Categories
. Legal ethics

Pennsylvania wins the race to be first with COVID-19 ethics guidance.

I’ve lived in Memphis since 5th grade at this point, but I was actually born in Pennsylvania. I’ll heed all the guidance making the rounds of social media about not sharing information that might be a security question somewhere and won’t tell you what city. But a part of my heart will always be in […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

Essential? It depends.

So, I have now been exclusively working from home for . . . a number of days that … who am I kidding? Just like you, I barely can keep track of time at this point. March seems to have been 3 years long so far. It’s definitely been a while. And, importantly for context […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

One possible answer: Radical transparency in design for legal services?

So, this post isn’t exactly about legal ethics. Of course, it isn’t exactly not about legal ethics. I’ve written a bit here recently about various jurisdictions launching increasingly bolder initiatives to try to reform the regulatory landscape when it comes to the delivery of legal services. Many critical voices of these initiatives demand evidence that […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

A lawsuit about a lawsuit that touches on everything about 2019?

If time capsules were still a thing (are they still a thing?), and someone wanted to capture issues facing the legal profession in 2019 for a time capsule to be buried… what sort of topics would you choose to include? Outside of the legal dynamics at play in the political landscape of the nation (which […]

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. Legal ethics

When you’re right, you’re right. Even when you’re Right.

I’ve written a bit in the past about the differences between unified bars, like what exists in North Carolina, and voluntary state bar associations such as what we have in Tennessee. (If you are uninterested in clicking on either of those links, as a refresher, the fundamental difference is that unified bars require that anyone […]

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. Legal ethics

Lawyers engaging in criminal conduct. Big love for immunity in Texas.

Let me offer a word or two or probably 1,000 about two recent items of interest having the issue of lawyers involved in crimes as their common thread. One comes from the Fifth Circuit and the other comes from an ABA Journal article about a situation in Utah. First, the Fifth Circuit’s ruling in Troice […]

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. Legal ethics

Things you might not know (for a Thursday)

Am I about to write about this just for the click-bait possibilities? Probably. Does that make the underlying topic less worth discussing? I hope not. So there used to be a time when people could become lawyers without ever having to go to law school. You could effectively apprentice in the law where you could […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

Utahlking Ethics Opinions to Me? (Also Texas)

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 […]

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. Legal ethics

Yet another reason for change. Pretty much the most serious reason.

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 […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

Withdrawing a guilty plea is notary-ly easy thing to do.

The pun was, of course, inevitable.  It was also fully intended.  In fact, it is, at least for me, repetitive as back in 2013 I was asked to do a seminar on the ethics of being a notary public — they have their own ethics code — and I called it “Notary-ly Common Topic: The […]