One of the more archaic aspects of lawyer regulation is the heavy-handed approach to UPL. And, I’m not referring to UPL in the sense of something done that involves the practice of law by a person who isn’t a lawyer anywhere. I’m referring to regulatory efforts involving UPL that are brandished against someone who is […]
I want to quickly discuss an ethics opinion out of New York state. No, not that one. I’m not going to delve into the brouhaha over the one from March 2016 that only got publicity in August 2016 that involves saying it is ethical for a firm to charge clients for work performed by unpaid […]
If you spend any time on social media these days, you may have noticed how irritable folks are. There are lots of reasons for it, of course. We live in stressful times. Practicing law has always been a high-stress endeavor as far as professions go; thus, cries for more civility in the practice of law […]
Back in August 2012, the ABA House of Delegates approved revisions to the ABA Model Rules proposed by the ABA Ethics 20/20 Commission. Very few of the proposed revisions included in the ABA Ethics 20/20 package are earth-shaking revisions, as many of them only involve change to language in the Comment accompanying certain rules. The […]
“It’s easier to ask for forgiveness rather than permission.” Those words, or words of similar effect, make up a pretty widely recognized adage. Depending on the details of any situation, the adage can serve as a proxy for pretty decent advice for a lawyer to give a client, but often less so if the lawyer’s […]
Here I am, because it is hard not to write something about the news last week that Brendan Dassey’s conviction was overturned. Dassey, for those of who you did not watch Netflix documentary Making a Murderer and are willing to take me at my word as to what you would have concluded if you did watch […]
I’ve written about this topic several times (some might say probably too many times) now, but here is the first example of people who — unlike me — actually matter reaching a very familiar sounding set of conclusions about something that quite obviously is the Avvo Legal Services program. South Carolina put out an advisory […]
The 2016 ABA Annual Meeting continues today and tomorrow but the two actions for which it likely will be most remembered have already transpired. One happened Monday when, after much public discussion and multiple revisions to the proposal along the way, a final set of proposed revisions to ABA Model Rule 8.4 was approved in […]
In July, a new ethics advisory opinion was issued out of South Carolina to address a question related to the obligation to report the misconduct of another lawyer, specifically what sort of timing is required. South Carolina Ethics Advisory Opinion 16-04 addresses an inquiry from a lawyer (Lawyer A) who believes he has knowledge of a […]
A long while ago I wrote about a lawyer’s public interview that should never have happened. Here is a lawyer’s op-ed piece that should never happened, you can read the op-ed if you haven’t already at this link at The Huffington Post. Now, because such a disclaimer seems to be in order and beneficial to some extent, […]