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

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), […]

Categories
. 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 […]

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. Legal ethics

Inflation is likely more widespread than you’d like to believe.

Time inflation that is. I’m certainly not an economist. In the past, I have written about issues associated with overbilling by lawyers in a number of different respects. Today’s post involves a rare public situation involving the admission of overbilling by a lawyer – one that comes out of Illinois and involves a lawyer who […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

They got away with it, but that doesn’t make it worth trying.

Lawyers billing clients on the basis of time spent is less than ideal for all involved.  For lawyers, it isn’t the best proxy for value delivered in terms of service and incentivizes inefficiency.  For clients, it isn’t the best proxy of value received in terms of service and leaves clients feeling like the only way […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

An ethics opinion from the Coinhusker state

Answering the question that was undoubtedly on the minds of every lawyer practicing in that state, the Lawyer’s Advisory Committee of the Nebraska Supreme Court issued Ethics Advisory Opinion for Lawyers No. 17-03 making clear that, yes, lawyers can accept payment from clients in the form of Bitcoin or other similar digital currencies. I don’t […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

Two short updates for a Tuesday

Late last month, I focused a post on a West Virginia lawyer who ended up staring down a 2-year suspension over chronic over-billing.  If you missed that post, you can read it here.  If you read it, you will recall that one of the items discussed was that the Executive Director of the West Virginia […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

A tale as old as time.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one … it’s about a lawyer getting into trouble for overbilling … where there are examples of the lawyer even trying to claim to have billed more than 24 hours in a day. You probably stopped me somewhere in there because you have heard it before.  The legal profession […]