Monday, December 20, 2010

How not to practice law: show up drunk

Here is an easy multiple choice question: when representing a client, a lawyer should show up (a) sober or (b) drunk. If you picked 'a' .... Ding, ding, ding! We've got a winner. Generally speaking, that is the way to practice law, wouldn't you say?.... But since this is an entry in our on-going how NOT to practice law series, you know what's coming....

An Indiana attorney has been suspended for six months without automatic reinstatement as a result of an incident in which the attorney appeared at the Child Advocacy Center for a police interview with a juvenile client while intoxicated. Go here for the opinion. Go here for more on the story.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time we have seen this type of conduct. Here is a must see video of an attempt by a judge to determine if a lawyer is drunk when he appeared in court to represent a criminal defendant client: part 1 (5 minutes), part 2 (9 minutes), part 3 (9 minutes), part 4 (10 minutes)

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