Professional Responsibility Blog

Here is the link to an interesting comment suggesting the need to change our approach to discovery disputes. The problem? Here is how the a...

Prof. Jonathan Turley is reporting today ( here ) that the governor of Utah has signed legislation authorizing the state to exercise eminent...

Law.com is reporting today that two court regulatory committees in New Jersey have concluded that "virtual offices" do not satisfy...

The Legal Profession blog is reporting today ( here ) that the New York Appellate Division for the Second Judicial Department suspended an a...

Here is a link to a very interesting article in The Nation magazine about the use of experts in the "big tobacco litigation" case...

Following up on my comment below on whether the attacks on the constitutionality of the health care law are frivolous, here is a podcast of ...

I am not a Constitutional law expert so I asked some of my colleagues about the lawsuits filed by several Attorneys General challenging the ...

The IOLTA program in the District of Columbia used to allow attorney's to "opt out" from participating. This will no longer be...

I recently wrote about a class action New York seeking to force the state to fulfill its obligation to provide competent legal representatio...

In class we emphasize how important it is to handle client's funds properly. As everybody knows, mishandling clients' money is one ...

Twice in the last couple of weeks the main editorial in The Nation magazine has been about issues related to professional responsibility. Th...

The Blog of the Legal Times is reporting today that the US Supreme Court has agreed to review Connick v. Thompson , a case in which the U.S...

A few minutes ago, I posted a new addition to our list of examples of how NOT to practice law. Here is yet another one: allow a rich client ...

As I reported a few days ago, the Supreme Court upheld the application to attorneys of a federal law that bars "debt relief agencies...

Here is the most recent addition to our running list of examples of how NOT to practice law. This is one we have seen before and it should b...

The Supreme Court of Illinois published an interesting opinion today interpreting the reach of Rule 4.2 of the Illinois Rules of Professiona...

Because an estimated 80 percent of felony defendants in large states are too poor to hire their own lawyers, a class-action suit to be argue...

Two former Guantánamo detainee lawyers have published an article commenting on Liz Cheney's campaign against the Dept of Justice for emp...

The Illinois Supreme Court has announced the most recent list of disciplined lawyers in the state. Seven were disbarred, nine were suspended...

Breaking news from New York: the Second Circuit has announced it is upholding a lower court's ruling that New York’s lawyer advertising ...

Last week, the Supreme Court upheld the application to attorneys of a federal law that bars "debt relief agencies" from advising c...

The Legal Profession Blog is reporting today on an interesting case that illustrates a problem that has bothered me for a long time. The sto...

It is not uncommon for defendants to offer more money to settle a case if the plaintiff and the attorney for the plaintiff agree to keep the...

Here is a short video (after a commercial) from CNN on an important aspect of the Toyota affair. It discusses the possibility that Toyota fa...

The New York Times has published a lively and very instructive debate on the issues raised by the attacks on the Government for having hired...

Here is an interview from a few years ago of an American lawyer who volunteered to represent Guantánamo detainees before the Supreme Court. ...

Over at the Legal Ethics Forum, Prof Andrew Perlman (Suffolk Univ Law School) has posted a short, but very good comment on the issue ( avail...

In Search of Volunteer Lawyers for Death Row Inmates... Go here for the full story .

Here is a segment from last Friday's TV show Countdown with more details on the controversy and the reaction to the video: Visit msnbc.c...

A group of well-known conservative lawyers have signed on to a letter chiding Liz Cheney as well. The letter states, in part: "The past...

From the Illinois State Bar Association blog: "Gov. Quinn will announce his budget plan for fiscal year 2011 on Wednesday, March 10. Fo...

By now I am sure you have heard the controversy and debate generated by a video that criticizes the Obama administration for hiring lawyers ...

The Legal Talk Network has posted an informative podcast on the many details that relate to keeping IOLTA accounts. You can listen to it by...

CNN is reporting here that John Galligan, the attorney for the Army psychiatrist implicated in a shooting at a Texas military base, has res...

A new ethics opinion (no. 353) from the District of Columbia (available here ) examines whether a lawyer representing a client with diminish...

IP Watchdog is reporting that "LegalZoom" was sued in Missouri for engaging in the unauthorized practice of law (for a copy of the...

The two most common complaints about lawyers are usually that their fees are too high and that they don't keep the client well informed ...

Back in September 2009, I commented on the news that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals — the state’s supreme court on criminal matters — r...

From a story in Simple Justice Blog: A new blawg, Public Defender Revolution , has joined the blawgosphere, with an interesting 6 year old t...

Here are two additions to our running list of ways NOT to practice law. I'll let the headlines speak for themselves. Lawyer Suspended f...

The criminal defense law practice blog "Simple Justice" has an interesting story about two prosecutors who intentionally ignored a...

As you all probably know by now, the big news this week is the fact that the Office of Professional Responsibility of the Dept of Justice is...

The Legal Profession blog is reporting today an interesting story. The story starts with an attorney who began to date a guy she had met at...

I have noted before that lying to the disciplinary committee is never a good idea! See here . Now the Legal Profession blog is reporting a ...

Here is a link to a story in the New York Times about a former bank robber who became a "jailhouse lawyer" (an inmate who prepare...

The ABA annual meeting was held recently and the House of Delegates announced 9 criminal justice resolutions. One of them bothers me. It say...

The Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit has held that a former federal prosecutor who was tried and acquitted of conspiring to hide evidenc...

The Supreme Court of Illinois has found that a convicted defendant has alleged enough facts to support a claim of ineffective assistance of ...

Here is an interesting addition to our on-going list of "how not to practice law".... The Legal Profession Blog is reporting that...

Next week I will be discussing the concepts of "client autonomy" and the "allocation of authority" within the attorney-c...

IOLTA programs are a mechanism for funding legal services for the poor. They require attorneys to place certain funds in interest generating...

Back in July I posted that the California Supreme Court has disbarred an attorney who reportedly changed his vote during jury deliberations ...

Law.com is reporting ( here ) that the New Jersey Supreme Court has before it a case ( Guido v Morris ) which raises the issue of whether a ...

A few posts below this one you will find a note about companies that have set up "fake blogs" as means to create advertising on th...

Eric Turkewitz is reporting today that Detroit attorney Carl Collins has paid a $5,000 fine for his solicitation of victims in the wake of t...

"The Deep End," a new tv show about lawyers premiered Thursday night on ABC. The plot revolves around the lives of four first-year...

Last Thursday, I posted an announcement about (and the trailer of) the new documentary on William Kunstler currently playing at the Gene ...

Just about a year ago I discussed the case of US v Beltrán Moreno as a remarkable example of incomptence (see here ). This was the case of t...

A few years ago, attorney Eric Turkewitz, the host of the very good New York Personal Injury Blog, commented on the practice of using blogs ...

I don't want to be depressing with two consecutive posts on this subject but it just so happens that yesterday the Wall Street Journal L...

During the first week of class, I spent a little time talking about how it is easy to be unhappy with our work as lawyers if we don't en...

In class the other day we discussed Model Rule 8.4's broad reach on the issue of "dishonesty." I also told my students of a ce...