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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

Yagman Disbarred

Posted on January 04, 2011
A disbarment reported by the California Bar Journal: Controversial civil rights attorney STEPHEN G. YAGMAN [#69737], known for his longtime crusade against police brutality, was summarily disbarred Dec. 22, 2010. Yagman, 66, had been on interim suspension since Aug...

"Badges Of Fraud"

Posted on January 03, 2011
The January 2011 online edition of the California Bar Journal reports an order of discipline: [An attorney] was suspended for two years, stayed, placed on two years of probation with an actual 90-day suspension and he was ordered to take...

Lawyer Referees!

Posted on January 02, 2011
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw I'm watching the Colts-Titans game, and I have now seen two lawyers with whom I've worked in the past. The buff referee Ed Hochuli is a Phoenix, Arizona lawyer who did some products liability litigation for...

Attorney Suspended After Blaming Spouse For His Crimes

Posted on January 01, 2011
The Vermont Supreme Court suspended an attorney for two years with conditions of probation on reinstatement. The court recited the following stipulated facts: While driving alone from his home to his office on the evening of September 22, 2007, respondent...

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"A Melancholy Business"

Posted on December 31, 2010
The Illinois Review Board has recommended the disbarment of an attorney charged with conversion of client funds. The board summarized the allegations and the attorney's defense: The Respondent maintained a client trust account at Cole Taylor Bank in which he...

"Professional Courtesy"

Posted on December 31, 2010
A longtime family court judge and acting Supreme Court justice for Albany County has been censured by the New York Commission on Judicial Conduct. The judge drove after drinking at a private club. When he came upon a sobriety checkpoint,...

Environmental Crime Results In Disbarment

Posted on December 31, 2010
The New York Appellate Division for the Fourth Judicial Department has disbarred an attorney convicted of federal criminal offenses. The Department of Justice web page reports the details of the offense: After a two-week trial on Oct. 28, 2009, a...

Reprimand For Slap

Posted on December 31, 2010
The web page of the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers reports a recent public reprimand stemming from charges of assault and battery: The victim was the respondent?s wife. The respondent had filed for divorce, but he and the wife continued...

Long Time Coming

Posted on December 31, 2010
An attorney admitted in 1961 and disbarred in 1981has been reinstated by the New York Appellate Division for the Second Judicial Department. The court tells the story in following paragraph: Motion by the respondent...for reinstatement as an attorney and counselor-at-law...

New York Times on New Strategies for Hiring Law Firms

Posted on December 30, 2010
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw The "Small Business" section of the New York Times has an article this morning about models small and entrepreneurial businesses are using to hire law firms, and strategies the firms are using to serve them. I'm...

Partners Absolved

Posted on December 30, 2010
In a 35 page order, charges of misconduct against five partners of a prominent Maine law firm have been dismissed by a single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court. The charges had alleged that the partners had failed to timely...

A Question Of Balance

Posted on December 30, 2010
The Nebraska Supreme Court reversed the dismissal of a legal malpractice action that had been orderd because the plaintiff had invoked the Fifth Amendment during discovery. Rather than impose automatic dismissal in such circumstances, the trial court must balance the...

A Disbarment Case

Posted on December 29, 2010
The Minnesota Supreme Court has disbarred an attorney admitted in 1991. The attorney had a substantial record of prior discipline. The court summarized its holding: Disbarment is the appropriate discipline when a lawyer misappropriates client funds and makes false statements...

Fee False Statements Draw Reprimand

Posted on December 29, 2010
The web page of the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers reports a recent public reprimand: On January 1, 2008, the respondent joined a Boston law firm. Up to that time, the respondent was a sole practitioner concentrating in bankruptcy law....

Flat Fees In Minnesota

Posted on December 29, 2010
The Minnesota Supreme Court has amended its Rules of Professional Conduct to allow, with certain notice requirements, an attorney to treat a flat fee as an attorney's property on receipt. The new language to Rules 1.5 (fees) and 1.15 (safekeeping...

