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Judicial Ethics Legal ethics

Secret recordings can be good. Electing judges kind of can’t.

So, the reasons secret recordings will always happen in “one-party” recording states is that they get to the truth. Lots of people do not like them though. And judges absolutely loathe the notion of being secretly recorded. They do not like them so much that sometimes no matter what the secret recording reveals they will […]

Categories
Legal ethics

DoNotP(L)ay

Or maybe we should title this post “Do Not Accept Payment” instead. So, a long time ago I wrote about some of the very good work that was being done by the folks associated with the “chat bot” app DoNotPay. If you do not remember any of that, you can refresh through this link. The […]

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Off-Topic

Not so NFTy idea

I’ve written once before in this space about the ridiculousness of NFTs. To some degree, I guess I am not surprised that I am doing so again but I kind of am … particularly in the context in which the topic arises. As well as the timing. As to the timing, if you haven’t been […]

Categories
Legal ethics

Tennessee Topic Today

There is an old saying about how when your only tool is a hammer, then you treat everything as a nail. I’m not getting the vernacular 100% correct, but you get the gist. That is the introduction for this post today because, as a lawyer who makes a living representing other lawyers (and obviously needs […]

Categories
Legal ethics

Dot. Dot.Dash (3 updates)

Three updates for you on things that all managed to catch my eye at the same time and all fall into the “I’ve written about this before” category. First, there has now been a ruling in that MSG case where the lawyers for MSG were badly misusing RPC 4.2 to justify barring certain attorneys from […]

Categories
Legal ethics

New York Disbarment Speedrun

Now to get the obvious first question out of the way: “speedrun” is a term that gamers use to refer to tackling a video game in a manner where the goal is to try to just complete the whole thing as quickly as possible rather than worrying about high scores. If you want to do […]

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Legal ethics

Again with the “reply all” question.

Ok. The American Bar Association has now weighed in. So, let’s do this. But given how thoroughly I am already on the record on the topic, let’s do it quickly and hopefully efficiently. And, after we’re done, I’ll do some shameless self-promotion. This week the ABA issued Formal Ethics Opinion 503 which tackles a topic […]

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. Legal ethics

You would have thought it would have been with Houston, but still…

Some interesting news today in the intersection of legal ethics and sports.  (And technically this makes two straight posts dabbling in that space.)  You might recall seemingly forever ago that I posted about a very short lived partnership between the ABA and a company called Rocket Lawyer.  If you don’t remember anything about that, you […]

Categories
Legal ethics

“In representing a client” … again

We’ve trod this path before, but the issuance of the most recent ABA Formal Ethics Opinion justifies renewed discussion of the topic. Particularly when the opinion in question is of the rare variety where there is a dissent included in the opinion. The path (our topic): Does Model Rule 4.2 apply to a lawyer when […]

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Judicial Ethics

A brief personal announcement

It’s a new month and, for me, a new professional era. I have been privileged to work over the last 23 years for three excellent law firms ranging in size from 50+ lawyers to more than 300 or so. From my early years with Armstrong Allen all the way through the last 8 years at […]