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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

Disturbing Behavior Alleged

Posted on April 23, 2010
The Illinois Administrator has filed a complaint charging a lawyer with inappropriate actions towards clients. As usual, the complaint is pled in great and specific detail. One charge: ..[the client] went to Respondent?s Springfield home and signed the paperwork hiring...

False Claims To Obtain Legal Business Leads To Censure

Posted on April 23, 2010
The Colorado Presiding Disciplinary Judge approved a conditional admission and publicly censured an attorney who made "false and/or misleading statements regarding his law firm's eligibility for inclusion in E.I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company's Diverse Legal Supplier Program...

Admission Denied For Domestic Violence

Posted on April 23, 2010
The Nebraska Supreme Court has denied the application for admission of a 2008 graduate of the University of Nebraska Law School. The State Bar Commission had recommended denial of the application. The applicant had been a police officer prior to...

Suspension For Domestic Battery

Posted on April 23, 2010
An Illinois hearing board has recommended a two-year suspension without automatic reinstatement of an attorney for two incidents of domestic violence as well as misconduct in a probate case. The hearing board described the behavior: On June 7, 1997, Respondent...

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Montana Unauthorized Practice Commission Dissolved

Posted on April 22, 2010
The Supreme Court of Montana has responded to a petition by its Commission on the Unauthorized Practice of Law by entering an opinion and order dissolving the commission effective April 20, 2010. The original petition had proposed rule changes that...

Vouching For Police Witness Credibility Leads To Reversal Of Conviction

Posted on April 22, 2010
The New Jersey Appellate Division has reversed a conviction for third degree possession of a controlled dangerous substance, concluded that the trial court had improperly allowed the defendant to be impeached by a 17 year old prior conviction. The court...

Life Imitates Art

Posted on April 22, 2010
The Maryland Court of Appeals has affirmed a conviction for rape and related offenses, concluding that the trial court had improperly admitted DNA evidence at trial. The court's opinion begins as follows: The writers for the NBC television series Law...

Commentary on the Goldman Case Turns to Contract Theory

Posted on April 21, 2010
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw Erik Gerding over at Conglomerate continues his fine work on the Goldman matter, with posts on the question I discussed yesterday, the social utility of derivative contracts that don't act as a hedge to a real...

A Small Claim

Posted on April 21, 2010
The Wisconsin Supreme Court imposed a public reprimand of an attorney who had "overlitigated" a small claims case, took a position that created a conflict of interest by arguing that he, but not the clients, should not be sanctioned for...

High Emotions

Posted on April 21, 2010
A three-judge panel concluded that a Virginia attorney had violated Rules 1.2(a) and 1.4(b) but determined that the appropriate disposition was a "dismissal for exceptional circumstances." The order contains a handwritten description of those circumstances: (1) the "nature of the...

Goldman: Sorkin Gets It Right on the Facts and the Issue

Posted on April 20, 2010
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw Regardless of one's stance (normatively speaking) on the the Goldman Sachs civil suit, it's tough to find reporting or commentary that gets the nuanced facts right. And because everything depends on the metaphor (see Erik Gerding's...

Professor Rebuffed

Posted on April 20, 2010
An update from the California Bar Journal on the to date unsuccessful efforts of a UCLA professor to get access to bar passage information: A UCLA professor?s ongoing effort to obtain data about bar examination applicants hit a wall last...

"Committed Relationship" Creates Appearance Of Impropriety

Posted on April 20, 2010
The Florida Judicial Ethics Advisory Commission recently opined on the following issues: 1. Whether an impropriety or appearance of impropriety would exist if a judge were to serve as the chief judge in a judicial circuit while being in a...

Judge Removed But Not Disciplined For Workplace Incivility

Posted on April 20, 2010
The North Carolina Supreme Court has ordered the removal of an elected district court judge who had already resigned from office. The court concluded that the judge had engaged in willful misconduct and disqualified him from future judicial office. He...

