Professional Responsibility Blog

The Legal Profession blog is reporting on a recent decision by an Illinois Hearing Board recommendeding a suspension of six months of a 1994...

Long time readers of this blog might remember that I often referred to 2010 as the year of prosecutorial misconduct. There were so many scan...

According to information in the ABA/BNA Lawyers' Manual on Professional Conduct, at its eighth meeting, held April 15-16 in Washington, ...

William Freivogel, whose excellent website on conflicts is available here , sent me a copy of a recent case we can add to our on-going list ...

Here is a story on the ABA Journal on a Massachusetts lawyer who was suspended for six months for placing advertisements on Craigslist to wr...

Here are the links to two related stories on funding for legal services. The Blog of the Legal Times is reporting that the bipartisan deal o...

The Chicago Tribune and Prof. Jonathan Turley are reporting that the Michigan Court of Appeals has found a defense attorney rendered ineffec...

Here is a link to a short article by John Thompson , the plaintiff in Connick v. Thompson, published today in the New York Times. The artic...

The Washington Post has published a short editorial criticizing Connick v. Thompson that starts like this: "A court decision may be l...

Here is a link to another short comment on Connick v Thompson.

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), chairman of a House appropriations subcommittee said today the largest source of funding for legal aid, the Legal S...

The Supreme Court has sayed two executions scheduled for later this week in Arizona and Texas. By doing this, the Court has put itself in a...

Go here (or here ) for an ABA Journal 20 minute podcast on ethics issues related to websites that rate and review lawyers.

In the April edition of Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay interviews Craig Ball, author of the Law Technology News’ column, “Ball in Your...

The Legal Ethics Forum is reporting that the ABA’s Ethics 20/20 Commission has released an issues paper ( here ) relating to multijurisdicti...

Lisa McElroy of the SCOTUS blog writes: "Connick v. Thompson was the classic case in which the Justices were sharply divided on ideolo...

Last Tuesday the US Supreme Court announced its decision in the highly awaited case Connick v. Thompson . For my previous posts on the case,...

The ABA Law Journal is reporting today that a federal appeals court has imposed a $1,000 fine on an attorney from the law firm Katten Muchin...

At the end of 2009, I posted a comment on the issue of whether humiliation is a proper punishment in our criminal justice system or whether...

Suppose that night before a hearing is supposed to start, the mother of a criminal defense attorney tells the attorney that her son (the cli...

Should prosecutors receive bonuses if they score relatively high conviction rates? The Wall Street Journal Law Blog is reporting ( here ) th...

A few months ago, I reported ( here , here and here ) on a case out of Arizona where a lawyer tried to convince her client that the client...

The Legal Profession blog has a short report on a recent case in which the Supreme Court of New Jersey decided not to disbar an attorney ev...

In Turner v Rogers, the Supreme Court is considering whether there is a constitutional right to court-appointed counsel in civil contempt pr...

Tomorrow the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Turner v. Rogers (formerly titled Turner v. Price) which asks whether an indigent cli...

In a very short Per curiam opinion (available here ), the United States Supreme Court has issued reversed the United States Court of Appeals...

The Supreme Court just announced it has granted review in a case called Rehberg v. Paulk which asks "whether a government official who...

We have seen a number of cases where courts have found the use of "associates" in a firm's name deceptive if there is only one...

According to a story on the Ethical Quandary blog, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio has rendered an important decis...

The blof of the Legal Times is reporting ( here ) that, in a 2 to 1 opinion, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, has reversed a convi...

Here is a link to a radio show on the Legal Talk Network on how to (and how not to) use social media as a marketing tool.

According to a comment by popular New York blogger (and personal injury attorney) Eric Turkewitz, there is a bill pending in North Carolina ...

Here is a link to a story in the Wall Street Journal law blog that asks whether all lawyer scoldings should be public. It says, in part: ...

Here is a report from about 2 weeks ago in The Wall Street Journal Law Blog on the saga of attorney Stanley Chesley, a very successful plai...

The Legal Malpractice law review blog is reporting on a recent case from Georgia that holds that expert witnesses in a legal malpractice cas...

My students will get a kick out of this story, published yesterday in the Legal Profession Blog , which deals with the topic we discussed in...

Law and the Multiverse is a blog that addresses legal issues in the alternate world of superheroes and villains. Aside from the superheroes...

