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. Legal ethics

Bad ethics opinion or worst ethics opinion? Tennessee 2014-F-158 edition

Actually, unlike some other posts in this category, this title’s not even close to reflecting a serious question being asked.  Slapping that tile on this post is more of a crutch.  The ethics opinion I want to discuss here is miles away from even being in the conversation among the worst ethics opinions.  It really isn’t […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

Things not to do in court.

A couple of weeks ago, I read a little about two instances of lawyers, both involving murder cases, getting in a bit of a pinch based on what was portrayed as bad behavior in the courtroom.  One lawyer ended up being escorted from the courtroom for attempting to make a citizen’s arrest of someone.  I think […]

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. Legal ethics

Don’t be an ass.

Quite a few years ago now, I did a seminar titled something like “The Golden Rule of Litigation” or “Litigation and the Golden Rule.”  One of the fun aspects of putting it together was finding confirmation that some version of The Golden Rule – the “do unto others as you would have them do unto […]

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. Legal ethics

Coming to praise rather than to bury (Part 2 of 2)

Yesterday, I offered a positive review of a recent ethics opinion from the New York City Bar.  Today, I want to talk through this Order on the Merits striking down Florida’s restriction in its ethics rules on the ability of lawyers to refer to themselves as a specialist in the absence of a board certification from […]

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. Legal ethics

Coming to praise rather than to bury (Part 1 of 2)

For a change of pace, I write today about a very well constructed ethics opinion out of New York.  (To keep this positivity train chugging along for at least one more day, my plan for tomorrow is to discuss a federal court decision out of Florida impacting attorney ethics that is also praiseworthy and that […]

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. Legal ethics

Bad ethics opinion or the worst ethics opinion? Iowa 15-03 edition

Inspiration, like corn, comes from Iowa today.  It’s time again for a little game called, is this a bad ethics opinion or the worst ethics opinion?  The Iowa State Bar Association Committee on Ethics and Practice Guidelines self-nominated by issuing Op. 15-03. Before I make enemies of a few Iowa lawyers that I have no doubt […]

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. Legal ethics

Some days you just don’t feel it.

I am not telling anyone who has any experience with this medium anything they do not already know when I say that blogging is a very time-consuming activity.  Blogging demands content, but some days you just aren’t feeling it.  This is particularly problematic when you are only attempting to do 2 to 3 posts a […]

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. Legal ethics

The purpose of lawyer regulation? Events in Colorado and Florida present starkly contrasting perspectives

When people talk about the future of legal ethics in the United States, it is always helpful to engage them in a dialogue about what purpose they think the regulation of lawyers is meant to serve.  If you and the other person do not agree on what the purposes to be served are supposed to […]

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. Legal ethics

Protecting client confidentiality – how Fargo?

So sorry for the title if you are not a fan of a syntactically-challenged play on words.  But this news item out of Kentucky sounds like the kind of plot that would make for good fodder for a future season of the TV show Fargo.  (Which, yes if you are unfamiliar with it, is spun […]

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. Legal ethics

Stacked decks, standards of review, and the RPC 8.1 duty to cooperate

In many jurisdictions, disciplinary proceedings against lawyers are referred to as being “quasi-criminal” in nature.  If you ask lawyers who defend lawyers in disciplinary proceedings, you will often hear them agree that the nature of the work can feel a good bit like criminal defense work, but with two pretty universal exceptions that make the […]