Yesterday, the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility issued its latest ethics opinion, Formal Opinion 472, “Communication with Person Receiving Limited-Scope Legal Services.” On the whole, it isn’t a bad opinion. It is well-constructed, addresses multiple topics that seem ripe for discussion, and clearly is the product of a lot of thought and […]
Author: Brian Faughnan
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A little something to be thankful for
If you’re a lawyer, then many days you may find yourself either complaining that you are too busy or that you aren’t busy enough. Rare is the time for lawyers (in my experience) when they think their workload lands in a “just right” kind of spot. There actually can be such a thing as too […]
There is a lot of activity that can take place at the intersection of the lawyer ethics rules and public policy. There can be issues that aren’t addressed by lawyer ethics rules (or at least not fully addressed) but that are addressed as a matter of state public policy. What there really can’t be though […]
So, in honor of this my 100th post to the blog, you’ll see that the site has been spruced up a bit with a new logo and look. While the blog may now be more aesthetically-pleasing, the quality of the content isn’t likely to change (for better or worse). You may recall a few months […]
I have written in the past on this blog, and in other publications, about instances of lawyers getting into disciplinary trouble over their treatment of judges presiding over their clients’ cases. To the extent bullying and insulting a judge is a purposeful approach to advocacy for a client, it’s a flawed approach. This behavior isn’t unique […]
Unfortunately, it does not appear to be up and online as of yet at The Memphis Bar‘s website, but the latest issue of The Memphis Lawyer is out, and I have a column in it. The column — The Revised RPC 7.3(b)(3): The Road to Constitutional Infirmity is Paved With Good Intentions — talks about a revision […]
In a lot of jurisdictions, mine included, formal ethics opinions from the governing disciplinary body are issued, if not rarely, then on a “few and far between” kind of time frame. In North Carolina, on October 23, 2015, 3 were released in one day. Two of them provide overall good advice. One of those two […]
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Ethics School tomorrow
Tomorrow (which somehow is now being called “Love Your Lawyer Day”?) I’ll be part of a panel presentation with Tennessee’s Chief Disciplinary Counsel and Deputy Chief Disciplinary Counsel at the annual Ethics School hosted by the Board of Professional Responsibility of the Supreme Court of Tennessee at the Nashville School of Law. The three of […]
I remain surprised that RPC 2.1 is so rarely discussed when it comes to ethics rules. It’s not really a scientific or fair way of justifying my point, but if you were to go search the website of the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility for “2.1,” it will inform you “There were no results found. […]
Conflicts are a big issue for lawyers, and a significant issue in the world of legal ethics. (If you are a lawyer and do not already have his site bookmarked, you really need to add Bill Freivogel’s website to your list of bookmarks.) Relatively speaking, however, conflicts of interest (other than ones involving inappropriate sexual […]