How not to practice law: AI edition

After a long absence from the blog today we have the second day in a row with a "how not to practice law' entry!  Today's story features a lawyer using AI hallucinated cases in support of a claim who, when called out on it, then cited more hallucinated cases.  That is bad enough, but the article also focuses on the fact that the trial judge issued an order based on the hallucinated cases... You can read the full story here,

How not to practice law: store 1000 pounds of marijuana In your law office

 Do I need to explain?  I hope not.  For more on the story, go here and here.

Michael Kennedy, Vermont Bar Counsel, has a comment on the story here.

How not to practice law: commit voter fraud

A Trump supporter lawyer who was convicted of two counts of election fraud, based upon evidence establishing that he had voted in both Florida and in Ohio in the 2020 presidential election as well as in the 2022 general election and who was later suspended from the practice of law in both Ohio and Florida, was more recently disbarred in New York.  For more on the case, go to the Legal Profession Blog here.

How not to practice law: Show up drunk to your hearing on drunk driving

 Here is the latest in our "how not to practice law" series.  As reported in Law & Crime, the Colorado disciplinary board recently suspended an attorney’s law license for six months after she pleaded guilty to her third DUI charge in 18 months — and she reportedly showed up drunk to her sentencing.  You can read more about the story here.

How not to practice law: when caught, try to alter the evidence in your computer

 April 27. 2024

As reported in Above the Law:  Confronted with an ethics investigation zeroing in on a number of different types of conduct that justified discipline, a lawyer in New Hampshire apparently thought he could get out of his troubles by destroying or altering evidence stored in his computer.  He could not; and got disbarred.  

Above the Law has the full story here. 

UPDATE 5/1/2024:  The ABA Journal has the story here.

How not to practice law: Yet another lawyer suspended for citing fake cases created by AI

 LawSites has the full story here.

How not to practice law: falsify evidence

 Here is another "how not to practice law" story.  The lessons from these stories always seem so obvious; yet here we are.  In this one, the hearing board found that the lawyer falsified some documents.  He was suspended for six months for violating Rule 8.4(c) regarding dishonesty.  The Legal Profession blog has the story here.

How not to practice law: Show up drunk

 This is not the first time we have seen this example of "how not to practice law," but there are two interesting questions.  In this particular instance, discussed in the Legal Profession Blog, the lawyer was charged with "attempting" to violate rule 1.1 on competence.  So my first question is:  why charge with attempt to violate a rule?  Can't we argue that appearing drunk before the court in and of itself constitutes incompetence?  

The second question is common to many cases: what should be the proper sanction?  Is it a mitigating factor if the lawyer has a health problem, mental health problem or issues with alcohol?  Is it an aggravating factor?  In this case, the lawyer also had a history of disciplinary sanctions; yet, the sanction was reduced from 90 days to 30 days.  

How not to practice law: after having been told not to coach the witness, go ahead and coach the witness ... and make sure you do it while being recorded

 The Legal Profession blog recently published a summary of a recent case that earns the most recent entry in our "how not to practice law" series.  Here are the basic facts:

The parties are engaged in a "virtual trial" which is being recorded.  The court warns a lawyer not to coach a witness.  Technical difficulties interrupt the trial.  During the break, but while still being recorded, the lawyer coaches the witness in violation of the court's admonition.  The judge then watches the recording.  Guess what happens next.

Dismissal with prejudice.  Go here for the full story.

What should happen next?  Would you represent the client against the lawyer for malpractice?

How not to practice law: invent your own rules of evidence, then try to get your own made up evidence admitted under them

Here is an interesting story about a lawyer who was recently fined over $250,000 for trying to support a claim with a fake newspaper article.  According to the story, he sought to enter the news article into the record for “demonstrative purposes.”

Now, stop!  That's not how the rules of evidence work.  If the lawyer was trying to get a newspaper article admitted, it must have been to prove the fact that the article was in fact published -- which is not likely to happen because the other side would rather concede the point in order to avoid having the jury get access to the article so they can read it -- OR to prove what the article actually said, which would be inadmissible hearsay unless one of the exceptions applied.

So what does it mean to admit an article "for demonstrative purposes"?  Well, apparently, it meant that the lawyer wanted to "prove" what could have been written in some other alternative universe in which the news was what he wanted them to be -- because the article was a fake ...  in which case the proof should be inadmissible as being fabricated or, at best, speculation.

Any way you look at it, what the lawyer tried to do did not make sense and could be interpreted as an attempt to mislead the court or the jury.  

And then, as a bonus, the lawyer didn’t show up for the sanctions hearing.  

You can read the story (with links) here.

Judge in Trump's NY fraud case imposes sanctions on his lawyers for repeating frivolous arguments

Last January I reported (here) that New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron sent a note to lawyers for the Trump family and the Trump Organization stating that "[u]pon thoroughly reviewing the papers in support of some defendants’ pending motions to dismiss, this Court is considering imposing sanctions for frivolous litigation . . ., for setting forth the same legal arguments that this Court previously rejected . . ."  

