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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

The New Villain: The Big, Bad Bank

Posted on February 14, 2009
The movie reminder below was sent to us by occasional guest-poster Kelly Lynn Anders, an associate dean at Washburn, whose blurb conjures an image of smoking jacket, pipe, and really bad seduction I had forgotten. Meanwhile, I saw "Taken" last...

"Not Conducting A Baby-Sitting Service"

Posted on February 13, 2009
An attorney who had practiced in the area of commercial litigation with Winston & Strawn and Skadden Arps decided to return to his native South Dakota. He took and passed the South Dakota bar exam and was associated with a...

Cautioned

Posted on February 13, 2009
An Arkansas attorney was cautioned for noting but not pursuing an appeal on behalf of his clients and failing to respond to discovery requests. The appeal was found to have been for no purpose except delay and to have imposed...

Misconduct Merits More Than Censure

Posted on February 13, 2009
An attorney who has practiced for 34 years was suspended for a minimum of three months by the Iowa Supreme Court. The attorney had neglected a personal injury matter, prematurely taken a fee in a probate matter, and made misrepresentations...

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Sympathy Disregarded

Posted on February 13, 2009
The Oklahoma Supreme Court denied the reinstatement petition of an attorney who had been suspended for two years as a result of his participation in a fraudulent real estate transaction. The injured clients, among others, had testified in opposition to...

Treble Damages For Lawyer Fraud

Posted on February 12, 2009
In answering two questions certified by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the New York Court of Appeals held that a lawyer who had filed a suit that accused the opposing parties of fraudulently purchasing a...

It's A Right

Posted on February 12, 2009
The Wyoming Supreme Court remanded a criminal case for resentencing based on concerns that the judge had penalized the defendant for exercising his right to a jury trial. The basis of the concern was the following statement:I know that generally...

A Family Matter

Posted on February 12, 2009
The Minnesota Supreme Court ordered the disbarment of an attorney who had engaged in a pattern of misrepresentations, misappropriation, conflicts of interest and the creation of false documents. The court termed the case "unusual" as it had previously ordered the...

Breach Of Confidentiality Charged

Posted on February 12, 2009
The Illinois ARDC has filed charges alleging that an attorney had misused confidential information learned during the course of representating a client. The lawyer and client allegedly were involved in an intimate relationship. The lawyer represented the client in claims...

Suspension For Defrauding Client

Posted on February 12, 2009
The web page of the Ohio Supreme Court reports:The law license of Waverly attorney Sherry D. Davis has been suspended by the Supreme Court of Ohio for two years, with the second year of that term stayed on conditions. The...

Fines on Teaching Empathy as a Lawyering Skill in Ethics Classes

Posted on February 11, 2009
Posted by Alan Childress Barbara Glesner Fines (UMKC) has posted to SSRN her article, Teaching Empathy Through Simulation Exercises - A Guide and Sample Problem Set. Her abstract is: For over a decade, legal educators (particularly clinical faculty) have argued...

Stipulated Sanction Questioned

Posted on February 11, 2009
In a bar discipline case involving allegations of improper closing argument by defense counsel, the Arizona Disciplinary Commission imposed the agreed-upon discipline of censure, one year of probation and three hours of CLE in the area of criminal law...

No Accounting, No Violation

Posted on February 11, 2009
The Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board, with two attorney and one lay member dissenting, concluded that an attorney had not violated any ethics rules in the representation of a client on cocaine charges. The board majority held attorney did not violate...

New Enron Corporate Fiasco Reader Available

Posted on February 10, 2009
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw The Foundation Press compilation, Enron and Other Corporate Fiascos: The Corporate Scandal Reader, 2d Edition , edited by Nancy Rapoport (UNLV), Jeffrey Van Niel, and Bala Dharan (Rice) is now in print. I'm pleased to say...

Liens Not Unethical

Posted on February 10, 2009
The Arizona Disciplinary Commission has, in my view correctly, affirmed the proposed dismissal of ethics charges against an attorney who had accepted liens to secure the payment of fees in divorce cases. The commission found that the liens were authorized...

