The Tennessean has an article today about a disciplinary complaint filed by the Tennessee Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers against a General Sessions judge in Nashville. (General Sessions court in Tennessee is our small claims court, on the civil side, and on the criminal side of things tends to be a misdemeanor court.) TACDL says […]
Author: Brian Faughnan
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Can I get a witness (to talk to me)?
Later today (noon central), I will be doing a live webcast, through the Tennessee Bar Association, focused on RPC 4.2 and other ethical issues associated with communications with employees (and former employees) of represented organizations. My co-presenter is a friend and former colleague (we practiced together as associates at a defense firm in the late […]
So, if you missed Part 1 you can get up to speed here. Now I indicated I’d get the underlying documents (plural) this weekend and finish this little thought experiment today, but I don’t actually practice in the International Trade Commission (shocking to hear I bet) so beyond getting to the order of disqualification itself, […]
In preparation for a panel presentation coming up at the end of this month, I have been delving back into the complicated and contradictory world of disqualification rulings from around the country. While the lay of the land is highly inconsistent to a large degree, there are some common themes that can be teased out […]
Just about a month ago, I wrote a bit about an effort by a Florida attorney to get a Washington state court to unmask the identity of someone who posted an anonymous Avvo review claiming to be the Florida attorney’s unhappy former client. This week the news has come out that the Washington Court of […]
Last month, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York Committee on Professional Ethics put out a thorough Formal Opinion addressing when it is unethical for an attorney to threaten to file a disciplinary complaint against another lawyer. While Formal Opinion 2015-5 is a well-written opinion overall, it is a sprawling one […]
Several years ago, we attempted in Tennessee to have our Court adopt an ethics rule that would specifically address what constituted client file materials. The effort was unsuccessful despite the fact that the rule we proposed was a strong, well-written rule. The primary reason we were unsuccessful was (as you’ll decipher from pages 24-25 of the […]
I’ve written a good bit over the last few months about a variety of issues related to problems involving unauthorized practice of law issues for lawyers licensed in at least one jurisdiction. Tennessee still has the pending petition filed by the Board of Law Examiners that should result in some form of practice pending admission rule that will […]
A couple of timely updates, both involving California events. I’ve quite recently written about the ethical issues associated with the trend toward de-criminalization if not outright legalization of marijuana here. As yet further proof about the rapid developments in this area, the San Francisco Bar Association put out an ethics opinion earlier this month making clear […]
I commend to your reading a very well done, thorough, and I think (hope) persuasive report from the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers regarding the subject of lawyer advertising. Although none of us were on the Lawyer Advertising Committee that put this together, several of us on the committee are members of APRL. You can […]