Professional Responsibility Blog

Today we started to discuss conflicts of interest in my class. As we tried to define the concept I asked the students if it makes sense to t...

A few days ago, I spent some time discussing contingency fees with my students.  Among other things, we talked about whether the reasonablen...

Go  here  for an analyisis of the ABA's new opinion 11-461 , "Advising Clients Regarding Direct Contacts with Represented Persons....

The Illinois Supreme Court has amended some of the rules regarding Continuing Legal Education for Illinois attorneys.  Go here for more inf...

On Friday, Pennsylvania judge Michael Conahan was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison for his role in the cash-for-kids scandal. Conahan and j...

The Supreme Court announced this morning that it will review a case on "whether a lawyer retained to work with government employees ...

The national pro bono celebration conversation continues this week with the following questions: Some lawyers prefer to give money rather ...

The Illinois Supreme Court has announced 70 new disciplinary orders. The Court disbarred 12 lawyers, suspended 43, censured 10, remprimanded...

As I have discussed previously (more recently here , here and here ), a majority of jurisdictions hold that a convicted criminal defendant ...

The ABA Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility has issued a new Formal Opinion (No. 11-461 August 4, 2011) in which it discusses ...

A panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals recently ordered an attorney to show cause why he should not be disbarred (from the federal cour...

I have commented on the issue of whether a lawyer can be found liable for negligence in a case if the client decides to settle here , here ...

I have argued before that the South Carolina Supreme Court does not understand basic principles of conflicts of interest ( see here ) and a...

Suppose a lawyer is practicing law in a state where he or she is not admitted.  Regardless of whether, at least of paper, that state can imp...

The ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 has released for comment revised proposals for amendments to the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct ...

The national pro bono celebration conversation continues this week with the following questions: What methods have you found most effectiv...

Following up on the invitation to engage in a conversation about pro bono work during the next few weeks, here are a couple of items: 1.. ...

The ABA Commission 20/20 is working on new amendments to the Model Rules of Professional Responsibility.  Here is a video of a presentation ...

Here are this week's national pro bono celebration questions: What are the best ways for the public interest and private bars to work to...

Building on the success of the annual National Pro Bono Celebrations in 2009 and 2010, the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Ser...

In March of 2010, I reported the story that appears below. The case was appealed and the Court of Appeals just announced its decision affirm...

The rules of conduct clearly state that making false statements to a tribunal constitutes misconduct.  Typically, we think of this as applyi...

As you know, ABA Model Rule 5.4 prevents a lawyer from sharing fees with non-lawyers other than in some limited cases.  This is also true in...

Here is a  link to a comment  on a recent decision in Australia discussing this question. The court's decision is available here .  If I...

A couple of days ago, I posted a note about a few new cases involving lawyers who prepared wills for clients in which the lawyers named them...

Tort reformers love to claim that there are too many frivolous lawsuits filed in this country. Even though the evidence does not necessarily...

There must be something going around about this...  Three separate cases reported within the last couple of weeks involved attorneys getting...

One of the first lessons I want my students to learn is that the disciplinary authorities can, and often do, discipline an attorney for cond...

Last month the ABA's Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility issued two new formal opinions.  There are available through t...

Illinois is the only state I know of that has a statute of repose that applies to legal malpractice actions. This means that, as in all stat...

Here is a recent case in a long line of bad cases that hold that a criminal defendant does not have a right to sue his or her attorney for l...

Adding to our running list of examples on how now to parctice law, here is the story of a Washington attorney who has been suspended from pr...

In my post about the West Memphis Three earlier today I mentioned the documentary "Paradise Lost,"  which I highly recommend.  It ...

In 1993 three eight-year-old boys were found dead in a muddy creek in West Memphis, a small town in eastern Arkansas.  The discovery of thei...

As you probably know from having studied the Supreme Court cases on advertising of legal services, the state can, without violating the atto...

The ABA Journal has started its annual search for the 100 best legal blogs.  You can nominate your favorite blogs by filling out a short for...

The class action filed in Missouri claiming that LegalZoom.com, which sells do-it-yourself wills, leases and other documents online, is ille...

