Categories
Legal ethics

Two brutal 2024 ethics opinions highlight the need for reform.

Over the last couple of years, as a result of my involvement with APRL, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a group of smart lawyers to seek to advance reform with respect to the status of Model Rule 5.5 and, more recently, am involved similarly in trying to start the process of reform for […]

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

“No extensions” – Part 2

So, I know I promised part two of this two-part blog epic would come out today, but things have come up and so I’m going to have to ask you for a little patience and an extension of a few days to deliver. I’m just joking, of course. I know that you won’t be granting […]

Categories
Legal ethics

DoNotP(L)ay

Or maybe we should title this post “Do Not Accept Payment” instead. So, a long time ago I wrote about some of the very good work that was being done by the folks associated with the “chat bot” app DoNotPay. If you do not remember any of that, you can refresh through this link. The […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

Florida again. Sigh.

It has only been a little over a month at this point since I wrote about how Florida was a hopeless place. Well, here we are again. The Florida Bar Board of Governors has unanimously rejected a few proposals aimed toward progress in the re-regulation of the practice of law in the last week or […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

The thing about the re-regulation of the practice of law …

. . . is it really could go either way. It could make things better or it could make things worse. It truly depends on who ends up doing the re-regulation and what motivates them along the way. What is prompting the need to say this sentiment out loud today exactly? Well, cynical types might […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

Three developments presented in decreasing order of importance.

Last week, the Utah Supreme Court officially approved the most “radical” change in any state’s ethics rules since DC adopted a limited approval for law firms to have partners who are not lawyers several decades ago. The Utah Supreme Court announced its adoption of a package of reforms aimed at improving the access to justice […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

Utahlking real reform? Yes, Utah absolutely is.

Infrequent readers will know this pun structure is one that I have no shame in running into the ground every time it is relevant. Frequent readers will know I am far too willing to break the fourth wall here. So just for background I had resigned myself to writing a post on Friday about the […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

There will be content.

So, it is March 20, 2020. We don’t know much about much in terms of what comes next. Stress and anxiety are most folks constant companions at the moment I’m certain. (And I bet a lot of you weren’t expecting the need to tech competence under the ethics rules to come at you quite this […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

Late to the podcast party.

As a white male in my mid-forties, it was probably inevitable that I’d end up with an appearance on a podcast since an unfathomably high number of podcasts are showcases for my demographic to espouse their views on things. While I’m a bit late to the party (46), my turn has come around. More seriously, […]