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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

Friedman Suspended By Illinois Supreme Court

Posted on May 20, 2010
The Illinois Supreme Court has ended the Loren Friedman saga by imposing a three-year suspension with reinstatement conditioned on a further court order. The highly-publicized case involved a pattern of dishonest conduct that had including obtained employment at Sidley Austin...

Judge May Participate In Event With The President

Posted on May 20, 2010
The Florida Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee opines that a judge may appear at a school event relating to the foreclosure crisis along with the President of the United States: No provision of the Code would prohibit the judge?s appearance at...

John Steele on Tulane and Louisiana Clinics Surviving (Round One)

Posted on May 20, 2010
Point to news that John Steele at LEF and others (he links Bob Kuehn too) are posting today on the legislative efforts to gut the Tulane environmental clinic, apparently stopped in committee. It may have been oil in the Gulf...

A Tangled Morass

Posted on May 20, 2010
The Florida Supreme Court disapproved the proposed sanction of a referee and directed that the attorney receive a public reprimand with probation of one year. A concurring opinion notes that the attorney is being disciplined for using the trade name....

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Sending A Message

Posted on May 19, 2010
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court imposed a two-year suspension of an attorney who took no action for 18 months in a praobate matter. As a result, a deadline for filing inheritance taxes was missed. After discharges, it took six months and...

"Libido-Driven Actions"

Posted on May 18, 2010
A majority of the Maryland Court of Appeals has concluded that a 60-day suspension is the appropriate sanction for an attorney's unlawfully exchanging prescription drugs for sex. The misconduct did not take place in connection with the representation of a...

The Costs Of Costs

Posted on May 18, 2010
An Arizona Hearing Officer has recommended a censure and probation of an attorney for issues relating to a wrongful death case. The attorney admitted to charging for estimated rather than actual costs, charging unreasonable costs and charging compound interest without...

Reprimand Rejected

Posted on May 17, 2010
A petition for the voluntary discipline of a reprimand was rejected by the Georgia Supreme Court. The attorney had represented herself in connection with personal injuries allegedly suffered in a 2003 three auto accident. The attorney submitted two documents to...

Harry Potter And The Florida Judge

Posted on May 15, 2010
It is ethically permissible for a judge to author and promote a children's book, according to a recent opinion of the Florida Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee. The committee considered the activity to be "avocational" in nature: An "avocational activity" is...

Class Actions Alleging Unauthorized Practice Dismissed

Posted on May 14, 2010
The Florida Supreme Court has affirmed the dismissal of two class actions brought against Merrill Lynch Credit Corporation that sought return of document preparation fees on a theory that the corporation had engaged in the unauthorized practice of law...

Class Actions Alleging Unauthorized Practice Dismissed

Entitled To A Hearing

Posted on May 14, 2010
The Maryland Court of Appeals held that a physician had not been convicted of a crime of moral turpitude and thus was entitled to an evidentiary hearing prior to license revocation. The physician was the subject of two criminal complaints...

"Uniquely Positioned" To Uncover Partner's Thefts

Posted on May 14, 2010
The New York Appellate Division for the Second Judicial Department has imposed a three-year suspension for an attorney's failure to adequately supervise his thieving law partner. The attorney also failed to fully respond to the complaints that poured in in...

Publish Your Dissertation as a Digital Book or Ebook on Amazon and iBooks: Legal Ethics, Law, Legal History, Law & Society

Posted on May 14, 2010
Posted by Alan Childress As a follow-up to my post yesterday on republishing the Kadish & Kadish classic and others as a Kindle book or an ebook, I announce more generally that I seek submissions to publish digitally your still-relevant...

A Tangled Web But No Ethics Violation

Posted on May 14, 2010
An Illinois Hearing Board has recommended that bar charges against an attorney be dismissed. The attorney had represented a married man in litigation involving a woman (not his spouse). The representation involved a civil protection order against the woman...

