Categories
Legal ethics

A Penny for My Thoughts

Someone last week reached out on Twitter and wanted my thoughts on the crowdfunding effort launched by a New York law firm to raise money for the legal defense of Daniel Penny. Thought #1 — not unique to me as I’ve seen others say the same thing — very few things indicate how bad things […]

Categories
Legal ethics

Two proposed TN Ethics Opinions – Part 2

Like a movie sequel coming out 10 years later, here comes part two of that promised two-part post. (Can you even really call something a two-part post if the second part doesn’t come along until 10 days later?) The second draft Formal Ethics Opinion put out for public comment by the Board of Professional Responsibility […]

Categories
Legal ethics

Ohio offers advice for lawyers representing Matt Damon

And other crypto bros too, I guess. You may recall in the halcyon days before any of us ever spent any time thinking about pandemics and public health on a daily basis that I wrote about how Nebraska became the first U.S. jurisdiction to issue ethics guidance on whether lawyers could accept payment of fees […]

Categories
Legal ethics

Just another follow-up Friday.

Yes, if you are about the same age as me, you can sing that title to The Bangles tune of “Just another Manic Monday …” So, this is a weirder follow up post as it follows up on something I posted in October 2021 but involves substantive content that came into existence in July 2021 […]

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. Legal ethics

The scams evolve. So too must lawyers.

I mentioned in a prior post that I was going to be fortunate enough to preside over the first in-person meeting of APRL in many, many moons last week. I’ve also written in the past about APRL has begun working into its programming items we call “Fred Talks.” These are Focused. Rapid. Ethics. Discussions. Shorter […]

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. Legal ethics

Foundations of a … misunderstanding about what an ethics opinion is supposed to be?

So, I will admit from the jump that I am seriously torn about this post. I am a strident believer that the best ethics opinions are practical in a number of respects and that they have to be to be realistic in terms of helpfulness. An ethics opinion that does little more than offer a […]

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. 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, […]

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. Legal ethics

Two for Thursday.

It is Thursday, right? In a “recent” effort, I mentioned that there were recent developments I was planning to eventually write about. Today presents an effort at checking two of them off the list that have only Tennessee in common. Neither of which likely provides fodder for a full post, so they will be covered […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

Not all who wear capes are heroes.

This really is just too absurd not to write about.  The absurd story commanding my fingers to tap these keys today involves a lawyer who managed to blow some significant aspects of the fundamentals of being an ethical lawyer.  You may have seen the ABA Journal online story about the now-disbarred lawyer whose absurd story is commanding […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

ABA Confirms that Model Rule 1.15 Should Solve What Model Rule 4.4 Doesn’t

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 […]