Professional Responsibility Blog: How not to practice law: show up to court drunk

Here is another addition to our running list of simple rules on how NOT to practice law: show up to court drunk.

The Legal Profession Blog is reporting today that the North Carolina State Bar has suspended a lawyer for one year because the lawyer "appeared in the courthouse intoxicated and was loudly belligerent to courthouse personnel." The order is available here.

For an older example of a similar problem you can watch this series of videos of hearing to determine if lawyer is drunk while attempting to represent a client in court: part 1 (5 minutes), part 2 (9 minutes), part 3 (9 minutes), part 4 (10 minutes)

Here is a sample of some of the items on the "how not to practice law" list so far:

have affair with married woman, then agree to represent her husband in divorce

when interviewing an applicant for a secretary position tell her that having sex with you is part of the job

try to recover expenses from your client after you agreed not to do it

provide the wrong citation to key cases so the judge goes nuts trying to find them

try to blackmail your opponents to get what you want

lie to the judge

take more work than you can handle

lie to the disciplinary committee

forge the judge's signature

ask for stolen property as payment for your services

rob a bank