Categories
. 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 […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

Yet another decision coming out of Washington that complicates life.

Nope.  This too is not a post having anything to do with the recent election.  The Washington in the title is the State of Washington, and the decision is the controversial 5-4 decision issued by the Washington Supreme Court in Newman v. Highland Sch. Dist. back on October 20, 2016.  The Washington court, over a strenuous […]

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. Legal ethics

ABA Law Connect post-mortem. ♫ Five. Five dollar. Five dollar not long. ♫

This is going to be a short update offered on a Friday for any weekend reading needs you may be facing. A bit back (on Back to the Future day actually) I mentioned (almost as only an aside) the pilot project that the ABA was launching in cooperation with Rocket Lawyer to offer a limited-scope […]

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. Legal ethics

A duty to ask: Another of the unintended consequences of unbundling

Yesterday, the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility issued its latest ethics opinion, Formal Opinion 472, “Communication with Person Receiving Limited-Scope Legal Services.”  On the whole, it isn’t a bad opinion.  It is well-constructed, addresses multiple topics that seem ripe for discussion, and clearly is the product of a lot of thought and […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

Local counsel arrangements, RPC 1.2(c), and trying to avoid the wrath of court

This month the New York City Bar Association has issued an interesting formal ethics opinion on what is, in some respects, a surprisingly little discussed ethical situation:  What it can mean for a lawyer’s ethical obligations to simply be serving in a matter as “local counsel.”  When I first saw some of the media coverage […]