It is Election Day, but neither the title nor the subject-matter of this post have anything to do with that.
Later this week, November 11, I will be fortunate enough to present at the annual meeting of the Tennessee Association of Construction Counsel in Nashville and have billed my topic as “The Easiest Hour of Ethics You’ll Ever Learn.” Unlike my normal seminars, I don’t plan to push the audience to participate at all, but (and this is a warning for those who are planning to attend and reading this post… here be SPOILERS and if you want to stay surprised you should read no further…)
Okay.
That should be enough hard returns and buffers for those who are trying to hit the back tab.
As most of you won’t be there, let me continue. My plan is to essentially provide an “everything you ever wanted to know about the disciplinary process in Tennessee but were afraid to ask” presentation. Far too few lawyer truly understand how the process works – and no one wants to learn about it for the first time when dealing with a disciplinary complaint filed against them, so hopefully it should be informative and a bit enjoyable.
Exactly three weeks later though, we’re going down the opposite path as I’m going to present at the Memphis Bar Association Labor and Employment Law section’s annual seminar in Memphis and my presentation is titled: “The Most Difficult Ethics Hour You’ve Ever Earned – An Open Discussion of New ABA Model Rule 8.4(g) and What Comes Next.” That one is going to be almost entirely interactive and given that the folks in the room will be employment and labor lawyers… I expect an opinionated bunch with thoughts on the relative merits of turning an employment law issue into an ethics and disciplinary issue.
I’ve written on this blog three times previously about the ABA Model Rule and won’t repeat myself today. But I did want to briefly discuss a development along these lines. Specifically, it comes from the Philadelphia Bar Association which, on October 26, 2016, passed a Resolution urging the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania:
to adopt the amendment to Rule 8.4 of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct which adds section (g) making it an ethical violation to engage in conduct that the lawyer knows or reasonably should know is harassment or discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or socioeconomic status in conduct related to the practice of law.
It will be interesting to see if this spurs any action from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, or not, particularly given the negative publicity that various justices have brought upon that court over the last few years.