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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

Hot Air Leads To Proposed Disbarment

Posted on September 29, 2009
The Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board has recommended disbarment of an attorney who was retained to resolve a tax matter. The client sold balloons at New York county fairs and was charged with failure to pay state taxes. The attorney failed...

One Final Hurdle

Posted on September 29, 2009
The Georgia Supreme Court held yesterday that fitness for readmission was established of an attorney who had voluntarily surrendered his license in 1989. He had pled guilty to charges of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. He was pardoned...

Ohio Supreme Court Proposes Rule Changes For Felon-Applicants

Posted on September 28, 2009
From the web page of the Ohio Supreme Court: The Supreme Court of Ohio will accept public comment until Oct. 21 on a proposed rule change to expand mandatory Supreme Court review of the character, fitness and moral qualifications of...

Electronic Filing Policy Violation Draws Reprimand

Posted on September 28, 2009
A Michigan attorney was reprimanded for a Rule 1.1(b) violation (inadequate preparation under the circumstances). According to the order of the Attorney Discipline Board, he had "failed to follow the federal court's electronic filing policy when he submitted a document...

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Suspension Imposed

Posted on September 28, 2009
The Delaware Supreme Court rejected a public reprimand as proposed by its Board on Professional Responsibility and imposed a suspension of three months followed by probation for one year. The court concluded that the misconduct, which involved concurrent conflicts of...

Second Bite Allowed

Posted on September 28, 2009
In another interesting decision from Georgia involving reciprocal discipline, the Supreme Court dismissed as unproven a matter in which the attorney had entered a conditional plea to a public reprimand in Florida. The attorney had entered the conditional plea after...

Lipshaw on Leiter on Religion, and a Little More

Posted on September 27, 2009
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw I suppose it's appropriate to conclude the Ten Days of Awe of the Jewish calendar by tying up, on the eve of Yom Kippur, a loose end I started to unravel when I was sitting here...

No Forwarding Address

Posted on September 25, 2009
The Louisiana Supreme Court disbarred an attorney who had "engaged in a bond trading program wherein investment funds were to be maintained in an offshore account and used as collateral by foreign investors engaged in day trading." The attorney had...

Permanent Disbarment For Fen-Phen Conviction

Posted on September 25, 2009
The Mississippi Supreme Court has permanently disbarred an attorney convicted of conspiracy, mail fraud and wire fraud. The attorney had been the head of his law firm's mass torts section. He had been involved in fee-splitting and referral-fee arrangements to...

Convicted Lawyer Seeks New Trial Based On Internet Post

Posted on September 24, 2009
The web page of the Pennsylvania bar disciplinary system reports the interim suspension of an attorney based on a criminal conviction. The Chester County Daily Local News has some details about the underlying conviction and post-conviction contentions: The West Chester...

D.C. Flat Fee Decision

Posted on September 24, 2009
The District of Columbia Court of Appeals has held that a flat fee paid to a lawyer remains the property of the client until it is earned, unless the client gives informed consent that permits the lawyer to take the...

No Reinstatement For Operation Greylord Defendant

Posted on September 24, 2009
The IIlinois Review Board has agreed with a hearing panel and has recommended that a petition for reinstastement be denied. The attorney was convicted in Operation Greylord and had served a six-year prison term. He had consented to disbarment. The...

Retainer Agreement Granting Settlement Authority To Lawyer Unethical

Posted on September 23, 2009
A unanimous Missouri Supreme Court has imposed a stayed suspension and probation for one year in a case involving a fee agreement "purporting to give [the lawyer] sole authority to settle claims, with or without [the client's] consent." The agreement...

Parking In Parker

Posted on September 23, 2009
The Colorado Presiding Disciplinary Judge approved a conditional admission of misconduct and suspended an attorney for two years. The attorney had pled guilty to a misdemeanor of possession of a forged instrument. The instrument was a parking easement to the...

Law Professor Risks Career To Blog About Jury Duty

Posted on September 23, 2009
Posted by Alan Childress Not really. But given the rash of recent bar disciplines on lawyer-bloggers and law prof-bloggers who revealed too much about jury duty and the like, on which Mike Frisch became the Deep Throat of the New...