A few weeks ago I reported ( here ) that the lawyers for Roger Clemens asked the court to prohibit prosecutors from putting the former baseb...

The Legal Profession blog is reporting today that the Virginia State bar agreed to accept a prosecutor's agreed disposition (ie, a plea ...

The Supreme Court has issued its schedule for the first oral arguments of the year and there are three cases related to the "law lawyer...

Yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit denied a habeas petition alleging ineffective assistance of counsel because the d...

The Wall Street Journal law blog is reporting that at the end of this month, the Iowa Supreme Court will consider a proposal that would allo...

Here is a link to an intereting story in the Australian Professional Liability blog about a firm who sued a former client's wife to get ...

The California State Bar Association has submitted to the Supreme Court 67 proposed new Rules of Professional Conduct.  California is curren...

The title says it all.  Unfortunately, this is one I have reported on before - at least three times ( here , and  here , which includes link...

A few days ago, The Wall Street Journal law blog posted ( here ) that a case I reported about back in February of 2010 ( here  where you can...

In a recent decision called Grievance Administrator v. Trott (available here ), the State of Michigan Disciplinary Board disbarred an attorn...

The Legal Ethics Forum is reporting that the effort to restore the older, tougher version of Rule 11 I wrote about here  has fared well in t...

A few days ago, I posted ( here ) that the prosecution in the trial against former baseball pitcher Roger Clemens engaged in misconduct by u...

Here is a link to a decision from New Jersey imposing a light sanction on an attorney who represented the buyer and seller in the transacti...

About two years ago I reported that the Illinois Adminstrator has filed a disciplinary complaint against an attorney for, among other things...

About two weeks ago I posted a link to a report by the American Lawyer magazine that concluded that major firms contributed significantly fe...

Almost a year ago, I posted a story in my on-going "how not to practice law" series on a case in which the Washington Court of App...

Here is the most recent case in a long line of bad cases that hold that a criminal defendant does not have a right to sue his or her attorne...

In a recent case callled Toledo Bar Ass'n v. Pheils , the Ohio Supreme Court suspended a lawyer who arranged loans from his wife to a cl...

Here is a link to a radio program on lawyer advertising and marketing online.

A recent editorial in the National Law Journal asks "How should an ethical prosecutor deal with a high-publicity rape case?" (see ...

In a recent case, Connecticut Supreme Court considered "whether a prosecutor’s intrusion into communications between a defendant and hi...

The Legal Profession blog is reporting ( here ) that the California State Bar Court Review Department has suspended an attorney who allowed ...

The Wall Street Journal law blog is reporting on a study by the American Lawyer magazine in its just-released July pro-bono issue that concl...

The Supreme Court of Illinois has announced amendments to existing lawyer trust account guidelines. The new amendments to Rule 1.15 of the I...

The Legal Ethics Forum has a short summary of the eight lawyering cases decided by the US Supreme Court this past term here  (and it also in...

Constitutional law scholar and UC Irvine School of Law Dean, Erwin Chemerinsky has published an op-ed piece in which he argues that the U.S....

Here is a list of links to articles or comments on the Supreme Court's decision in Turner v Rogers (thanks to the SCOTUS blog for the li...

The ABA Journal.com is reporting today that three inmates have filed a class action suit against two cities in Washington state, contending...

Back in March the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on a case called Turner v. Rogers (formerly titled Turner v. Price) which asked the cou...

Here is an interesting little story about a Mississippi judge who has been reprimanded for ordering defendants to attend church as a conditi...

Here is a link (also here ) to a podcast with Suffolk Law Professor Christopher Dearborn in which he discusses his article on the right to ...

The Blog of the Legal Times is reporting today that the U.S. House Judiciary Committee is getting ready to vote on legislation that would re...

Back in November of last year and then again in January of this year, I reported on a series of articles on the entities that lend money t...

The Legal Profession blog is reporting that Ohio Supreme Court's Office of Disciplinary Counsel  has filed a complaint accusing a lawye...

Back in March I reported ( here ) on the possible disbarment of attorney Stanley Chesley, a very successful plaintiffs' lawyer who some ...