Categories
Legal ethics

A Penny for My Thoughts

Someone last week reached out on Twitter and wanted my thoughts on the crowdfunding effort launched by a New York law firm to raise money for the legal defense of Daniel Penny. Thought #1 — not unique to me as I’ve seen others say the same thing — very few things indicate how bad things […]

Categories
Legal ethics

Just a sh***y lawyer practicing past his “sell-by” date

We here at this blog try not to write about things just for clicks or that revolve around stuff that simply every regular lawyer would know not to do. But the world demands exceptions sometimes, so here I am today addressing a story that popped up right before Turkey Day and that might help suppress […]

Categories
Judicial Ethics

Blasts from the past.

First, just a heads up that there will be some design changes taking place here at Faughnan on Ethics around the beginning of October 2022 so keep an eye out for that. Second, I know I haven’t written about anything recently but today is a day to knock out bunch of updates on things that […]

Categories
Legal ethics

Rare but not unprecedented.

So, apologies all around. For those seeking out new content from me, I apologize for the brief hiatus. For those who hoped I’d stop at 500 posts, I apologize because for not stopping. For the first of what I hope will be at least another 500, let’s talk about a recent disbarment action that involves […]

Categories
Legal ethics

Should racists be permitted to practice law?

This is a question I’ve asked in the past. It is not instinctively an easy question to wrestle with. It can easily boil over into various slippery-slope arguments and accusations regarding risk of inviting concepts of the “thought police” and the like. But another news item invites the question back into the arena for further discussion. This ABA […]

Categories
Legal ethics

2020 too?

This past year has certainly been … something. Other than the ongoing pandemic, this year feels like it will historically be defined (at least within the United States) by the various assaults on democracy starting with the January 6 insurrection, continuing with the efforts of one political party to choose its voters rather than vice […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

A companion piece.

As I inch ever closer to my 400th blogpost here, today’s offering is something of a companion piece to a post I wrote almost exactly 13 months ago that demonstrates what should be an obvious point, what is a very important point in the world of disciplinary defense but much less obvious, and at least […]

Categories
Judicial Ethics

Two Arkansas items involving rare procedural developments

As I attempt this week to get back into the saddle, two items – each relatively unusual and each involving Arkansas – grabbed my attention. One involves a judge and the other a lawyer. Although Fridays are usually reserved for standard “follow ups,” the first item is in the nature of follow-up because I wrote […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

Fine lines and not so fine lines

About six weeks ago, The Law For Lawyers Today published a good post about a problem for lawyers that sometimes lurks around efforts to make demands in order to settle legal disputes for clients — the risk of being accused of extortionate conduct. You can read that post here. That post was prompted by what […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

“Sleeping,” sleeping, and Cronic sleeping.

Three recent cases involving lawyers alleged to have been sleeping during trial (actually only two about sleeping lawyers, one about a lawyer pretending to sleep) leave me feeling like there has to be the germ of a worthwhile point to be made in there somewhere, but after drafting and redrafting this post in spare moments […]