So this intrepid blogger is on vacation and this post and perhaps one other this week will have been pre-written and scheduled for publication. So here’s hoping nothing has transpired in the world to make this seem tone-deaf. Samson Habte, an excellent reporter with the ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct, was kind enough to […]
I’ve written previously about the maelstrom of issues presented by Avvo’s expansion from its original core business as a lawyer rating service into new things such as Avvo Legal Services — an arrangement where it makes clients, who will have already paid Avvo for the legal services they want, available directly to lawyers to perform […]
Big news … well, the size of the news may be subject to differing opinions, but news. Believe it or not, this year will be the 12th year that I have had the opportunity to do the Ethics Roadshow for lawyers throughout Tennessee. Since this is my 12th go round at doing three hours of […]
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Astonished and admonished.
So, on days like today, it is very difficult to have a forum (even one as small as this one) and not talk about truly important problems plaguing society, but no one comes here for my thoughts on those things so I’ll refrain. Staying in my lane, here is another example of a problem lawyers […]
One mistake. What should be the price of one mistake? To some extent, the answer to those questions for lawyers and lawyer discipline matters ought to be foreordained in two consecutive paragraphs of the Scope portion of the ABA Model Rules: [19] ….the rules presuppose that whether or not discipline should be imposed for a […]
An important development for labor lawyers that I delved into a bit recently here has now been put on hold. I managed to point out that there would be significant efforts aimed through litigation at stopping the rule from ever going into effect. Yesterday, a Texas federal district court has stayed the Department of Labor’s new […]
In the very early days of this aspiring little blog, I wrote repeatedly about a number of proposed, and ultimately adopted, changes to Tennessee’s admissions and licensing rule, Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 7. Included among the implemented changes was one last chance at amnesty for lawyers working in Tennessee as in-house counsel but who were […]
Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an important opinion on judicial recusal, Williams v. Pennsylvania. It is the first instance in which the Court has applied the standard first announced in Caperton — that recusal is required when the risk of actual bias on the part of a judge is “too high to be […]
So, quite a few months ago, I wrote about what (I think) was the first iteration of the proposed revision to RPC 8.4 to add a black-letter rule addressing discrimination and harassment. My verdict at the time was one of skepticism that it made any sense at all to move workplace and employment discrimination issues […]
The week feels like it is getting away from me, some travel, some work, some personal life, but may be able to write about something more substantive I’ve been meaning to tackle for later this week. For today, here is a scattershot of stories all of which involve something previously found to be worthwhile enough […]