Professional Responsibility Blog

In a summary order in a case called Bazadier v. McAlary , (available here ) the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has held that the st...

Just a few days ago I posted two notes about cases in which the attorneys lied to the disciplinary board in an attempt to cover their miscon...

Prof. Andrew Perlman, reporter for the ABA Commission that is preparing the next round of proposed amendments to the Model Rules, has posted...

We have seen this one before , but it never ceases to amaze me.  The Legal Profession blog is reporting that the Maryland Court of Appeals ...

In a new case, reported today in the Legal Profession blog, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals has concluded that a conviction for f...

Prof. Andrew Perlman, one of the members of the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20, has posted an announcement in the Legal Ethics Forum stating...

What are some of the legal and ethical issues that arise when a lawyer leaves a firm?  The Legal Intelligencer Blog has a series on "Do...

Lyle Denniston of the SCOTUS blog is reporting today that Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., has told five members of the Senate Judiciary...

I have often complained that courts do not do enough to encourage proper conduct by district attorneys.  Today I am happy to report an incid...

A couple of weeks ago I reported that last November the federal government enacted a bill that slashed federal funding for civil legal ass...

Prof. Jonathan Turley is reporting today that Durham County District Attorney Tracey Cline, has been removed for serious allegations of pro...

In a new case from New Jersey, the state Supreme Court has disbarred an attorney for misappropriation which included the use of money from a...

An Illinos Hearing Board has recommended a 60-day suspension of a former elected State's Attorney who was convicted of the aggravated...

How about that!?  Last night I wrote about an article in the NY Times calling for the release of the report on prosecutorial misconduct in t...

Toward the end of last year, I posted several comments on the reports on prosecutorial misconduct in the Ted Stevens case.  Go here and  he...

The District of Columbia Bar is considering enacting a new rule (designated as Rule 8.6) to require lawyers in the District of Columbia who ...

Esther F. Lardent, the president and chief executive officer of the Pro Bono Institute in Washington, has published a short article called F...

Here is an interesting story from the Baltimore Sun about a hospital that apparently has an agreement with a number of lawyers in the area ...

About a year ago, I reported on an unusual case where a lawyer tried to offer an expert opinion as a doctor in one of his cases.  Today, the...

The other day, I posted a note about whether a suspended lawyer can represent others in a setting where private individuals are allowed to d...

According to a recent report in the ABA/BNA Lawyers' Manual on Professional Conduct, an anti-solicitation bill (S 2316), which the New J...

Here is a good example of the many things that can go wrong when using a firm website.  The Legal Profession blog is reporting on a case in ...

Although the New York State Bar Association remains opposed to nonlawyer ownership of law firms, its president recently stated that the orga...

A few days ago I posted a note about the old story about a lawyer who sued himself ( here ).  The Australian Professional Liability blog pic...

The Criminal Justice Degrees blog has posted a selection of Top ten "weirdest and worst" lawyer ads.  You can watch them all here ...

Can a suspended attorney engage in advocacy of a type which is permitted to nonlawyers?  Last year, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania confro...

Typically, the more recent cases about prosecutorial misconduct we have discussed (and there have been many), have involved the duty to disc...

Last November the federal government enacted a bill that slashed federal  funding for civil legal assistance to the poor by about 14% — fro...

Lowering the Bar has a short comment ( here ) on a very old story involving a lawyer who sued himself on behalf of a client.  The story is b...

Because ABA Model Rule 5.4 prevents a lawyer from sharing fees with non-lawyers in most cases, there has been some discussion on whether law...

I have written before on cases involving attorneys showing up drunk to court (see here , here and here , for example).  Today the ABA Journ...

Assume there is a big accident involving hundreds of victims and a lawyer sets up a website specifically targeted to victims to lure them in...

The Legal Profession blog is reporting today on a case from Pennsylvania where an attorney was suspended for four years because he was foun...

Prof. Jonathan Turley's blog is reporting today that a former Florida prosecutor has received a three-year prison sentence for accepting...

The Blog of the Legal Times is reporting today that "for the first time since 1995, the District of Columbia courts system has adopted ...

You can now listen to the oral argument in Filarsky v Delia here .

Last week, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case called Filarsky v. Delia which asks the Court to decide whether a private at...

Thanks to my friends over at the Legal Ethics Forum , I have discovered yet another blog to add to my subscription list.  This new blog (wel...

On Tuesday I reported the Supreme Court's decision in Smith v. Cain in which the Court reversed a conviction because of the prosecutor...

I have blogged before about the movie Paradise Lost and the case of the West Memphis 3 and I just read that HBO is due to start showing the...

I just published the news that the Supreme Court has decided Smith v Cain .  And just a few minutes ago, the SCOTUS blog has a short commen...

As you probably remember, last November, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments (available here ) in a  case on prosecutorial misconduct f...

I sometimes tell my students that my kids (ages 7 and 5) could teach some aspects of the course:  don't steal, don't take what's...

The D.C. bar's ethics committee has issued a new opinion which concludes that District of Columbia lawyers may accept referral fees for...

The ABA's Commission 20/20 continues to work and here is its most recent summary of the Commission's actions.

The title says it all.  If you want to be admitted to the practice of law, it is really not a good idea to try to cheat during the bar exam....

A few days ago I wrote about the controversy over the request for admission to the bar by Stephen Glass, a former journalist who was exposed...

As usual, around this time of the year we start seeing "top ten lists" for everything.  Go here for the Top Legal Ethics Stories ...

I am constantly amazed at how people post stuff on the internet forgetting that others have access to what they post...  I like to tell my s...

As Mike Frisch of the Legal Profession Blog recently stated , "there was a time when New Jersey had the reputation for being tough on a...

Breaking from tradition, the Securities and Exchange Commission sought sanctions in a recent case for ethics violations that were not tether...

Here is a story from the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board (via the Legal Profession blog ). An attorney was retained to pursue claims for i...

Abnormal Use has an interesting take on the movie Miracle on 34th Street, a Christmas classic.  As you may recall, the movie's climax i...

A conviction of a criminal defendant for the murder of his wife was reversed by the Mississippi Supreme Court because, as part of the closi...

I once used the title "incomparable incompetence" to describe the conduct of attorneys and the judge in a particular case (see her...

About two weeks ago I commented on the report by the special prosecutor looking into the misconduct by the prosecutors in the Ted Stevens ca...

Last month I posted a note ( here ) about a new short article in the Yale Law Journal Online on prosecutorial accountability. The article is...

Illinois Lawyer Now is reporting that, earlier this week, the Illinois Supreme Court granted the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Com...

The ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 has released a discussion draft of a possible proposal to amend Model Rule 5.4, which, if adopted, would ...

Once again, my blogs did NOT make it into the list of the "best" law blogs.  What's the matter with you people?!  Don't yo...

I have commented in the past on the controversy related to whether judges abuse their discretion when they impose unusual (some would say cr...

Stephen Glass was once described by Vanity Fair as “the most sought-after young reporter in the nation’s capital, producing knockout article...

The Legal Profession blog is reporting today on a case with an interesting set of facts:  An attorney was retained and paid a $10,000 non-r...

A court-appointed investigator has found that the high-profile prosecution of the late Senator Ted Stevens was “permeated” by the prosecutor...

Last August I reported that Legal Zoom.com settled a class action filed in Missouri claiming that it was illegally practicing law in the sta...

Here are the links to the "how not to practice law list" so far.  As you can see, these are examples of incredible but true stori...