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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

Do Not Pass Go

Posted on January 06, 2010
The New York Appellate Division for the Fourth Judicial Department imposed a 30 day jail sentence for contempt of an order of suspension. The attorney had been personally served with the suspension order. He nonetheless maintained a law office, met...

AUSA Charged With Unauthorized Practice

Posted on January 06, 2010
The North Carolina State Bar has filed disciplinary charges alleging misconduct of an attorney while serving as an Assistant United States Attorney assigned to four federal districts. It is alleged that he practiced without an active law license from November...

What Does Someone Have To Do To Get Disbarred Around Here?

Posted on January 05, 2010
The District of Columbia Board on Professional Responsibility has agreed with a hearing committee that an attorney engaged in serious misconduct both in his practice and in the disciplinary process but rejected Bar Counsel and the committee's proposed disbarment in...

Conference Announcement on Law Firm Evolution; Timely WSJ Article Begging the Question: "Do Lawyers Evolve Sufficiently to Use the Technology Placed at Their Fingertips?"

Posted on January 05, 2010
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw Carole Silver (Georgetown) passed along an announcement for ?Law Firm Evolution: Brave New World or Business As Usual.? The conference will take place at Georgetown Law Center in Washington, beginning with an evening reception on March...

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A Sanctioning Disagreement

Posted on January 05, 2010
A majority of the Illinois Review Board has recommended a two year suspension without automatic reinstatement in a case where the attorney had been charged in four matters. Two involved alcohol-related traffic incidents. One involved charges relating his relationship with...

No Joking Matter

Posted on January 04, 2010
The New York Commission on Judicial Conduct has censured a village court justice for refusing to take an agreed-upon plea of guilty in a case until the agreement allowed him to impose fines for the benefit of the Village. He...

"Relatively Minor Function" Draws Reprimand

Posted on January 04, 2010
A single justice of the Maine Supreme Court ordered a public reprimand of an attorney who "was asked by a former client to perform a relatively minor function as a closing agent for a real estate transaction." Unfortunately for the...

Failure To Inform

Posted on January 04, 2010
The web page of the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility reports that a Memphis lawyer was suspended for one year with the final six months suspended and six months of probation. The attorney had entered a conditional guilty plea to...

Not Ideal

Posted on January 03, 2010
The Iowa Court of Appeals reversed and remanded an order of professional discipline imposed by the Iowa Board of Medicine, concluding that the defense of laches had been established. The alleged incident of sexual abuse of a minor patient occurred...

Would-Be Iowa Law Prof Litigant Responds

Posted on January 02, 2010
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw Back in August, the ABA Journal ran a story on a Michigan lawyer and academic aspirant, Donald Dobkin, who was suing the University of Iowa Law School on an age discrimination theory. Usha Rodrigues commented over...

The Origin of Black Holes

Posted on January 02, 2010
I know the title sounds like this post is from Jeff and actually relates to the practice of corporate law. It is not, though I do link the New York Times. In fact it is my unrelated new year's post...

I Could Write A Book

Posted on January 02, 2010
The web page of the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers has a summary of a recent case: On June 11, 2009, the respondent was convicted in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia of knowingly making and...

Discipline Proposed For "High Profile" Attorney

Posted on January 02, 2010
From the January 2010 online edition of the California Bar Journal: In an unusually scathing opinion, a State Bar Court judge recommended that high profile San Francisco attorney Philip Kay be suspended for three years, citing his ?rude and disrespectful...

2010

Posted on January 01, 2010
Happy New Year to everyone! Let's hope this year promises to be the best ever.

Judge Censured For Improper Recusals

Posted on December 31, 2009
The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct has censured a Cattaraugas County judge for recusing himself in 11 matters not because of a legitimate basis in law but rather as a "tactic" and "weapon" to further his interest in...

