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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

"No Good Deed Goes Unpunished"

Posted on May 01, 2008
So opines the Maryland Court of Appeals in characterizing the efforts of the circuit court in post-divorce "contentious and protracted litigation regarding...divorce and ancillary matters." A law firm had entered into an agreement with its client (the husband) to impose...

No Dishonest Motive But Lengthy Suspension

Posted on May 01, 2008
A two-year suspension was imposed by the Ohio Supreme Court in a matter involving an attorney who accepted clients from a company that uses direct mail to market estate planning services in Ohio and other states. In one instance, the...

Mayhem

Posted on May 01, 2008
Not a legal profession case, but worthy of note, is a decision today from the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The court holds that a person's forehead is an "other bodliy member" for purposes of the criminal mayhem statute. The court explores...

A Question Of Disciplinary Policy

Posted on May 01, 2008
The Ohio Supreme Court permanently revoked the license of an attorney who had stolen legal fees due to his firm, forged documents to conceal the thefts, commingled client funds, neglected cases, and failed to cooperate in the bar investigation by...

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The Future of the Legal Academy - Some Thoughts

Posted on May 01, 2008
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw A recent blog post by Josh Wright on the future of law and economics has prompted responses from Larry Ribstein and Larry Solum. In a nutshell, Wright discusses the relationship between the basic skills underlying expertise...

Recognize But Don't Publicize

Posted on April 30, 2008
The New York Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics has issued an opinion concluding that a judicial association may bestow honorary membership to Pakistan Supreme Court justices who were forcibly removed from office. However: "There is no ethical impropriety in judicial...

No Civil Action

Posted on April 30, 2008
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the dismissal of a civil action against a judge in the case of Liu v. Moynihan and Others. The rationale: "In July, 2007, Qinsheng Liu commenced a civil action in the Superior Court that,...

Link to Book Reviews for Legal Fiction

Posted on April 30, 2008
Posted by Alan Childress Thanks to a pointer by reader Kelly Anders, who last week wrote on Law & Order, here is a link to the just-out "first special issue on Legal Fiction from THE LAW AND POLITICS BOOK REVIEW."...

Not Quite As Bad As Misappropriation

Posted on April 29, 2008
The Oklahoma Supreme Court imposed a one-year suspension of an attorney for misconduct involving commingling and, at a minimum, simple conversion (an offense not to be confused with misappropriation). The court rejected his claim of "complete ignorance of the proper...

Worse Than Misappropriation

Posted on April 29, 2008
The Oklahoma Supreme Court accepted the resignation of an attorney who is presently subject to federal charges of robbery by force and fear and use of a firearm in the commission of a robbery. The attorney stated that he had...

No Duty To Be Impartial

Posted on April 29, 2008
The Washington Court of Appeals Division I affirmed a conviction for stalking, rejecting the defendant's contention that the trial court had erred in refusing to disqualify the prosecutor's office "because one of its attorneys assisted her victim in obtaining a...

New Judicial Misconduct Procedures In Minnesota

Posted on April 29, 2008
The Minnesota Supreme Court has put out for comment recommendations for revision of the rules governing judicial discipline. A key proposal would seperate the investigative and adjudicative functions of the Board on Judicial Standards. (Mike Frisch)

No Cause Of Action For Litigation-Related Claims

Posted on April 29, 2008
A corporation filed a lawsuit against its former attorney in Tennessee alleging an array of serious charges. The lawyer then filed a separate lawsuit against the corporation in Texas. Both matters were settled. The lawyer then sued the corporation's Tennessee...

Getting Serious About Foolish Decisions

Posted on April 29, 2008
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw Sometimes a little facetiousness is all you need to provoke a meaningful discussion. A couple days ago, I commented on Elizabeth Warren's idea for a financial product safety commission. Apparently I made the mistake of thinking...

Fischer on Controlling the Bar From Without, Especially By Insurers & Legislators

Posted on April 28, 2008
Posted by Alan Childress James Fischer (Southwestern Univ. School of Law), shown left [Southwestern has the best faculty pics], has posted to SSRN his article, "External Control Over the American Bar." It was first published in 19 Georgetown Journal of...

