Categories
Legal ethics

Texas Op. 701 – half right is still wrong.

We aren’t doing “Bad Ethics Opinion or Worst Ethics Opinion” only because it is Texas so grading has to be on a curve. But we are still going to take a Texas opinion addressing whether a Texas attorney can offer a “subscription model” of legal services to task. Opinion No. 701 issued during May 2024 […]

Categories
Legal ethics

At the intersection of ethics and entrepreneurial acts

A case written up by Mike Frisch earlier this month caught my eye because it involves a discussion of two still-evolving areas of claims that can get made against law firms. Most of the case, and most of what Frisch focuses on, is the malpractice claim that was made regarding an alleged lost opportunity to […]

Categories
Legal ethics

Breaking? BPR Issues Two Formal Ethics Opinions

With little to no fanfare (and in fact I only know they came out because I happened to go look on the website out of curiosity), the BPR has now issued the two opinions it had put out in draft form for public comment earlier this year. Both of these opinions were adopted on August […]

Categories
Legal ethics

Wach the Tell?

So, it is trite to say that every picture tells a story. But it is trite for a reason. Here is a simple photo of two pages of the billing entries of the Wachtell Lipton firm in their representation of Twitter against Elon Musk in the Delaware litigation to force him to honor his promise […]

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Legal ethics

505 and 506 are not the ABA’s best.

So, for a variety of reasons, I’ve stewed over whether to write anything about what (before yesterday) was the most recent ABA Formal Ethics Opinion to be issued. That opinion was ABA Formal Op. 505 and presents itself as an opinion on, among other things, whether the ABA Model Rules permit the charging of any […]

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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

Gambling with RPC 1.8(a) is always risky.

It is not often that you get decisions out of any of the second highest courts in the land that turn on application of an attorney ethics rule, so it can be important to highlight when such events occur. Given how many lawyers and law firms overlook the interrelationship between RPC 1.5 and RPC 1.8(a), […]

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. Legal ethics

Shimkonicity (shim-ko-nis-a-tee)

When I first read some reporting about this decision from Ohio involving the indefinite suspension of a lawyer, I expected it to come across very much as an obvious case of a lawyer’s third strike leading to a steep punishment. But, the coming together of so many things with respect to this lawyer’s situation actually […]

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. Legal ethics

A modest proposal (about NYC Bar Op. 2019-5)

I have made a living (well not actually a living since no one compensates me in any form of currency, whether crypto or otherwise, for my writings here) writing about problematic ethics opinions. July 11, 2019 brings what might be the most practically useless ethics opinion ever released. If it were only just practically useless, […]

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. Legal ethics

New good, but not perfect, guidance from the ABA

The Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility of the ABA has been on something of a bit of a “spree” when it comes to the issuance of ethics opinions. (At least, it feels like it.) In the last 18 months, it has issued 10 opinions. The most recent one is ABA Formal Op. 487 […]