Professional Responsibility Blog

There is a very important development to report in Ohio. The Ohio Supreme Court has filed with the Ohio General Assembly final amendments t...

Adding to our ongoing list of posts on "how not to practice law," here is the story of a lawyer who decided to leave the practice ...

There are two items of interest in todays' news on terminating the representation of clients: Here is a link to an article published in...

Your client's mother says your client was at home asleep at the time of the crime for which the client is on trial. She honestly believe...

Will Texas really execute a defendant when the judge and prosecutor had an undisclosed romantic relationship? Here is a link to an editoria...

Nintendo Co. has asked an Arkansas federal judge to disqualify a law firm in a patent infringement case because the firm allegedly learned ...

The Blog of the Legal Times is reporting that the presidents of 61 state and territorial bar associations and their counterparts at five nat...

Here are two recent stories involving domestic abuse and the practice of law. In the first one, an Illinois hearing board recommended a two-...

Attorney Dawn Levine has published an article in Small Firm Business on why it is a good idea to engage in pro bono work. Go here for the f...

The Legal Profession Blog is reporting today on a recent case in which the New Jersey Appellate Division has reversed a a conviction because...

Back in 2007, 7-year-old Kristen Spears, who suffered from cerebral palsy, was administered a series of therapeutic Botox shots to relax the...

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...

Long time followers of this blog might remember that last year there were a lot of reports of prosecutorial misconduct. I have not heard ma...

" On the Record in Cook County " is a blog that posts comments overheard in the courtrooms in Cook County, Illinois. Here are a fe...

Can your shirt defeat your right not to incriminate yourself? Thanks to Jonathan Turley...

Two days ago, the Minnesota Supreme Court decided a case similar to Virzi v Grand Trunk , a case assigned for our next class. In the Minneso...

A recent Illinois Appellate Court decision has held that no coverage was available to an attorney under a lawyer's professional liabilit...

I have been asked by some of my students to explain why I think the argument advanced by those who attacked the lawyer involved in the April...

Criminal Justice Blog selects its (least) favorite lawyer ads in a post called "5 Ridiculous Lawyer Ads" ( here ).

In a case that has not received a lot of attention, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled about a week ago that a ...

Two posts below this one, you will find the first part of this story. If you haven't seen it, scroll down and read that one first then c...

The 36th National Conference on Professional Responsibility sponsored by the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility will be held in Seat...

This is the (long) story of how an "April Fool's" joke has turned into a debate about professional ethics. I will provide you ...

The District of Columbia Bar Legal Ethics Committee has issued an important opinion ( available here ) on the practice by immigration attorn...

Two days ago, the Supreme Court announced its decision in Padilla v. Kentucky (available here ) ruling that failure to provide accurate adv...

The Ninth Circuit has joined other federal courts holding that disciplinary costs imposed on attorneys by the California State Bar are inten...

The New Jersey Supreme Court has decided, in Stengart v. Loving Care Agency, Inc . (available here ), that an employee "could reasonabl...

I continue to be amazed by the items that make it to my ongoing "how not to practice law" posts. Here is the latest. Let's as...

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...