Bepress Announces New Online Journal: "Law & Ethics of Human Rights"

Posted on April 28, 2008
The web announcement of this new journal is here, including a table of contents of its first issue. Links to PDFs of these first papers, and a list of editors, are found here. [Alan Childress]

Publish or Perish: Lawyer Sanctioned With Order to Write Bar Journal Article

Posted on April 28, 2008
Posted by Alan Childress Two weeks ago, we reported on the unusual Fifth Circuit order which required an unprepared lawyer to serve on his client a copy of the highly-critical judicial opinion. This morning, we were forwarded, originally by someone...

Last Gasp

Posted on April 28, 2008
The Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board revoked the license of an attorney who had been suspended since 1989 for non-compliance with professional liability insurance requirements and nonpayment of bar dues. The attorney (who I began prosecuting in 1985 in a...

Disbarment For Conversion

Posted on April 28, 2008
A Colorado attorney who had "knowingly converted sizeable amounts of third-party funds while serving as a qualified intermediary in their section 1031 tax-deferred exchanges" was disbarred by order of the Presiding Disciplinary Judge. While "[s]ignificant mitigating factors may overcome the...

Attorney Who Assists Securities Offering May Be Sued

Posted on April 28, 2008
An attorney who had set up a number of limited liability companies for a client was sued for state securities law violations and fraud. He had sought and won summary judgment "claiming he was only involved in securities work and...

Abraham LinkedIn Was A Lawyer, But Not Maya Space

Posted on April 28, 2008
Posted by Alan Childress Over at LawBiz Blog, Ed Poll wonders whether lawyers will adapt to, and adopt, social networking. In other words, can clients be developed via MySpace and Facebook? And even if they can, will the lawyers take...

Conviction Reversed

Posted on April 28, 2008
The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals reversed a criminal conviction as a result of the prosecutor's impermissible comments concerning the failure of the defendant to testify. The defendant had been charged with having a sexual relationship with a minor...

Three Websites You Can Use

Posted on April 27, 2008
Posted by Alan Childress Via the site-collecting resource of Electronic Ephemera, among its recent posts, I note these three useful sites out there to be tapped (beyond "every Simpsons' couch site gag" nicely spooled, in under five minutes): (1) SocialScan...

Tax Lawyer Admonished For Advertising/Solicitation

Posted on April 26, 2008
The Virginia State Bar web page has just posted the decision of a three-judge court in a case on which we had previously blogged. The court imposed a public admonition with terms on a tax lawyer found to have violated...

The Foolish Decision Safety Commission

Posted on April 26, 2008
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw Just to prove, I guess, that even Harvard law professors, and distinguished ones at that, can get carried away with analogical reasoning, Elizabeth Warren has proposed a Financial Product Safety Commission, on the theory that, if...

Update, FWIW: Yes, the Talented Mr. Phipps Went to Loyola-N.O.

Posted on April 25, 2008
Posted by Alan Childress Last week, I posted this item on a lawyer, Roger Phipps, whom the Fifth Circuit admonished by name for being unprepared at oral argument, to the point where he flippantly argued without reading cases. The Court...

Unrelated To Practice

Posted on April 25, 2008
An Illinois Hearing Board has recommended disbarment for misconduct outside of the practice of law. The lawyer and a non-attorney had formed a partnership "for the purpose of developing and marketing a residential condominium project in Chicago." The lawyer converted...

No Privilege For Expert Report

Posted on April 25, 2008
In an action to enforce a disability policy issued by the defendants, the New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department held that a letter to the plaintiff from an expert analyzing rights under the policy was not protected...

Boston Legal Portrays the Real McCoy While The Office Is a Liability Petri Dish

Posted on April 25, 2008
Posted by Alan Childress Continuing my apparent theme this week of lawyers in popular culture and media portrayals -- from John Adams to TV ads to Law & Order -- I note that, yesterday in the California Blog of Appeal,...

Concluding Remarks to My Agency, Partnership, & LLC Class

Posted on April 24, 2008
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw If you are about to teach the last class of a semester, and you've spent a total of 2,100 minutes (in a three credit class) or 2,800 minutes (in a four credit class), you may give...

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