Professional Responsibility Blog

For the second time in just a few weeks, I have been experiencing serious technical problems with the system that hosts my blogs (ie, "...

A few months ago, I thought that "the next big thing" in legal ethics was going to be a debate over whether to allow the use of sc...

An Illinois Assistant Attorney General is the subject of an interesting ethical charge after allegedly using a "ruse” to gain evidence ...

The Michigan Supreme Court has adopted a new version of Rule 7.3 that prohibits solicitation of accident victims within 30 days of the accid...

Here is yet another comment on the character of flat fees.  I have commented on this issue several times before, most recently here .  In ...

Here is a good reminder of the fact that a lawyer's conduct outside the practice of law can result in professional discipline.  In this ...

In an interesting bit of news, a lawyer whose conduct was ctiricized by the press and bloggers over the internet has sued 74 defendants incl...

Here is an interesting headline from today's news:  "Man Who Stabbed His Lawyer With a Pencil Stabs His New Lawyer With a Pencil....

I have often commented on inconsistencies regarding sanctions among jurisdictions and sometimes within jurisdictions.  Most recently, I ment...

Prof. Jonathan Turley is reporting today on a case out of Oklahoma where a murder conviction was overturned due to the comments at trial by ...

The Illinois Supreme Court just heard oral arguments in a case where the administrator of the state's disciplinary authority is appealin...

Here is an interesting article  from Forbes that describes some ways in which some lawfirms inflate their fees.  The article is called “Gra...

The Legal Profession blog is cmmenting today on a case in which the New Jersey Appellate Division affirmed a drug possession and distributi...

In her blog My Shingle.com , attoreny Carolyn Elefant has posted a very good short comment that puts in context some of the questions about ...

The legal malpractice law review blog is reporting on two cases that illustrate two very different approaches to the issue of the applicatio...

I have often commented on inconsistencies regarding sanctions among jurisdictions and sometimes within jurisdictions.  Here are two separate...

Here is a good story for law students out there:  do not start offering legal advice and acting like a lawyer until you are one officially. ...

Three of my most recent posts have been about prosecutorial misconduct.  Usually, this topic relates to conduct of prosecutors as they inves...

A few days ago, I posted that I felt I had been wrong to speculate that the Supreme Court actually wanted to address the problem of prosecut...

Short deposition in a divorce case.... WARNING: vulgarity and foul language ahead. Go here for the transcript.

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...