Categories
. Legal ethics

APRL’s supplemental advertising overhaul proposal

Back in June 2015, I dedicated a post here to praising APRL’s proposal to streamline ethics rules imposing outdated restrictions on lawyer advertising.  A proposal that recognizes that lots of states currently have advertising restrictions on the books that could not survive a constitutional challenge and that aren’t really even being sought to be enforced and […]

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Judicial Ethics

A word about B**chslaps

It’s a stupid and demeaning term.  In both contexts, whether you replace the asterisks with the original two letters, it, or the other two letters, en.  It is unfortunate that the second term was ever coined by this guy, and it is remarkable to think that this guy has included it for many years as […]

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. Legal ethics

The Department of Labor’s Final “Persuader” Rule – Part 2 of 2

So, yesterday, I started writing about the potential ramifications for lawyers of the adoption by the Department of Labor of its final “persuader” rule which will become effective on April 25, 2016, but will only be applicable to agreements entered into on and after July 1, 2016.  You can catch up on part 1 here. […]

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. Legal ethics

A proposed ABA Model Rule 8.4(g) has been put out for public comment.

The ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility (“SCEPR”) has put out a proposed new RPC 8.4(g) for public comment with a March 11, 2016 deadline for any written comments.  The proposed rule revision would add to the list of types of prohibited conduct in RPC 8.4 the following: (g) in conduct related to the […]

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. Legal ethics

Tennessee Supreme Court takes long-awaited action to smooth admissions problems

Yesterday, the Tennessee Supreme Court entered an order that addresses a variety of issues I have written about on a number of prior occasions.  You can take in the entire order setting out all of the new provisions here.  In addition to making a spot change to Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 6 and a revision to […]

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. Legal ethics

Florida chooses protectionism, and I choose to share a Friedmanesque public transportation anecdote

By way of any update on a recent post you can read here, and in something that should come as no surprise at all, the Florida Bar’s Board of Governors rejected the proposed change to its rules that would have created a mechanism for comity admission.  Everything about the way the matter was handled in Florida […]

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. Legal ethics

Update – Caveat requestor is where we will stay in TN.

I’ve previously written about a pending rule revision in Tennessee that the BPR initiated and to which the TBA responded here.  Last week the Tennessee Supreme Court entered this order and adopted essentially the language that the BPR was seeking and did not incorporate the suggestions the TBA made that would have actually provided the […]

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. Legal ethics

Coming to praise rather than to bury (Part 2 of 2)

Yesterday, I offered a positive review of a recent ethics opinion from the New York City Bar.  Today, I want to talk through this Order on the Merits striking down Florida’s restriction in its ethics rules on the ability of lawyers to refer to themselves as a specialist in the absence of a board certification from […]

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. Legal ethics

The purpose of lawyer regulation? Events in Colorado and Florida present starkly contrasting perspectives

When people talk about the future of legal ethics in the United States, it is always helpful to engage them in a dialogue about what purpose they think the regulation of lawyers is meant to serve.  If you and the other person do not agree on what the purposes to be served are supposed to […]

Categories
. Legal ethics

You Don’t Always Get What You Pay For, But Free Advice Can Be Costly.

In Tennessee, we have a version of RPC 1.6(b)(4) patterned after the ABA Model Rule that permits a lawyer to disclose confidential client information for the purpose of getting advice about how to comply with his/her ethical obligations.  The last sentence of Comment [9] to that rule stresses that this disclosure can only be made, however, if […]