Earlier this week I criticized what I consider to be a pretty bad ethics opinion that was issued by Rhode Island. To balance things out a bit, I want to write about an ethics opinion out of Wisconsin that gives the correct answer to its query – Wisconsin Formal Ethics Opinion EF-17-02. That opinion correctly […]
Tag: Confidentiality
I like to think I am “warier” than the average attorney. But a recent attorney-client privilege opinion out of New York was a good reminder that being “wary” can be much like being “woke.” Even if you think you are, you probably aren’t as much as you think you are, and you can always be […]
So (finally) I’ve made myself read a bit more into the DC situation — that for many people is now ancient history but was news to me — about what seems like something that definitely got some play in the news but ought to be a more nationally discussed scandal. The weird penchant that DC […]
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Whistling about where you work.
We appear to be living now in an era in which whistle blowers are going to be in the news (and perhaps be the news) more than ever. Many who know me, know that I hold a pretty controversial opinion — Arrested Development is potentially the greatest television show in history. For many years when I […]
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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 […]
So, this week the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility issued Formal Op. 476 addressing the need to protect client confidentiality when a lawyer seeks to withdraw for reasons involving the client’s failure to pay. As explained below, it is a solid, practical opinion touching on a subject often overlooked by lawyers who […]
Roy Simon, the Chair of the NY State Bar Association Committee on Standards on Attorney Conduct, was kind enough to include me on an email last week and, as a result, I learned that New York’s proposed adoption of certain aspects of the ABA Ethics 20/20 revisions was approved, effective January 1, 2017. Back in […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]