the Legal Profession: An Emerging Trend...

Sample Exam Question

Posted on September 14, 2009
I post sample exam questions from time to time. I used this one last semester. ******* You and another associate work for Margret Brant at her three-person law firm. You arrive at work one day and find that Brant has...

How Hard Should We Work to Avoid "The Death of Big Law?"

Posted on September 14, 2009
Larry Ribstein recently posted his new paper, "The Death of Big Law," and I recommend reading it, though I resist some of his conclusions. He argues that there are several regulatory reforms that are needed in order to facilitate the...

The Legal Ethics of Metadata Mining

Posted on September 14, 2009
I've been blogging about the issue for years (I'll save you a parade of links), but I finally had the chance to pull my thoughts together in an article for an upcoming symposium at Akron Law School. I'd welcome feedback...

Judge Rakoff's Latest: Shades of Stanley Sporkin

Posted on September 14, 2009
The Times website has a link to Rakoff's refusal to approve the Bank of America/SEC consent degree. (I'd hyperlink it if I knew how.) We've been discussing the litigation in class because of the possibility of waiver of privilege by...

Risks for Young Lawyers In Cyberspace

Posted on September 13, 2009
Helpful for those of us who teach legal ethics (and for lawyers generally) is a front page NYT story today about the dangers of revealing confidential information in virtual reality, even if you think you're disguising the facts; or of...

Ted Olson Coming and Going

Posted on September 13, 2009
No one is complaining and far be it from me to do so, but purely as an (um) academic matter, is there anything improper in the fact that as solicitor general Ted Olson successfully defended McCain-Feingold against constitutional challenge, and...

Dilbert takes a swipe at IP lawyers

Posted on September 12, 2009
This gave me a chuckle.

Bankruptcy trustee files suit against K&L Gates over LeNature's failure

Posted on September 11, 2009
These days, is there anyone scarier to law firms than the bankruptcy trustees? Story here.

Alexandra Lahav, "Portraits of Resistance: Lawyer Responses to Unjust Proceedings"

Posted on September 11, 2009
Article here; author's page. I once had a civil rights lawyer speak to my students about what it was like to represent indigent African-Americans in rural southern courts where the judges weren't lawyers and were prejudiced. The lawyer told us...

Why did Bank of America fire its General Counsel?

Posted on September 11, 2009
The NYT wants to know, and it wonders if the firing was related to unreported losses. Between the lines, the NYT suggests that, perhaps, the general counsel was fired because he was trying to make the company do the right...

Rob Vischer: "Professionalizing Moral Engagement"

Posted on September 11, 2009
Article here. Abstract: This essay is an invited response to Michael Hatfield, who argues that the legal profession might avoid creating lawyers willing to ?sign off on torture if their professional education did not begin with dis-integrating the skills for...

New movie, The Informant, has lotsa legal ethics angles

Posted on September 11, 2009
One of my favorite non-fiction books, The Informant, is now a movie starring Matt Damon. (Blawgosphere comments here) The movie has some great legal ethics issues and if you teach PR and are interested, shoot me an email and I...

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