Judge Charged With Neglect And Nepotism

Posted on September 23, 2009
An elected Tennessee general sessions court judge who has served since 1998 has been charged with neglect of duties and other misconduct by the disciplinary counsel for the Court of the Judiciary. The charges (filed earlier this week) allege that...

Neglect Of Bankruptcy Clients Leads To Suspension

Posted on September 23, 2009
From the web page of the Ohio Supreme Court: The Supreme Court of Ohio today indefinitely suspended the law license of [a] Canton attorney... for multiple acts of professional misconduct in his handling of bankruptcy cases on behalf of several...

No Joint & Several Liability In Louisiana May Haunt Victims of Chinese Drywall

Posted on September 23, 2009
Posted by Alan Childress Not a legal ethics story, admittedly, but since you can't spell blogger without ego or bore, I am linking a story in The Times Picayune in which I am quoted on how tort reform will dehance...

"Struck Off"

Posted on September 22, 2009
A very interesting post from the Austrailian Professional Liability Blog in June links to an order imposing removal from the roll of legal practitioners of an attorney who had represented a client charged with drug smugling in Indonesia. The attorney...

The Paramour Provision

Posted on September 22, 2009
Not a legal profession case but of possible interest is a decision of the Tennessee Court of Appeals in post-divorce proceedings reversing a trial court decision that had required inclusion of a "paramour provision." The provision precluded overnight stays by...

Univ. of Akron Hosts Symposium on Legal Ethics Oct. 8-9, 2009

Posted on September 22, 2009
Posted by Alan Childress The Conference themes are ?Lawyers Beyond Borders? and ?Practicing Law in the Electronic Age.? The keynote speaker is Steve Gillers of NYU. University of Akron School of Law's Miller-Becker Institute for Professional Responsibility [with co-sponsorship from...

Open Season On Client File

Posted on September 22, 2009
A defendant under sentence of death filed a petition for post-conviction relief that included "allegations...so broad as to encompass effectively the entire scope of trial counsel's obligation's in [his] defense. Trial counsel met with attorneys of the Attorney General's Office...

Censure Proposed For Conditional Admission Violation

Posted on September 21, 2009
An attorney was conditionally admitted to practice in Arizona in September of 2008. The conditions required her to abstain from alcohol. Prior to admission, the attorney had a 2006 DUI conviction and a juvenile record for letting underage people drink...

Husson University Seeks Permission For Law Grads To Sit For Bar

Posted on September 21, 2009
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court recently announced a hearing on the application of Husson University to permit its juris doctor graduates to sit for the bar: On September 1, 2009, Husson University filed an application for an order establishing that...

Judge On the Move

Posted on September 21, 2009
The Idaho Supreme Court has held that an elected district judge must establish a residence in the county where he sits within 21 days and file a confirming affidavit. The Idaho Judicial Council determined that the judge had not established...

Complex Conflicts Lead To Suspension

Posted on September 21, 2009
The New Hampshire Supreme Court imposed a two-year suspension of an attorney who was found to have engaged in a complex series of conflicts of interest the attorney had represented a client in connection with disputes involving the client's mother....

Ticket Upgrades And Judicial Ethics

Posted on September 20, 2009
A recent opinion from Florida's Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee: FACTS The inquiring judge asks for an opinion interpreting Canons 5D(5)(e) and 5D(5)(h), relating to tickets to sporting events. An apparent hockey fan, the inquiring judge is a season ticket holder...

Rosh Hashanah Musings on Law and Justice

Posted on September 19, 2009
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw Once again, I violate the tradition by celebrating the Jewish New Year not in a community (which when I was a member of a conservative congregation in Indianapolis never failed to cheese me off by talking...

Liturgy, Heresy, and Rawls: A Yom Kippur Meditation

Posted on September 19, 2009
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw (practicing without a license). I'm not in synagogue. I have come to the point in my life where I pick and choose my spots. Last night, the Touro Synagogue in New Orleans had a substantial attendance...

Hofstra Hosts Oct 18-20 Conference on Ethics of Government Lawyers

Posted on September 19, 2009
On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, October 18 ? 20, 2009, Hofstra Law will host ?Power, Politics & Public Service: The Legal Ethics of Lawyers in Government.? The conference will focus on the most important regulatory and cultural reforms regarding the...

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