Categories
. Legal ethics

Crowdfunding for attorney fees? Yes, but no.

So, since about early December of last year I’ve been trying to find a way to write about a really good, quite practical (albeit practical about a very niche situation) D.C. ethics from November 2018. The D.C. Opinion, Ethics Opinion 375, addresses the idea of using crowdfunding platforms as an ethical way for a client […]

Categories
. 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

Texas Two Steps Forward…One BIG Step Back

I have written in the past about the fact that I am fortunate to be the Chair of the Tennessee Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility. Because our committee is currently beginning a process of chewing over whether to try to recommend changes to the advertising rules in Tennessee, I’ve been trying […]

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. Legal ethics

“No. No you’re not.”

So, you may recall back in October 2017 I had an itch and intended to write about a lawsuit in Pennsylvania that would fit in with the recent (seemingly) increased willingness of lawyers to sue other lawyers over their ads, but since I was beaten to the punch, instead I gave you a pointer to […]

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. Legal ethics

A very good start.

My last post was filled with criticisms related to the roll out of a new ABA Ethics Opinion.  Today I’m offering a different tone and message for the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility – a positive message offering kudos for the working draft that has now been circulated to revise the ABA […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

I Dowd that very much.

Last week was a pretty eventful week in the area where politics and the law overlaps, and an initially bizarre turn of events that was made more bizarre by subsequent claims injected some questions of legal ethics into events on the national stage again. What I’m talking about is all stuff you’ve likely already read […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

Advocating for attorney advertising.

So, back in August, I mentioned that I was going to have the opportunity to debate issues of lawyer advertising before an audience of top-notch Canadian lawyers in November.  This post is something of a coda to that post as I want to, very briefly, say a word or two about that talk. It was, […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

Here’s something you don’t see every day: Brave Law Firm sues a competitor.

I’ve written here pretty frequently about issues of lawyer advertising.  I am too lazy today to try and go find links to other posts of mine in which I have stated that the overwhelming majority of disciplinary complaints filed over lawyer advertisements are filed by other lawyers.  Not always competitors, sometimes lawyers on the other […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

Something to chew on during your holiday weekend.

I am nowhere near the most plugged in when it comes to lawyers on the forefront of tracking the ways in which rapid developments in technology are changing the practice of law.  I’m a bit more aware than likely most lawyers, in part because I’m constantly looking for things worth writing about here, but also […]

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 […]