Since then, the judge found Trump liable and started the trial to determine the appropriate sentencing, but in the process, the judge finally decided that pending matter of the sanctions.  As reported in Above the Law, 

New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron issued a blistering broadside, sanctioning defense counsel and granting the New York Attorney General partial summary judgment in the civil fraud case against Trump and his associates.

. . . . 

“Defendants’ conduct in reiterating these frivolous arguments is egregious. We are way beyond the point of ‘sophisticated counsel should have known better’; we are at the point of intentional and blatant disregard of controlling authority and law of the case,” Justice Engoron wrote furiously. “This Court emphatically rejected these arguments, as did the First Department. Defendants’ repetition of them here is indefensible.”

. . . . 

“Unfortunately, sanctions are the only way to impress upon defendants’ attorneys the consequences of engaging in repetitive, frivolous motions practice after this Court, affirmed by the Appellate Division, expressly warned them against doing so,” Justice Engoron wrote, adding that “It is of no consequence whether the arguments were made at the direction of the clients or sua sponte by the attorneys; counsel are ethically obligated to withdraw any baseless and false claims, if not upon their own review of the record, certainly by the time the Supreme Court advised them of this fact.” . . . 

How not to practice law: ask someone else to take your CLE courses for you

 It has bee a while since I posted to the ongoing "how not to practice law" series, which highlights particularly shocking misconduct that you would think is obvious to all.

In today's installment we meet a lawyer who asked his assistant to take his continuing legal education classes for him.  Isn't it obvious that you should not do that?  The lawyer was suspended for 1 year.  

You can read more about the case here.

How not to practice law: gamble away clients' funds

So, here is the second installment of the day in the "how not to practice law category" and again, as usual, the punchline says it all.  This one involves a lawyer who reportedly lost over $8 million in client funds at a casino.  The attorney will reportedly plead guilty to wire fraud and money laundering. She faces upwards of 20 years and has already agreed to pay $8,785,045 to recoup five investors.  You can read the story here.  

So what are the odds that she will get disbarred?  (See what I did there?...  "the odds"... get it?...)

How not to practice law: file fake court orders

 It has been a while since I last posted a story in our running category of "how not to practice law" in which, as the name suggests, we take a look at dumb things that lawyers do sometimes.  And today's story is an easy one:  you are going to get in trouble if you write fake court orders.  Yeah!  You can't do that! Shocking, right?   You can read the story here.

How not to practice law: work on your computer out in public where anyone can read what you are doing

 Most states now adhere to the notion that the duty of competence includes an element of competence over the use of technology.  But there are lots of cases and stories out there involving lawyers making mistakes, getting cases dismissed, disclosing confidential information, and more because they don't seem to understand how to use technology.  So, here is the latest.

Here is a story of a lawyer working on an airplane in a way that another lawyer siting several seats away could "in a matter of seconds, and without really trying to," figure out the lawyer's specialty and "what her major upcoming deadlines were, her staffing needs for the next few months, and the fact that she was waiting for a particular federal appellate decision to guide her strategy in her case in the lower court."

To read the full story, go here.  

More importantly, try not to work in public, but if you must, try to do so in a way that protects the privacy of your work.

How not to practice law: continue arguing the arguments the court told you not to argue anymore

Above the Law is reporting that last Wednesday New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron sent a note to lawyers for the Trump family and the Trump Organization stating that "[u]pon thoroughly reviewing the papers in support of some defendants’ pending motions to dismiss, this Court is considering imposing sanctions for frivolous litigation . . ., for setting forth the same legal arguments that this Court previously rejected . . ."

You can read the full story here.

UPDATE 10-5-23:  Judge in Trump's NY fraud case imposes sanctions on his lawyers for repeating frivolous arguments

How not to practice law: tell your client to burn the evidence

 In our latest entry in the "how not to practice law" series, we have a quick practice tip:  don't tell your clients to burn evidence.  Here is the full story.

How not to practice law: start dating a client and then help him murder his "ex"

Above the Law is reporting on a case in Oklahoma in which the state is seeking the death penalty for a lawyer.  The lawyer is accused of three counts of deliberate and intentional first-degree murder and one count of first-degree burglary in connection with the murders of the lawyer's client ex-girlfriend and her parents.  You can read the story here.

Another lawyer gets in trouble for nakedness

 A few days ago I posted a story about a lawyer who got in trouble for driving naked.  Today the story is about a lawyer who apparently has been consuming too much alcohol recently, and the most recent time it happened, well, you guessed it... she got naked in public and was arrested...  

Above the law has a comment on the case;  The ABA Journal has the story too.

How not to practice law: drive naked

The Legal Profession blog is reporting (here) that the Butler (Ohio) County Bar Association has recommended an indefinite suspension of an already-suspended attorney for a series of incidents of public indecency that included driving while nude.  The lawyer evidently suffers from a mental health issue (compulsion) that had driven him in the past to engage in inappropriate  sexual behavior.  The panel proposed a number of conditions for reinstatement.