Reinstatement Petition Denied

Posted on December 30, 2009
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has accepted the recommendation of its Disciplinary Board to deny the reinstatement petition of an attorney disbarred by consent in 2002. The petitioner had misappropriated funds from two estates and engaged in related dishonest conduct...

Harboring Dog May Lead To Liability

Posted on December 30, 2009
If you live in Wisconsin and allow someone with a dog to live with you, you may well be liable for the dog's bite. The Wisconsin Supreme Court held yesterday that the owner of premises was the "harborer" or "keeper"of...

Charges Against Suspended Judge

Posted on December 30, 2009
The web page of the Indiana Supreme Court recently reported: The Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications has filed disciplinary charges against suspended LaPorte Superior Court Judge Jennifer L. Koethe. The Commission alleges Judge Koethe deliberately omitted and misrepresented facts to...

"Drive Safely"

Posted on December 30, 2009
From the web page of the Ohio Supreme Court:The Supreme Court of Ohio today suspended the license of [a] Cincinnati attorney...for two years, with the second year of that term stayed on conditions, for neglecting the cases of three different...

MAP, TAP And LOMAP

Posted on December 29, 2009
An Arizona Hearing Officer has concluded that an attorney violated provisions of probation that required him to participate in the Bar's MAP (member assistance), TAP (trust account assistance) and LOMAP (law office management assistance) programs. The lawyer had served a...

Very High Probability

Posted on December 29, 2009
The Indiana Supreme Court has imposed a 30 day suspension of an attorney for participating in an court-approved divorce agreement that the client's husband was not the father of her child notwithstanding DNA testing that showed a "very high probability"...

Timely Steps

Posted on December 29, 2009
A case decided last week by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals involved charges against an attorney who practices principally in California. The charges involved his handling of an immigration matter. The court adopted the recommended sanction of the...

"A Highly Fluid, Rapidly Changing, And Perhaps Confusing Situation..."

Posted on December 29, 2009
An attorney who had exercised self-help in a dispute over fees with his former law firm was suspended for 90 days by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The court accepted the referee's findings of the following facts:These disciplinary proceedings arise from...

Misuse Of Trust Account

Posted on December 29, 2009
The web page of the Ohio Supreme Court notes: The Supreme Court of Ohio today imposed a 24-month suspension against the license of [a] Cleveland attorney...for engaging in a pattern of misconduct in which [he] commingled his own funds with...

Spoon River Anthology

Posted on December 28, 2009
The Illinois Administrator has filed a disciplinary complaint alleging that an attorney improperly communicated with a represented party. The representation involved a property dispute that resulted in a shift in the course of the Spoon River: In Fulton County, Illinois,...

One Will, Two Suspensions

Posted on December 28, 2009
An attorney went to the hospital to visit a 95 year old client who had suffered a broken hip. The client wanted to have a will drawn that would make the lawyer his sole beneficiary and name the lawyer's son...

No Details Required

Posted on December 28, 2009
An attorney appointed to represent a client in a post-conviction proceeding may withdraw from the matter based on her assertion that continued representation would involve violation of disciplinary rules without filing an Anders-type pleading that details the problem, according to...

CLE Suspensions In Ohio

Posted on December 28, 2009
From the web page of the Ohio Supreme Court: The Commission on Continuing Legal Education today issued sanctions against 356 attorneys who failed to comply with the continuing legal education requirements for the 2009 reporting period. Included in today?s sanctions...

First Amendment And Jury Questionnaires

Posted on December 28, 2009
In the criminal case involving O.J. Simpson, the Nevada Supreme Court has held that there is a limited First Amendment right to access to information about the jury pool. The court held: This petition for extraordinary writ relief challenges the...

Failure To Grant Continuance Leads To Remand

Posted on December 24, 2009
The Supreme Court of Washington has rejected by a 5-4 vote a recommendation for disbarment and remanded the matter for a hearing. The attorney practices in Oregon and obtained admission in Washington in order to handle his mother's divorce from...

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