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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

ALI-ABA Offers Legal Ethics CLE via Web or Phone on August 27

Posted on August 18, 2009
"Hot Topics in Legal Ethics 2009." Date: Thurs., Aug. 27, 2009, at 1:00-2:00 p.m. eastern time, for 1.0 or 1.2 hours of ethics credit. Topics include: recent decisions on conflicts of interest, screening, and disqualification (including Caperton v. Massey by...

What Clients Want

Posted on August 18, 2009
A Louisiana hearing committee has recommended that disciplinary charges against a lawyer be dismissed. After a previous suspension, the lawyer confirmed with a district attorney that a criminal matter against his client be dismissed. The committee found that the interchange...

Failure To Pay Annual Dues Results In Unauthorized Practice, Suspension

Posted on August 17, 2009
The web page of the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers/Bar Counsel summarizes a recent disciplinary sanction: On June 19, 2009, the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County ordered that the respondent...be suspended from the practice of law for two months...

Is There a Doctor In The House?

Posted on August 17, 2009
An interesting case from the Montana Supreme Court involved a medical malpractice action brought by a widow on behalf of her late husband's estate against a doctor and a clinic. The plaintiff's attorney delivered the closing argument as a first-person...

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Useful Information

Posted on August 17, 2009
The North Carolina State Bar has filed charges alleging that a law firm associate had, in four instances taken fees due to his firm for his personal use. The bar's web page is as informative concerning charges as any I've...

14th Annual LatCrit Conference is in D.C. Oct. 1-4, 2009, With SALT's Junior Faculty Program

Posted on August 17, 2009
American University's law school is hosting this year's conference for LatCrit XIV and the LatCrit/SALT New Faculty Development Workshop; the schedule and preliminary program is here. The conference takes place in D.C. and Bethesda, Maryland. Registration and cheap hotel info...

Reinstatement Favored

Posted on August 17, 2009
The Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board has recommended that the Supreme Court reinstate an attorney who had been suspended for a year and a day. The misconduct involved knowingly assisting a judge (appropriately named Judge Green) in violating the regulation of...

Caution

Posted on August 14, 2009
An Arkansas attorney was cautioned for filing a civil case in a California court. The attorney is not admitted in California. The pleading had the name of a California lawyer on it; unfortunately, that lawyer did not have an active...

Court Imposes Greater Sanction Than Board Had Recommended

Posted on August 14, 2009
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected a proposed six-month suspension of the Disciplinary Board in favor of a one year and one day suspension that a dissenting board member had recommended. The attorney had entered practice in 1999 after 20 years...

Non-Cooperation Increases Sanction

Posted on August 14, 2009
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court adopted a recommendation of its Disciplinary Board to suspend an attorney for a year and a day. The attorney had failed to perform legal services for two clients, converted an advance fee(which he eventially repaid), and...

Third-Party Liability Of Lawyer As Escrow Agent

Posted on August 14, 2009
The South Carolina Supreme Court upheld a court of appeals decision that reversed a trial court grant of summary judgment on behalf of an attorney who had been sued by a non-client for alleged violation of escrow obligations. The court...

Mitigating Factors

Posted on August 14, 2009
An attorney who had engaged in misconduct that included misappropriation of entrusted funds was suspended for one year by the New York Appellate Division for the Second Judicial Department. The court looked to the following mitigating factors: In determining an...

Suspension For Chat Room Conversation

Posted on August 13, 2009
An attorney who was admitted to practice in 2007 was suspended indefinitely with the right to seek reinstatement after one year as a result of a felony conviction for criminal solicitation of a minor over the internet. The offense will...

Tireless Efforts

Posted on August 13, 2009
The Washington Post reports that a Maryland circuit court judge is under investigation on an (apparently admitted) charge that he let the air out of the tires of a car parked near the courthouse. The judge is quoted as saying...

