It has been a minute or two since I’ve stumbled upon an ethics opinion that provides a quick and easy example of how to take an issue, makes it overly complex and in so doing highlight several ongoing problem areas in the regulation of the profession, but ultimately still get to the correct result as […]
With a strong tip of the metaphorical hat I never wear to Kim Ringler (a former President of APRL) who alerted many ethics lawyers to the news, I write today about a new ethics opinion from the New Jersey Committee on Attorney Advertising. In Opinion 45, issued less than a week ago, New Jersey has […]
Although today is Halloween in my part of the world, I am not offering any spooky content. I thought about trying to replace all mentions of Maryland in this post with Scaryland, but that just seemed like I was trying too hard. In fact, I’m a bit torn about even writing about this particular topic […]
So, I am certain you have heard by now that a little under a week ago the ABA issued a new Formal Ethics Opinion to address the ethical obligations of lawyers in the aftermath of a cyber-attack or an electronic data breach. ABA Opinion 483 makes for a good read and provides good guidance about […]
I’m interested in writing today about two recent ethics opinions that manage to go together quite nicely. Utah Ethics Adv. Op. 18-04 and Texas Professional Ethics Committee Op. 679. Both involve RPC 1.8 (or at least both should). And, not only does neither opinion do a very good job with the subject matter it tackles […]
So there are things that can really make you feel small. And there are things that can really lead to despair and a feeling of helplessness. Fortunately, there are few things that do both at once. The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change can do both of those things pretty simply. If you […]
There has been something of a trend of late in terms of ethics opinions focusing on variations on the breadth of the duty of client confidentiality and the inconvenience it creates for lawyers who have bought in to the modern trend of sharing and oversharing when online. There was this opinion from the ABA and […]
Not quite 5 months ago, I wrote a bit of a shorter post about my view as to why ABA Formal Ethics Opinion 480 counted as a good ethics opinion. For those that may not be remembering the opinion off the top of the head, it was the one that reminded lawyers – primarily in […]
This is not truly a development that merits the “Bad Ethics Opinion or the Worst Ethics Opinion” treatment, but it is a development that deserves commentary. Last week while my wife and I were getting some short R&R, the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility issued Formal Ethics Opinion 2018-F-166. If all you read of it […]
Blackhawks or Devils? Bulls or Nets? Barack Obama or Chris Christie? Northwestern or Rutgers? Kanye or Wu-Tang Clan? Wilco or Bruce Springsteen? Some of those are easy calls; some are harder decisions to make. What they all have in common though is that one comes out of Illinois and the other comes out of New […]