Categories
Legal ethics

More stuff on the ongoing DOJ turmoil

The fascist tide in the United States is moving so fast it is difficult to keep up with it. Spending what feels like the appropriate amount of time trying to digest what is happening, and figuring out what can be done about it, can be extremely deleterious to mental health and overall well-being. And yet, […]

Categories
Legal ethics

Texas Two (proposed ethics opinions) Step

The world is already an exceedingly difficult place. Yet, I continue to seem to think it makes sense for me to spend time thinking I can influence how Texas goes about thinking about legal ethics. There should probably be a DSM-V category for this behavior, but oh well I am doing it again. (It’s probably […]

Categories
Legal ethics

Bondo fixes damaged things. Bondi won’t.

Given the state of the nation, it is very difficult to write anything about legal ethics that isn’t also about politics. So, I’m not even going to bother to try this week to come up with something that isn’t. Among the parade of daily horrors to the rule of law happening in the last 3 […]

Categories
Legal ethics

Trump cannot ruin America without the help of lawyers

Unfortunately, it seems clear that he will have no trouble finding ones willing to do his bidding. Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they […]

Categories
Legal ethics

Can you just “nuh uh” civil rights violations?

Apparently, when you are the Tennessee Supreme Court that might just be something you are powerful enough to do. For a variety of reasons over the years, I have refrained from writing anything here about the Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program. During the course of my career, there have been times I have been a huge […]

Categories
Legal ethics

Bullying between clients and lawyers remains a one-way street

Many years ago now, I wrote a post about a lawyer improperly making a public announcement that they were no longer representing a prominent client. On the cusp of the United States beginning a journey caused by repeating one of its gravest electoral mistakes, I will not repeat that post in its entirety. Instead, I […]

Categories
Legal ethics

APRL Takes the Lead Again

Not quite, but almost, three years ago, I wrote about a proposal by the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers urging the ABA to revise Model Rule 5.5 to make it easier for clients to retain the lawyer of their choice without being inhibited by state lines. Regrettably, while the ABA has not yet ultimately acted […]

Categories
Legal ethics

A rejected “______ makes me a better lawyer” column comes to life

So, from time to time I have really thought about writing something about how much a particular column series in a major legal ethics publication bothers me. If you read the title of this post, and you have access to a subscription to Legal Ethics Law360, then you probably already know which one I am […]

Categories
Legal ethics

Textual Relations in PA: A Tale of Two Rule Revisions

While lots of ethics discussions and regulatory efforts have been focusing on more advanced technology like Generative AI, Pennsylvania has been laser-focused on making it unethical for lawyers to use text messages as a means of soliciting clients in more ways than one. In October 2024, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court adopted revisions to its RPC […]

Categories
Legal ethics

Another GAI ethics opinion & more

Among the topics I have been regularly addressing in presentations during 2024, including here at the end of year rush for CLE credits, has been the ethics issues associated with the rise of Generative AI. The core presentation I have done now almost 10 times has been a constant evolutionary process as things have rapidly […]