Non-Identical Discipline

Posted on August 13, 2009
The District of Columbia Court of Appeals declined to impose disbarment in a reciprocal discipline matter from Maryland, in which that sanction was imposed. The court followed a recommendation from its Board on Professional Responsibility to suspend the lawyer for...

Conditional Admission

Posted on August 13, 2009
The New York Appellate Division for the Third Judicial Department denied an application for admission of an attorney who was admitted on conditions in New Jersey. The applicant was admitted in New Jersey in January 2007 on conditions that he...

Permissible Fee-Sharing Agreement

Posted on August 12, 2009
The New York Appellate Division for the Second Judicial Department affirmed a trial court damage award in a matter involving the alleged breach of a fee-sharing agreement between attorneys: "It has long been understood that in disputes among attorneys over...

Indiana Law Launches Center On Global Legal Profession

Posted on August 12, 2009
Our own Bill Henderson is making news: Indiana University Maurer School of Law Dean Lauren Robel has announced the launch of the school's new Center on the Global Legal Profession. Based at IU Bloomington, the center will focus on the...

"Let No One Mistake..."

Posted on August 12, 2009
An Oregon Trial Panel imposed a public reprimand on an attorney convicted of public indecency. The attorney had driven around a mall while masturbating. He was observed and reported by a mall employee and identified through security cameras. The panel...

No Regrets

Posted on August 12, 2009
An Illinois hearing board has recommended a three-year suspension with the last 19 months stayed, followed by 24 months probation with required treatment for anger management based on its findings in connection with the following charges: Count I alleged that...

Allegations Sufficient To Sustain Malpractice Claim

Posted on August 11, 2009
The New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department concluded that a complaint alleging legal malpractice had been improperly dismissed by the trial court. The allegations related to a settlement in a divorce action. The court held: Here, not...

Board May Review Portions Of Credentialing File

Posted on August 11, 2009
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court remanded a case involving possible misconduct by a physician. The issue related to access to the physician's credentialing file, which the Board of Registration in Medicine had sought but the trial court had held was...

Lawyer Sanctioned For Misleading Internet Ad

Posted on August 11, 2009
The web page of the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers reports on a recent informal admonition. The identity of the attorney is not disclosed in such circumstances: ADMONITION NO. 09-12 CLASSIFICATION: Holding Out as a Specialist [Mass. R. Prof. C....

Serious Interference?

Posted on August 11, 2009
The District of Columbia Board on Professional Responsibility has recommended an 18 month suspension with fitness in review of a hearing committee's findings in five consolidated complaints. The hearing committee had proposed a suspension of four months...

Disbarment For Unauthorized Practice While Suspended

Posted on August 10, 2009
A Colorado attorney was disbarred for engaging in unauthorized practice in violation of an order of suspension. His claims that he did not understand that his actions in advising one client and drafting a document for another client were the...

Life's Goal

Posted on August 10, 2009
A North Carolina attorney admitted to practice in 1997 has been charged in a complaint with misconduct that allegedly took place when he went to a county clerk's office to file motions. The complaint alleges that the attorney began to...

No Favorites

Posted on August 10, 2009
The Tennessee Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee has issued an opinion regarding situations that may arise when a trial court presides over a class action case in which the parties agree pursuant to the cy pres doctrine that a portion of...

Same Length Suspension As Reciprocal Discipline

Posted on August 07, 2009
The New York Appellate Division for the Second Judicial Department has imposed a two-year suspension as reciprocal discipline as a result of that same suspension in Massachusetts. The court described the findings of misconduct of the Massachusetts court: In January...

Financial Assistance To Clients

Posted on August 07, 2009
The Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board found, contrary to a hearing committee's findings, that an attorney had engaged in commingling and two instances of conversion. As a result, the board rejected the proposed sanction of public censure and recommended a three-year...

Suspension Without Pay

Posted on August 07, 2009
A Nebraska county judge was suspended for 120 days without pay for misconduct in three matters. The Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed findings that the judge had, in one matter, improperly involved himself in an ongoing criminal case against his nephew...

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