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. Legal ethics

A rose may be a rose but UPL does not always mean the same thing as UPL.

So, you likely have read about or stumbled into something on the web about the remarks offered by the founder of Avvo at the ABA Meeting.  If you somehow missed having that hit your radar screen at all, you can read about it (and snippets of the remarks of the other folks who gave similar […]

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. Legal ethics

“Were you aware of it?” – Friday edition (A tale of two AGs)

Were you aware that 4% of the state attorneys general (attorney generals?) in the United States have been indicted already in August 2015?  Well, they were.  First, Texas’ Attorney General was indicted as we learned when his indictment was unsealed on August 3, 2015.  Then, Pennsylvania’s Attorney General was indicted on August 6, 2015. For […]

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. Legal ethics

The TBA’s Filed Comment to the Board of Law Examiners Proposed Rule Changes

Over the last few months, I have posted on several occasions about the petition pending before the Tennessee Supreme Court seeking some significant changes to the rules in Tennessee regarding admission of attorneys to practice in a variety of contexts.  If you are new to the blog, you can get up to speed on this […]

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. Legal ethics

APRL Advertising Revision Proposal and the NOBC Meeting

I had the opportunity last Friday to attend the joint APRL/NOBC program put on during the National Organization of Bar Counsel meeting in Chicago (which also happens at the same time as APRL’s annual meeting, which happens to run at the same time as the ABA Annual Meeting).  The joint program focused on APRL’s white […]

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. Legal ethics

Mindless Pedantry

First, yes, “Mindless Pedantry” would make a good band name.  Other than that though, it is never a good thing. In the practice of law, attention to detail is a valuable quality, but mindless pedantry certainly is not. You are probably not an experienced litigator if you cannot remember a time when, faced with responding […]

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. Legal ethics

Some arbitrary thoughts related to attorney-client arbitration agreements

It is undeniable that the American judicial system long ago embraced arbitration as a valid form of alternative dispute resolution.  As a result, it is also hornbook law at this point that agreements to arbitrate disputes are to be enforced just like any other contract.  As a practical matter, there isn’t anything empirically wrong with […]

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. Legal ethics

Plaintiffs’ personal injury firm is to investment banker as . . . ?

A major issue that has dogged the legal profession in the past, and looks likely to dog it again in the near future (if you don’t happen to think it already does), is the debate over the restriction imposed under the ethics rules that prevents non-lawyers from having any ownership stake in a law firm. […]

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. Legal ethics

Words Are Supposed to Mean Things: My latest print column in the Memphis Lawyer is out

You can read it starting at page 23 of this link.  By delving back into a topic that I first wrote about in an article for ABA/BNA that was itself a preview of a portion of a chapter of the book I was fortunate enough to co-author, the column is admittedly pretty self-referential.  (And thus […]

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. Legal ethics

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 […]

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. Legal ethics

A verein-teresting thought experiment? Part 2

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, […]