Take Note

Posted on April 20, 2010
The web page of the Ohio Supreme Court reports: The Supreme Court of Ohio?s Board of Commissioners on Grievances & Discipline has issued an advisory opinion about whether a lawyer?s notes must be turned over to a client when requested....

AUSA Neglect Leads To Suspension

Posted on April 19, 2010
From the web page of the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseeers comes this disciplinary summary: The respondent was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Department of Justice in the District of Columbia. From December 2004 through April 2005, the...

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Posted on April 19, 2010
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court reinstated an attorney who had been in 1997 (retroactive to 1994) for a criminal conviction that involved having a client misrepresent herself as a different client and continue that deception through plea and sentence. He had...

Making Matters Worse

Posted on April 19, 2010
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court adopted the recommendation of its Disciplinary Board to suspend an attorney for one year. The offense? The attorney had been informally admonished and ordered to pay the complainant $2,000. The attorney sent the check to the...

Detrimental Reliance

Posted on April 19, 2010
The Georgia Supreme Court agreed to a hearing panel reprimand of an attorney who had allowed a paralegal to conduct a real estate transaction in which her clients were the sellers. The paralegal included a phony charge of $2,000, which...

Goldman: Law Professors Have a Field Day!

Posted on April 19, 2010
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw Well, gosh, I haven't had this much fun reading the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times on a Monday morning in a long time. First of all, I want to note that while I...

More on Goldman as Bookie: What About "Bespeaks Caution?"

Posted on April 18, 2010
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw It's certainly not my goal to defend Goldman Sachs any more than it is to defend bookies. And I acknowledge that as to materiality, it's entirely possible that you get to the trier of fact on...

Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis, "The Right to Privacy," goes digital, with my Foreword

Posted on April 18, 2010
Posted by Alan Childress Admittedly 120 years too late, and not exactly on-topic to the blog, but Warren and Brandeis have now published their landmark article on the iPad! Or any PC, or Kindle, iPhone, iTouch, BlackBerry, or Mac. They...

Goldman as Bookie: Inspector Renault Assesses Synthetic CDOs

Posted on April 17, 2010
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw I really think this should have been the epigram on the SEC's complaint against Goldman Sachs: "I'm shocked, shocked to find gambling is going on in here!" I've spent a little time in the last couple...

It Is A Big Deal

Posted on April 16, 2010
The Kansas Supreme Court imposed a one-year suspension of anattorney who had allowed the statute of limitations to run on two accident claims. The attorney then advised the client that it was "no big deal" because that was why he...

A Series Of Retail Thefts

Posted on April 16, 2010
While noting that an attorney's series of retail thefts and efforts to avoid the ensuing criminal consequences evinced a "serious disregard for the law," the Wisconsin Supreme Court accepted the stipulated discipline of a six month suspension with a requirement...

Public Defender May Be Ordered By Court To Represent Defendant

Posted on April 16, 2010
The Maryland Court of Appeals held that a trial court has the authority to appoint an attorney from the local public defender ("OPD") to represent a criminal defendant if the trial court concludes that OPD has erroneously denied representation. The...

Reinstatement Granted

Posted on April 15, 2010
The Minnesota Supreme Court has reinstated subject to a two year probation an attorney who was suspended for six months with fitness in 2008. The attorney had been a high court judge in Ethiopia who had fled Ethiopia in 1995...

How to Avoid Probate And Engage in Unauthorized Practice

Posted on April 15, 2010
The Indiana Supreme Court has found that the practices of an insurance marketing agency amounted to the unauthorized practice of law. The courtenjoined certain identified practices described in the opinion and remanded the matter for consideration of issues concerning disgorgement...

Foreign Legal Consultant License Revoked

Posted on April 15, 2010
The New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department has revoked the license of a foriegn legal consultant admitted on the strength of his license to practice in Haiti. The court sustained a number of findings of misconduct by...

"Neither Tortious Nor Criminal" To Bad-Mouth Co-Counsel

Posted on April 14, 2010
The dismissal of a suit involving a dispute between attorneys who had jointly represented a client was affirmed by the New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department. The court described the claims: At issue is the propriety of...

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