It has been a minute since I’ve had a decent reason to write a post regarding efforts of law firms to try to come up with ways around the ethical restriction imposed by RPC 5.6(a) in jurisdictions that track the Model Rules. A recent Colorado case does the trick. (And, thankfully it does, because otherwise […]
Tag: RPC 5.6
I’m sure you are familiar with the idiom “One bad apple spoils the bunch” or in some parts of the country “one bad apple spoils the barrel,” but probably not in the context of legal ethics opinions. Someone could (or has) already written versions of posts applying that idiom to lawyers generally and perhaps unethical […]
It’s getting a bit commonplace now, isn’t it? You go years without doing a two-part blogpost and then you do another one the same week? Kind of takes all the excitement out of the idea of a two-part post, doesn’t it? Sure. But in my defense, the Tennessee BPR went roughly 3 years before issuing […]
Let’s talk about something coming out of D.C. but entirely unrelated to politics for a change. If you know, you know. And, if you know, then based on the post title you’ve guessed we are going to talk about the D.C. Bar Rules of Professional Conduct Review Committee’s draft Report on proposing changes to the […]
First, this is not being titled as a “Friday Follow Up” post because, like the rest of you, I have no idea what day of the week it is at this point. Second, there is way much more important events afoot in the world and if you want to know my thoughts about those you […]
Categories
For attorney’s eyes only.
Okay. It helps to get into my mindset while writing this if you hear the title in the voice of the musical snippet “For British Eyes Only” from Arrested Development. If you can’t make the frame of reference, then so be it. We’ll have to work to find common ground all the same. (Actually, for […]
Categories
Tennessee transparency update
Recently I wrote a bit about the latest Formal Ethics Opinion adopted in Tennessee including a bit of additional content focused on the enactment of this opinion as the maiden voyage of the new process involving the seeking of public comment on the FEO in draft form. If you missed those, you might want to […]
Categories
Fine lines and not so fine lines
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 […]
Categories
You take the good, you take the bad…
You take them both and there you have … the news about Tenn. Formal Ethics Opinion 2019-F-167 (draft). First, the good. I cannot give sincere and strong enough kudos to the Tennessee BPR for implementing a new policy to release draft Formal Ethics Opinions to the public for comment before deciding to actually adopt and […]
This is not truly a development that merits the “Bad Ethics Opinion or the Worst Ethics Opinion” treatment, but it is a development that deserves commentary. Last week while my wife and I were getting some short R&R, the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility issued Formal Ethics Opinion 2018-F-166. If all you read of it […]