Categories
. Legal ethics

Main(e)ly an excuse for book promotion.

So, before offering up the actual ethics content, if like me you know you’re not quite hitting on all cylinders but you are functional and you haven’t already read that New York Times article that made the rounds about “languishing.” I’d recommend it. You can still get to the article at this link. You might […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

California proposes an ethics opinion that needs further workshopping.

Let’s talk for a bit today about a proposed California ethics opinion for which public comment is being accepted until June 8, 2021. The general topic when you hear about the proposed opinion is immediately of interest — can a lawyer help a client obtain a contractual agreement including a provision that is against the […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

Brooding about ethics.

So, it’s been a minute or so since my last content. You’ve probably moved on and found a new favorite ethics blog. It’s probably Michael Kennedy’s actually, he’s been relentless with content in March 2021. You might be wondering what has happened to keep me from writing over these last 20 or so days. First, […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

“Here’s a new post.” (cleaned up)

I have tried for the better part of a week to convince myself that I needed to write something about the most recent ABA Formal Ethics Opinion which was released in February 2021 and which attempts to explain what “materially adverse” means in the context of ABA Model Rule 1.9 (and Model Rule 1.18). I […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

ABA SCEPR Increases Lifetime Batting Average.

Look at me with the super seasonally timely sports reference. Baseball. In January. I have written on quite a few occasions in the past about the perils for lawyers in responding to criticism posted about them online. Well, the ABA has issued its latest ethics opinion to address the same topic. Behold ABA Formal Ethics […]

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. Legal ethics

Following up after shouting into a void.

This is not really a “new content” post. With luck, I will have one of those later this week. This, however, is a follow up about something from last month. It is the best sort of follow up because it is prompted by the process of sifting back through the past year to prepare for […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

Nebraska brings us … this.

It’s been something of a big month for Nebraska. First, thanks to its divided approach to providing electoral votes, it is contributing one of the electors totaling up to President-Elect Joe Biden’s 306 electoral votes. Second, like everywhere else in the United States (my state is doing just as bad if not worse) unfortunately, it […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

Conflicts in large law firms.

The title of this post is extremely boring. No getting around that fact. The topic though is not boring at all. Managing conflict issues in large law firms can be described in a number of different ways, but the adjective “boring” never fits the bill. The topic is front of mind for me this week […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

The ABA comes through with another quality ethics opinion.

So, nearly everything is awful these days. Finding something interesting enough to avoid highlighting the awfulness around us is not altogether easy. This is pretty much too traumatic and damning to write about. Dwelling on this would just be petty at this point. Coming through as a light at the end of the tunnel today […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

Two ethics opinions: one good, one bad, but both reveal systemic problems.

So, New York and Florida. Interestingly, those states have been bookends of our nation’s problems with COVID-19 and with fighting it. New York got hit very badly early, given the concentrated nature of its population centers, but then engaged in a very serious effort of taking the virus very seriously and managed to significantly flatten […]