About six weeks ago, The Law For Lawyers Today published a good post about a problem for lawyers that sometimes lurks around efforts to make demands in order to settle legal disputes for clients — the risk of being accused of extortionate conduct. You can read that post here. That post was prompted by what […]
When you spend a lot of time consulting with and advising lawyers, finding teachable moments from examples of things that happen in real life are extremely helpful. The world can be filled with teachable moments. On a non-ethics front, here is one: If you don’t pay attention to when a credit card has a new […]
Look, I understand too little too late I realize there are things you say and do You can never take back But what would you be if you didn’t even try You have to try So after a lot of thought I’d like to reconsider Please If it’s not too late Make it a cheeseburger – […]
(I’ve apologized once before for a Bullwinkle-style title and here I am doing it again. The underlying societal issues are not funny in the least but it’s been a hard week for many folks and a little bit of levity can help you make it through.) If you are inclined to read this blog from […]
About two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak to the Tennessee Defense Lawyers Association for an hour on ethics issues, using a “hot topic” format. One of the topics I covered was the many things there are beyond just being parties on opposite sides of the “v” in litigation that present conflicts to […]
I have perused a lot of ethics opinions over the years. Whether a kind of scenario presents a conflict is a frequent subject of ethics opinions. I don’t think I’ve read many that address whether a particular conflict of interest is fairly treated as a consentable conflict, however. Having now read Rhode Island Ethics Advisory […]
In October of this year, I’ll have the honor of again getting to serve as a moderator for a panel discussion at Aon’s Law Firm Symposium. This year’s event will take place in D.C. The topic of the panel I get to be a part of will be something of a DQ motion boot camp. […]
In 2017, a lawyer moving from one law firm to another is a pretty common place occurrence. Anyone who has been through the process knows how personally difficult and stressful the ordeal can be no matter how excited you are about your next destination. The emotional and personal components alone can be trying, but the […]
Even the largest and the most prominent of law firms can get themselves crosswise with clients over conflicts. In fact, at some level, it is the largest and most prominent law firms that are most at risk of the negative ramifications that can come from conflicts of interest. Last week, the world’s largest law firm […]
Roy Simon, the Chair of the NY State Bar Association Committee on Standards on Attorney Conduct, was kind enough to include me on an email last week and, as a result, I learned that New York’s proposed adoption of certain aspects of the ABA Ethics 20/20 revisions was approved, effective January 1, 2017. Back in […]