Misconduct After Blown Statute Of Limitations Warrants Disbarment

Posted on May 13, 2010
The Maryland Court of Appeals has disbarred an attorney for a pattern of misconduct in the course of a single serious personal injury matter in which he had represented the plaintiff. He did not timely pursue the matter and filed...

Kadish & Kadish on Honoring Law By Breaking It: Bringing Back Discretion to Disobey

Posted on May 13, 2010
Posted by Alan Childress That may be a bit of an exaggeration about the Kadish argument, since they say "rule departures" rather than "violations" or "breaking the law," but it is an intriguing argument nonetheless. Admittedly not so much a...

When Steven Met Barbara

Posted on May 13, 2010
What happens when a private citizen is rear-ended by a D.C. Metropolitan Police detective who is driving her son to school? In one instance, the citizen ends up getting arrested and charged with reckless driving. The citizen was tried and...

Revenge Can Be a Dangerous Motivation

Posted on May 13, 2010
The Louisiana Supreme Supreme Court has disbarred an attorney who had been charged with (and acquitted of ) extortion charges. While those charges were pending, he obtained an affidavit from an inmate that accused the Parish district attorney (and his...

No Response

Posted on May 12, 2010
The New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department rejected an attorney's asserted fear of a stalker as an explanation for failure to respond to two client bar complaints. The attorney was suspended on an interim basis for failing...

Excessive Fee For Unwanted Litigation Draws Reprimand

Posted on May 12, 2010
The web page of the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers summarizes a recent public reprimand: Beginning in late 2000, the respondent represented an administratrix in probating the estate of her sister, Mary. The client was also the administratrix of the...

"Not Totally Heartless"

Posted on May 12, 2010
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has imposed a public reprimand of an attorney who had committed ethical violations in the course of representing a criminal defendant. The court found that the referee had not abused his discretion in handling a request...

Spring 2010 Newsletter of the AALS Section on Professional Responsibility -- Hot off the presses

Posted on May 12, 2010
Posted by Alan Childress Thanks again to the excellent generosity of the Section on Professional Responsibility of the AALS, which generosity and excellence we have noted before, we provide to you the latest issue of the newsy Newsletter. Download Spring_2010_PR_Newsletter...

Road Rage As Ethical Violation

Posted on May 12, 2010
The South Carolina Supreme Court suspended an attorney for six months retroactive to an interim suspension that had previously been imposed. The case involved a road rage incident: Respondent graduated from college in 2004 and then worked as a police...

Violation Of Bar Exam Rules Result in Denial Of Admission

Posted on May 12, 2010
The Ohio Supreme Court entered a series of orders today that included the denial of bar admission to seven persons who were caught violating test administration rules while taking the Ohio Bar examination. The orders recite that the applicants had...

Moonlighting

Posted on May 12, 2010
The Illinois Review Board has proposed a one-year suspension of an attorney found to have violated fiduciary obligations to his law firms by "moonlighting." The Review Board concluded: The Hearing Board found that the Respondent breached his fiduciary duty to...

Permanent Disbarment Proposed For Stealing From the Saints

Posted on May 11, 2010
The Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board has recommended the permanent disbarment of an attorney who misappropriated the funds of several clients. He also had engaged in litigation-related misconduct. A number of the clients were professional athletes, including a hockey player for...

The Burden Of Bar Dues

Posted on May 11, 2010
An Arizona Hearing Officer has recommended that an attorney suspended for non-disciplinary reasons be reinstated. The attorney's story, which contains no hint of unethical behavior, tells us something about the difficulties presented by bar admission in multiple state jurisdictions...

Public Reprimand For Manifesting Bias

Posted on May 11, 2010
The Indiana Supreme Court approved the stipulated discipline of a public reprimand for manifesting bias or prejudice based on sexual orientation. The stipulated facts: In June 2008, Respondent began receiving on her unlisted phone number persistent pre-recorded messages from a...

From Wells To Dover Foxcroft

Posted on May 11, 2010
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court denied the reinstatement petition of an attorney admitted in 1999, suspended in 2003 as a result of a barrage of bar complaints, and disbarred in 2004. The misconduct involved a wide array of violations that...

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