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. Legal ethics

Bad blogger doubles up on topics.

I had every intention of posting twice this week, but events, including being under the weather with general ick much of the week, undermined my intent.  So, this mediocre post will briefly hit two items.  And, with any luck, tie the two together in a way that makes this seem, in hindsight, the correct way […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

Yet another decision coming out of Washington that complicates life.

Nope.  This too is not a post having anything to do with the recent election.  The Washington in the title is the State of Washington, and the decision is the controversial 5-4 decision issued by the Washington Supreme Court in Newman v. Highland Sch. Dist. back on October 20, 2016.  The Washington court, over a strenuous […]

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. Legal ethics

A very Tennessee-specific discussion for this Friday.

Later today I will have the honor of speaking as part of a panel at the TBA Health Law Forum.  The other panelists are Sheree Wright, the Senior Associate General Counsel with Vanderbilt University and Bill Hannah a lawyer in Chattanooga with the Chambliss Bahner firm.  I’m fortunate enough to have both Sheree and Bill as […]

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. Legal ethics

Lawyers and client confidentiality. Death does not part us.

It has been a while since I’ve written about a good ethics opinion.  There is a Maine opinion from a few months ago that fits the bill (and interestingly was actually posed by bar counsel in Maine apparently) but before I spend a little bit of time discussing it, I want to give context behind […]

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. Legal ethics

More on that Persuader Rule decision out of Texas

I’ve written a good bit here about the problems that the Department of Labor’s proposed new Persuader Rule interpretations present and, most recently, wrote a little bit about a Texas federal judge’s ruling issuing a preliminary injunction about the rule going into effect. My discussion of that ruling back at the end of June 2016 […]

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. Legal ethics

You either die a hero or live long enough to be the villain

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 […]

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. Legal ethics

Two updates – one persuasive, one not so much

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 […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

The Department of Labor’s Final “Persuader” Rule – Part 2 of 2

So, yesterday, I started writing about the potential ramifications for lawyers of the adoption by the Department of Labor of its final “persuader” rule which will become effective on April 25, 2016, but will only be applicable to agreements entered into on and after July 1, 2016.  You can catch up on part 1 here. […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

“Other law” is always changing – the DOL’s new Final “Persuader” Rule – Part 1 of 2

The scope of confidentiality lawyers owe to their clients has long been a subject that I find fascinating.  Over the last few years, I’ve mulled how its broad scope will continue to play out with current and future generations of both lawyers and clients who routinely, almost even instinctively, share seemingly every detail of their […]