Categories
. Legal ethics

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 […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

This probably is (but maybe shouldn’t be) the least discussed ethics rule.

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. […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

Some lawyers fail to see conflicts of interest, but they aren’t the only ones.

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 […]

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. Legal ethics

Coming to praise rather than to bury – West Virginia edition

Some, including possibly me, will argue that the greatest thing to come out of West Virginia is the My Brother, My Brother, and Me podcast.  But today, I write about another very positive contribution out of West Virginia, a very good, very thorough ethics opinion that overflows with common-sense with respect to social media issues for […]

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. Legal ethics

Official dishonesty and the consequences for lawyers – 3 of the latest examples

A common theme in many disciplinary proceedings brought against lawyers involves dishonesty.  This should not really be a surprise given that lawyers are human beings and human beings have a tendency toward being dishonest when they can get away with it.  Although there is an ethics rule that, on its face, makes it unethical for […]

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. Legal ethics

Back to the Future … of Legal Services

So, yesterday was Back to the Future day.  And that was fun.  But today I want to go back to the future of legal services… as a topic for discussion. I’m on record as being a fan of The Law for Lawyers Today blog, but the way they close out a recent piece exploring whether […]

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. Legal ethics

Florida chooses protectionism, and I choose to share a Friedmanesque public transportation anecdote

By way of any update on a recent post you can read here, and in something that should come as no surprise at all, the Florida Bar’s Board of Governors rejected the proposed change to its rules that would have created a mechanism for comity admission.  Everything about the way the matter was handled in Florida […]

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. Legal ethics

Update – Caveat requestor is where we will stay in TN.

I’ve previously written about a pending rule revision in Tennessee that the BPR initiated and to which the TBA responded here.  Last week the Tennessee Supreme Court entered this order and adopted essentially the language that the BPR was seeking and did not incorporate the suggestions the TBA made that would have actually provided the […]

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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 […]