A Question Of Material Fact Precludes Summary Judgment

Posted on February 10, 2009
The Delaware Supreme Court reversed an order granting summary judgment to a law firm in a professional malpractice action on statute of limitation grounds, concluding that there was a question of fact as to when the client was on inquiry...

Bar Prosecutor Disciplined

Posted on February 10, 2009
The South Carolina Supreme Court ordered a two-year suspension of an attorney employed as a disciplinary counsel who had been charged with solicitation and impersonating a law enforcement officer:On or about November 2, 2006, respondent was arrested in Richland County...

A Serious Problem

Posted on February 10, 2009
An attorney who had been arrested for cocaine possession was suspended for nine months by the South Carolina Supreme court. The attorney acknowledged an ongoing problem with substance abuse:On or about December 8, 2007, the Mount Pleasant Police Department arrested...

And The Winner Is Not...

Posted on February 09, 2009
A recent opinion from the Massachusetts Committee on Judicial Ethics deals with the propriety of a judge receiving an award or other recognition from an organization that has members who may appear before the judge: Public confidence in a justice...

Rights Of Grand Jury Target

Posted on February 09, 2009
The New Mexico Supreme Court has held that a grand jury target is entitled to a procedural remedy when the prosecuting attorney declines to present potentially exculpatory evidence to the grand jury that is considering an indictment:In light of the...

Failure To Withdraw

Posted on February 09, 2009
An Illinois hearing board has recommended a three-month suspension of an attorney who failed to withdraw from two matters in circumstances where the cases were ongoing and the clients were relying on the attorney to continue to represent them. In...

IOLTA Notice

Posted on February 09, 2009
The web page of the Illinois ARDC has a notice regarding FDIC coverage of IOLTA and low-interest trust accounts:In a nutshell: The FDIC is now offering unlimited deposit insurance coverage for all IOLTA accounts and any NOW accounts with interest...

Car Trouble

Posted on February 08, 2009
From the California Bar Journal:[An attorney] was suspended for two years, stayed, placed on three years of probation with an actual 18-month suspension and was ordered to prove his rehabilitation, take the MPRE and comply with rule 9.20. The order...

The CEO Feedback Loop and Corporate Governance

Posted on February 08, 2009
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw Once again, I marvel at the lessons available to us from John Thain's odyssey through Merrill Lynch. (I guess I'll be off his Christmas Card list. Oh well.) Today's discussion in the New York Times business...

Sully (Hero) and Andy (Goat) and the Silliness of Sufficient Reason

Posted on February 07, 2009
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw To quote the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Leibniz, the principle of sufficient reason is "that the claim that nothing takes place without a sufficient reason means that nothing happens in such a way that...

Stalking Conviction, Probation Violation Draws Suspension

Posted on February 06, 2009
The Louisiana Supreme Court imposed a suspension of one year and one day of an attorney who was convicted of misdemeanors offenses of making threatening telephone calls and stalking. The attorney had violated the probation that was ordered as a...

Charging Lien

Posted on February 06, 2009
The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals reversed and remanded a determination to disallow the assertion of a charging lien by an attorney who had been discharged in a personal injury case. The course of representation had a convoluted history...

Failed Probation

Posted on February 06, 2009
An attorney who had been privately admonished and placed on probation for two years last October was immediately suspended by the Delaware Supreme Court. The attorney had failed to respond to an order to show cause as a result of...

"White folks don?t praise you unless you?re a damn fool." Mississippi Judge Booted For Comments in Re-election

Posted on February 05, 2009
Similar in context to the suspension Mike yesterday reported from Louisiana involving a lawyer's racist comments, comes an opinion issued today by the Mississippi Supreme Court [found via Download 3z4251x5.pdf.] This one involves a judge and a much more severe...

Bankruptcy Conflict Leads To Suspension

Posted on February 05, 2009
From a discipline case decided by the Oregon Supreme Court:In this lawyer disciplinary matter, the Bar charged the accused with ethical violations in two separate matters. In the first matter, the Bar charged that the accused violated conflict of interest...

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