Legal Ethics Forum: Ethics

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Ethics Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

Ethics

Legal Ethics Forum

Covering Legal Ethics

Post Frequency: 11.2/day

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

Law schools and "cooking the books"

Posted on August 26, 2008
The WSJ has an article about law school rankings, prompting Larry Ribstein to suggest that the schools' efforts to game their rankings has disturbing similarities to accounting fraud. I agree, and it's the most powerful kind of teaching: teaching by....

New ABA Ethics Opinion on Legal Process Outsourcing

Posted on August 26, 2008
A summary of the opinion (08-451) is here. For previous commentary on this issue and links to related stories, see here, here, and here.

In the News...

Posted on August 25, 2008
Here's a summary of an interesting legal ethics case out of Delaware involving litigation misconduct. And here's a new and provocatively titled article from co-blogger Anita Bernstein called, Sanctioning the Ambulance Chaser. The article raises issues that are addressed to...

Thoughtful new decision on conflicts of interests and experts

Posted on August 22, 2008
From the Southern District of West Virginia comes Rhodes v. DuPont, __ F.Supp.2d __ (S.D. W.Va. 2008), a thoughtful decision addressing conflicts of interest and experts. I've got an article about this issue on ssrn, here, and found this case...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Public Benefits from Lawyer Marketing

Posted on August 21, 2008
Lawyer advertising is frequently criticized, but the criticisms often fail to consider how attorney advertising can benefit the public. For example, in this article, the authors claim that lawyers could reduce the rate of intestacy by learning to market wills...

Are more corporations relying on a single law firm?

Posted on August 20, 2008
When I teach PR, I talk about the decline of law firms' influence over their corporate clients given the rise of in-house legal departments and the tendency of clients to farm legal work out to many different firms on a...

Hood Case Update

Posted on August 20, 2008
Here is an update on the Hood case. You may recall that Hood is facing execution next month even though there is substantial evidence that the prosecutor in the case was secretly sleeping with the judge at the time of...

King & Spalding Socked with $90k Discovery Sanction

Posted on August 19, 2008
This is one of those "think before you leap" lessons. Lawyer A says Lawyer B had obstructed discovery and misrepresented facts to the court. Judge says he's going to figure out who's telling the truth. He did so. Essentially, the...

Nonlawyer Disbarred by Federal Court

Posted on August 19, 2008
No, that's not a typo. Read the story here.

Law and the Highwayman

Posted on August 14, 2008
Earlier this summer Brad and I had a small exchange over whether there is any sort of prima facie moral obligation to obey the law, which one might then use to derive a theory of ethics for those who run...

Fun "Undercover Investigator" Case

Posted on August 14, 2008
I've been meaning to write this case since it came out, because it's so interesting: In re Curry, 880 N.E.2d 388 (Mass. 2008). It's impossible to summarize, but essentially a lawyer thought a judge was biased and so set out...

Required Disclosure of Screen Names

Posted on August 13, 2008
The Autoadmit controversy suggests to me that admissions boards should consider clarifying their rules to require the disclosure of screen names an applicant has used in the past. As the linked article suggests, such disclosure may be relevant. I understand...

Law Professors as Expert Witnesses on Ethics

Posted on August 12, 2008
There?s an interesting column by Adam Liptak in today?s NYTimes about mercenary experts. I have neither the inclination nor the time to make a judgment on the merits of the dispute between Bill Simon and Bruce Green, but that dispute...

Comparative Legal Ethics -- reading suggestions?

Posted on August 12, 2008
Next summer I'm going to be teaching American law students in Rome, and I'd like to do a course on comparative legal ethics. Has anyone taught such a course? Can anyone recommend some sort of introductory survey-type reader that is...

ABA Action on Model Rule 1.10 Put Off Until February 2009

Posted on August 12, 2008
The ABA's House of Delegates has voted to postpone consideration of a proposed amendment to Rule 1.10 that would have permitted the screening of certain kinds of conflicts created by laterally-hired attorneys. I am told that the House of Delegates...

Could "Hot-Tubbing" Work Here?

Posted on August 12, 2008
In Adam Liptak's New York Times article on the American legal system's distinctive approach to expert testimony, the most intriguing idea was the Australian practice of "hot tubbing": In that procedure, also called concurrent evidence, experts are still chosen by...

