Professional Responsibility Blog

The national pro bono celebration conversation ends this week with the following questions: What should the relationship be between profes...

Freivogel on Conflicts has a new case of interest to bankruptcy lawyers.  In this case, a firm was not allowed to recover fees because of ...

At its meeting in Denver, October 14-15, 2011, the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 decided to file its Draft White Paper on Alternative Litig...

Here is a simple principle we have seen before .  If you are suspended from practice, it means you CAN'T practice!!  The Legal Professio...

The Nevada Supreme Court has upheld a casino’s summary judgment for $2 million against Joe Francis, creator of the soft porn “Girls Gone Wil...

The national pro bono celebration conversation continues this week with the following questions: How do we ensure high quality pro bono wo...

A few days ago, I discussed the use of prospective waivers with my students.  Now, here is a link to an article criticizing their use.  Here...

Here is a link to a short article on Illinois Lawyer Now inviting you to join the celebration of National Pro Bono Week by Hon. Barbara Crow...

The national pro bono celebration conversation continues this week with the following questions: How can we better use technology? What ki...

The Ethics and Professionalism Committee of the ABA Section on Litigation is seeking an unpaid student intern to assist its web editors. Th...

A former Texas prosecutor, now a sitting judge, has been accused of withholding exculpatory evidence in the prosecution of an Austin-area ma...

Friend of the blog Alan Crede, of the Boston Personal Injury Lawyer Blog, has posted a very interesting comment on the very nature of our ci...

Okay, maybe it wasn't a fist fight but still...  The South Carolina Supreme Court has suspended a lawyer for 90 days for slapping a witn...

In conjunction with the national pro bono week activities, between Oct. 24 to 28, interested attorneys can attend the Pro Bono and Community...

The Blog of the Legal Times has an interesting news story about Abbe Lowell, the attorney for John Edwards.  Edwards is facing a six-count f...

The national pro bono celebration conversation continues this week with the following questions: What systemic issues do you see in the de...

On Friday, a federal judge ruled that Florida ad restrictions violate lawyers’ First Amendment rights.  Go here for more information.

Here is a link to a short post on the Legal Ethics Forum discussing a bill recently approved by the House Judiciary Committee that would ma...

This post has nothing to do with torts or professional responsibility, but it's my blog, so there! Did you know today is the annivers...

The The District of Columbia Rules of Professional Conduct Review Committee is proposing changes in the D.C. ethics rules.  A short summary ...

Here is a comment by popular solo practitioner blog "My Shingle" on a new website modeled after travel sites that allows consumers...

The national pro bono celebration conversation continues this week with the following questions: What is the best way to recruit and utili...

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...