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Judicial Ethics

A word about B**chslaps

It’s a stupid and demeaning term.  In both contexts, whether you replace the asterisks with the original two letters, it, or the other two letters, en.  It is unfortunate that the second term was ever coined by this guy, and it is remarkable to think that this guy has included it for many years as […]

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. Legal ethics

Three updates for you on this election-year President’s Day.

Given that there isn’t a lot going on in the news that relates to legal issues, I feel obligated to offer lawyers something to read.  (I don’t think I’ve ever gone on record here about how badly I wish someone would create and implement a sarcasm font upon which all users could agree.  Maybe it […]

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. Legal ethics

The Wisdom of Ferris Bueller. The reality of Machiavelli.

Life moves pretty fast.  If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. – Ferris Bueller Back in December 2015, during my Ethics Roadshow I talked a little bit about one of the items that had been rolled out for public comment by the ABA Commission on the Future […]

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. Legal ethics

Revisiting things not to do in court – Friday edition

Being in between stops for the Roadshow until next week, but still having two more to do (Wednesday in Chattanooga and Thursday in Knoxville), this will again be a bit more of a short(ish), punchy offering. A few months ago I wrote a post about things not to do in court that discussed two incidents. […]

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. Legal ethics

New “Brick and Mortar” column out this week (+ 2 other things you should read)

Unfortunately, it does not appear to be up and online as of yet at The Memphis Bar‘s website, but the latest issue of The Memphis Lawyer is out, and I have a column in it.  The column — The Revised RPC 7.3(b)(3): The Road to Constitutional Infirmity is Paved With Good Intentions — talks about a revision […]

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. Legal ethics

Coming to praise rather than to bury (Part 2 of 2)

Yesterday, I offered a positive review of a recent ethics opinion from the New York City Bar.  Today, I want to talk through this Order on the Merits striking down Florida’s restriction in its ethics rules on the ability of lawyers to refer to themselves as a specialist in the absence of a board certification from […]

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. Legal ethics

“Were you aware of it?” – Friday edition (A tale of two AGs)

Were you aware that 4% of the state attorneys general (attorney generals?) in the United States have been indicted already in August 2015?  Well, they were.  First, Texas’ Attorney General was indicted as we learned when his indictment was unsealed on August 3, 2015.  Then, Pennsylvania’s Attorney General was indicted on August 6, 2015. For […]

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. Legal ethics

A couple of updates, both involving Florida attorneys

Just about a month ago, I wrote a bit about an effort by a Florida attorney to get a Washington state court to unmask the identity of someone who posted an anonymous Avvo review claiming to be the Florida attorney’s unhappy former client.  This week the news has come out that the Washington Court of […]

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. Legal ethics

Prejudicial to the administration of justice? I’m going to say yes.

I tend to think my credentials as a fan of the First Amendment are pretty solid.  But I feel like I’m standing on pretty solid ground in saying that a lawyer’s effort to pursue a ballot initiative that calls for the murder of people, if it were going on in Tennessee, would justify discipline against […]

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. Legal ethics

Two ethics rule revisions on the way … one good, one not-so-much

After putting proposals out for public comment in 2014, the Tennessee Supreme Court in the span of a week in February 2015 ordered changes to Tennessee’s lawyer ethics rules that will each take effect on May 1, 2015.  For those lawyers who favor a robust view of lawyer speech rights, the two orders present a […]