Categories
Legal ethics

Textual Relations in PA: A Tale of Two Rule Revisions

While lots of ethics discussions and regulatory efforts have been focusing on more advanced technology like Generative AI, Pennsylvania has been laser-focused on making it unethical for lawyers to use text messages as a means of soliciting clients in more ways than one. In October 2024, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court adopted revisions to its RPC […]

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Legal ethics

Another GAI ethics opinion & more

Among the topics I have been regularly addressing in presentations during 2024, including here at the end of year rush for CLE credits, has been the ethics issues associated with the rise of Generative AI. The core presentation I have done now almost 10 times has been a constant evolutionary process as things have rapidly […]

Categories
Legal ethics

Generating more Generative AI content

It has somehow been a minute since I’ve written any updates on anything in the world of Generative AI issues. That hasn’t, of course, been because things haven’t been happening. They have. And even today I found myself as part of yet another panel presentation on the ethics issues surrounding the rise of the use […]

Categories
Legal ethics

New York States of Mind

Let’s end 2023 on a high note, shall we? Governor Hochul must be high. She just vetoed a bill that would have finally ended New York’s requirement that New York lawyers have to have an office in New York. Yes, you heard that right. Despite all of the talk in the legal profession of the […]

Categories
Legal ethics

Fifth Shortcircuit on AI?

It is very hard to get very far in any sort of “end of year” evaluation of legal ethics questions without talking about the rise of generative AI, how to use it ethically, and what its rapid (and continuing) development will mean for the practice of law. I’ve written earlier this year about the unfortunate […]

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♫ Everybody Saudi Sun Tonight ♫

I promise at some point I will write something not about a lawyer getting sanctioned by courts, but it won’t be today. Today’s post is prompted by a ruling of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dropping a (potentially more than $250,000) sanctions hammer on a lawyer and referring that lawyer to the bar for […]

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Legal ethics

Some quick sanctions updates for your reading pile

I know from years of representing lawyers that when you are facing sanctions against you it is awful difficult to spend much time thinking about things other than what is going to happen to you. So, although there are a lot more important things going on in the world right now, today’s content is just […]

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Legal ethics

Certificate of Consternation

This post will be short (fingers crossed) and sweet bitter. I’ve written pretty extensively lately about the two lawyers (now 3 lawyers) getting a lot of negative publicity for misusing ChatGPT and, as a result, filing documents with courts containing imaginary legal authorities. I will not repeat my points about the failings of those lawyers. […]

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Legal ethics

Use the right tool for the job.

If you need a very short version of everything I am about to write, it would go a little something like this. Don’t use a calculator to try to determine whether you have spelled a word correctly. If you do that, don’t blame the calculator because you are the problem. Even though it all transpired […]

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 […]