The Impact of Ideology on Judicial Decision Making

Posted on August 11, 2008
A few months ago, Justice Scalia claimed that his socially conservative personal views did not affect his judicial decision making. When he made that claim, I expressed some surprise because it flies in the face of a lot of what...

Interest in Legal Ethics Over Time

Posted on August 06, 2008
This chart is more amusing than scientific, but it shows the decline in google searches for the term "legal ethics" over time. (Insert your favorite joke here.) For legal educators, here is another depressing chart. Technically, the charts only show....

The Threatened AALS Boycott

Posted on August 05, 2008
According to this article, several law professor groups are threatening to boycott AALS events held at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, because the hotel's owner contributed $125,000 to an initiative to ban same-sex marriage in California. On the...

Bleg: bibliography on lawyers and the Global War on Terrorism

Posted on August 05, 2008
Readers, can you help me draw up a list of books that are essential reading about the role of lawyers (and legal ethics) in the Global War on Terrorism? We've seen books by Goldsmith, Luban, Yoo, Lichtblau, Mayer, and others....

Judicial Elections and Due Process

Posted on August 02, 2008
From Law.com High Court Review Sought on Judicial Recusals Marcia Coyle August 04, 2008 The ethical hornets' nest stirred up by the refusal of an acting West Virginia chief justice to recuse himself from a multimillion-dollar appeal involving his major...

Lawyer religion, conflicts and judicial ethics

Posted on August 01, 2008
This seems relevant given Rob's post. A recent Alberta case gave summary judgment dismissing a claim against two lawyers sued for a conflict allegedly arising from the fact that a) the lawyers were Jehovah's Witnesses; b) acted for Watch Tower,...

Jena Six judge recused

Posted on August 01, 2008
Story here.

Two interesting cases: (1) providing docs to federal government isn't waiver, given DOJ policy, and (2) state courts can adjudicate patent malpractice claims

Posted on August 01, 2008
Given the harshness of the DOJ's policy about threatening criminal charges if companies don't waive privilege, a California Court of Appeal held that turning over documents to the feds may not act as a waiver of privilege as to those...

Faith-based lawyer advertising

Posted on August 01, 2008
The ABA Journal has a story on lawyers referring to their religious faith on their websites: Among the mentions on [the lawyer's] firm site are the numerous mass tort cases that he handles, the multimillion-dollar settlements or verdicts he has...

Interesting Forum Selection Clause Case

Posted on August 01, 2008
The Fifth Circuit recently upheld a forum selection clause in a retainer agreement, holding that the court should have granted the law firm's motion to dismiss the suit because it had not been filed in the forum designated by the...

Three Cheers for Peter Keisler

Posted on July 30, 2008
Politicized hiring for non-political positions at the DOJ has been in the news of late. Monica Goodling has come in for a good deal of official and unofficial criticism, which is appropriate. But good examples are as useful as examples...

Judicial campaigns

Posted on July 30, 2008
The Minnesota State Bar Association has formed a committee to help candidates for judicial office campaign with "dignity" and "integrity."

Bill Henderson on the new bi-modal salary statistics

Posted on July 30, 2008
Bill, cross-posting to Legal Profession Blog and Empirical Legal Studies, has the latest stats and implications of the increasingly extreme bi-modal distribution of first year salaries.

Preparing to Live Syndrome

Posted on July 29, 2008
The Texas Lawyer has a piece by a "professional coach" and psychotherapist, James Dolan, about lawyers' struggle with what he calls "preparing to live syndrome." (HT: WSJ law blog) Dolan explains: To assume that one doesn't have time to grasp...

Previous | Next

Related Law Bulletins

Update on AILF's Legal Action Center Visa Bulletin Litigation (Updated 7/10/07)
The following is the latest update from AILF regarding its pening ...

The Immigrant Legal Resource Center Legislative Forecast
The ILRC Forecast on Immigration ReformJudith Golub, Executive Dir...

The Christian Legal Society and "discrimation": Response to Susan
In response to Susan's post, I'm inclined to think that, yes, the ...

Stacy Scnheider Legal Commentator Apprentice

Catholic Legal Theory and life and death
Tom Berg’s question regarding the propriety or not of capital pu...