When discussing the limits of proper argument by lawyers in front of a jury I ask my students whether a lawyer should be disciplined for ask...

Yesterday I discussed different billing methods with my students. We spent most of our time talking about contingency fees, but we also ment...

In the wake of a spirited debate about Justices Scalia and Thomas' decisions to appear before conservative groups and legislators, which...

About a month ago, I reported that a federal judge ruled that it was misleading for Ken Feinberg to call himself "neutral" or ...

I usually make fun of the lawyer's whose stories end up in my running list of "how not to practice law." This is not one of t...

Tomorrow in class I will start discussing issues related to fees. Right on cue, the website "Say what?!" - which tells funny but ...

The Legal Profession blog is reporting on a new case involving a practice I have discussed before in this blog: the use of the phrase "...

In last week's episode of the TV show Harry's Law, the main character - Harriet - finds out during trial that her client is actually...

When discussing the formation of the attorney-client relationship in class, we talk about the Togstad case in which the relationship was fo...

The Indiana Supreme Court has issued a short opinion on whether flat fees can be non-refundable. I have commented on the confused state of t...

A few days ago I reported that there is a petition pending before the Illinois Supreme Court asking it to revoke its rules requiring minimum...

Yesterday I reported ( here ) that a federal judge ruled that it was misleading for Ken Feinberg, the administrator of the Gulf Coast Claims...

Yesterday I reported on a recent case that held a litigant had waived his attorney-client privilege by disclosing information by e-mail and ...

This is not entirely surprising since at least some jurisdictions have held that misadvertent disclosure of privileged information operates ...

About three weeks ago I reported ( here ) on an on-going debate related to Ken Feinberg, the administrator of the Gulf Coast Claims Facility...

The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin is reporting today that a former member of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission Review Board...

The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has issued an opinon (available here ) on the constitutionality of lawyer advertising rules in Lo...

Prof. Renee Newman Knake has posted an update on the Supreme Court's 2010 term cases on the law of lawyering here . She provides links t...

The most recent edition of the ABA Journal has an article on ethical issues regarding the use of social media. You can read it online by go...

Popular New York blogger Eric Turkewitz brings us an interesting story of a lawyer in a workers' compensation case who tried to play doc...

The St Louis Post Dispatch is reporting ( here ) that a prosecutor has been reprimanded for causing a mistrial in a case he was not involved...

The Legal Profession Blog is reporting today that the Maryland Court of Appeals disbarred an attorney who had never been admitted in that ...

Long time readers of this blog may remember that I argued that the number one professional responsibility story of 2009 (and to a certain ex...

I have often discussed my concerns regarding inconsistencies in sanctions imposed for different types of conduct and for the same conduct am...

As I reported a couple of days ago, last November the New York Times published an article (available here ) on entities that lend money to l...

There is a debate brewing related to the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, administered by Ken Feinberg. Mr. Feinberg’s firm, Feinberg Rozen, is b...

Last November, I reported that the Illinois legislature was set to discuss Senate Bill 3322 which attempted to regulate entities that lend ...

Back in November I reported that the Supreme Court had granted cert on a case called Turner v. Price which asks whether an indigent defenda...

The Wall Street Journal law blog is reporting today that according to a new study done by King & Spalding and reported in the Duke Law ...

The Legal Ethics Forum has posted its "top ten stories of 2010" list here , with links to the lists from past years also. Here ar...

Back in June of last year, I wrote about a case in which a federal court magistrate in New York has decided that information shared with som...

The Supreme Court announced today it has granted review in two cases, which involve issues related to the notion of ineffective assistance o...

Back in June of last year I posted a preview of three new law related TV shows that were announced for the fall season. One of them (Outlaw...

Here is a link to a podcast in which the panelists discuss ethical issues in e-discovery including what they believe to be the most common e...

In class we spend a good deal of time talking about the so-called "insurance triangle," which refers to the issues that arise when...

In the past, I have expressed my disagreement with the approach some jurisdictions take on the issue of flat fees (see here and here ). Las...

Back in September, USA Today began to publish a series of articles on prosecutorial misconduct (see here ). The series is available here. T...

The Legal Ethics Forum forum has a list of top legal ethics stories for 2010 and is still asking for more suggestions. Go here for the stor...

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...

The Legal Profession Blog is reporting that the California Supreme Court recently disbarred a lawyer who had sexual relations with two incar...