Categories
Legal ethics

One bad apple spoils bunch? Ethics opinion edition

I’m sure you are familiar with the idiom “One bad apple spoils the bunch” or in some parts of the country “one bad apple spoils the barrel,” but probably not in the context of legal ethics opinions. Someone could (or has) already written versions of posts applying that idiom to lawyers generally and perhaps unethical […]

Categories
Legal ethics

Breaking? BPR Issues Two Formal Ethics Opinions

With little to no fanfare (and in fact I only know they came out because I happened to go look on the website out of curiosity), the BPR has now issued the two opinions it had put out in draft form for public comment earlier this year. Both of these opinions were adopted on August […]

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Off-Topic

Some bad news, some good news, and some “just news.”

All, Just a PSA. Do not get COVID. It is no good. Very bad. You don’t want it. I managed to go all the way to August 2023 without ever getting it, but I came back from Denver with it earlier this week. It sucks. If you are traveling, I’d suggest you mask up. I […]

Categories
Legal ethics

505 and 506 are not the ABA’s best.

So, for a variety of reasons, I’ve stewed over whether to write anything about what (before yesterday) was the most recent ABA Formal Ethics Opinion to be issued. That opinion was ABA Formal Op. 505 and presents itself as an opinion on, among other things, whether the ABA Model Rules permit the charging of any […]

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

Two proposed TN Ethics Opinions – Part 2

Like a movie sequel coming out 10 years later, here comes part two of that promised two-part post. (Can you even really call something a two-part post if the second part doesn’t come along until 10 days later?) The second draft Formal Ethics Opinion put out for public comment by the Board of Professional Responsibility […]

Categories
Legal ethics

Two proposed TN Ethics Opinions Means Another Two-Parter

It’s getting a bit commonplace now, isn’t it? You go years without doing a two-part blogpost and then you do another one the same week? Kind of takes all the excitement out of the idea of a two-part post, doesn’t it? Sure. But in my defense, the Tennessee BPR went roughly 3 years before issuing […]

Categories
Legal ethics

Kudos to the TN BPR – Giving Public Comment Its Due

So, you can consider this my “commitment” to always writing about new Formal Ethics Opinions that get released in Tennessee when they go through the public comment process. I put commitment in quotes because, at this point, it is only the second time it has ever happened. But it’s the first time where public comments […]

Categories
Legal ethics

Again with the “reply all” question.

Ok. The American Bar Association has now weighed in. So, let’s do this. But given how thoroughly I am already on the record on the topic, let’s do it quickly and hopefully efficiently. And, after we’re done, I’ll do some shameless self-promotion. This week the ABA issued Formal Ethics Opinion 503 which tackles a topic […]

Categories
Legal ethics

“In representing a client” … again

We’ve trod this path before, but the issuance of the most recent ABA Formal Ethics Opinion justifies renewed discussion of the topic. Particularly when the opinion in question is of the rare variety where there is a dissent included in the opinion. The path (our topic): Does Model Rule 4.2 apply to a lawyer when […]