Second Disbarment For Letter Written In 1995

Posted on December 28, 2010
The Connecticut Supreme Court Court affirmed a second order of disbarment against an attorney which requires the attorney to wait five years from the judgment before seeking reinstatement. The case involved a letter written by the attorney in December 1995...

Ex Parte

Posted on December 28, 2010
The Indiana Supreme Court imposed a 30 day suspension with automatic reinstatement for misconduct in a domestic relations matter. The court found that the attorney had engaged in an improper ex parte communication with a judicial officer. The attorney was...

Failure To Supervise Results In Suspension

Posted on December 27, 2010
The Arizona Supreme Court affirmed findings of failure to supervise against the managing partner of a high volume "consumer law firm" but reduced the proposed sanction from six months and a day to six months. As a result, the attorney...

Former State Senator Disbarred

Posted on December 26, 2010
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has accepted the consent to disbarment of a former state Senator who had pleaded guilty to eight counts of attempted extortion. The web page of the Board of Bar Overseers has a summary of the...

Withdrawal Granted For Substantial Fianancial Hardship

Posted on December 24, 2010
From the web page of the Rhode Island Supreme Court: NAIAD Inflatables of Newport, Inc. (NAIAD), engaged the law firm of Duffy & Sweeney, Ltd. (D&S) to defend it in a civil lawsuit brought in 2005 by the plaintiff, Stafford...

"Barely Adequate" Sanction

Posted on December 24, 2010
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has accepted a referee's recommendation for sanction, concluding that a public reprimand was "barely adequate for the egregious conflict of interest" where an attorney had represented a criminal defendant after interviewing the victim as a potential...

N-Word Results In Suspension

Posted on December 22, 2010
The Indiana Supreme Court has suspended an attorney for 30 days without automatic reinstatement for violating the rule prohibiting manifestation of bias or prejudice based upon race. The attorney was an officer of a title company and gave the company...

Judicial Expletive Deleted

Posted on December 22, 2010
The Tennessee Court of the Judiciary has issued a letter of public reprimand to a general sessions court judge for permitting an attorney who rented office space from him to appear as counsel in a matter before him. He also...

Not Now Or Ever An Attorney

Posted on December 22, 2010
From the Ohio Supreme Court web page: The Supreme Court of Ohio ruled today that Gardner Pratt of Loveland engaged in the unauthorized practice of law by holding himself out as an attorney at law, performing legal services and collecting...

Mixing Personal And Professional

Posted on December 21, 2010
The Arizona Supreme Court agreed with the proposed sanction of its Disciplinary Board and imposed a six month suspension followed by two years probation in a case involving a criminal defense attorney's handling of a probation violation matter. The intimate...

Paying Dues

Posted on December 21, 2010
A recent bar discipline case is reported on the web page of the Massachusetts Board of Bar overseers: The respondent was admitted to practice in Massachusetts on January 17, 2006. He was also licensed to practice in New York. In...

Family Affair

Posted on December 21, 2010
The Michigan Attorney Discipline Board has imposed a one-year suspension of an attorney who had been convicted of criminal contempt. The conduct involved "willful acts, omissions, and statements designed to mislead [a] court in efforts to delay and impede collection...

No Admission Without Recovery Contract

Posted on December 20, 2010
The Louisiana Supreme Court denied admission to an applicant who had passed the February 2010 bar exam. The court held that "an applicant suffering from alcohol dependence will not be considered for admission until he or she has entered into...

Probate Judge Cannot Work In Funeral Home

Posted on December 20, 2010
From the South Carolina Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct: OPINION NO. 13-2010 A recently elected full-time Probate Judge inquires into the propriety of continuing employment with a funeral home. The Judge is a licensed funeral director and a licensed ?pre-need?...

Theft By Special Advocates Treasurer Results In Disbarment

Posted on December 20, 2010
The web page of the Ohio Supreme Court reports: The Supreme Court of Ohio today indefinitely suspended the law license of [an] Akron attorney...for professional misconduct arising from his theft of funds from the Summit County Court Appointed Special Advocates...

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