Professional Responsibility Blog

In a recent opinion, the Texas bar's ethics committee found that a law firm must stop representing a litigation client if it hires a law...

Need I say more?  The story is here .  It sounds like this was not a case of a judge being irresponsible, but of inability to control alcoho...

The Illinois Supreme Court heard an interesting oral argument today involving an allegation of ineffective assistance of counsel based on th...

Lawyers are often asked by clients to review contracts prepared by others.  However, because this type of task is something for which you do...

As you probably remember, in Connick v. Thompson and in Smith v. Cain the US Supreme Court was faced with allegations of misconduct by the...

The Legal Profession blog has a story here .  In short, the South Dakota Special Committee on Judicial Ethics Campaign Intervention has issu...

As you know, the Model Rules were amended recently to recognize that an element of competence is knowledge about "technology" whic...

As you probably know, it is not uncommon for convicted criminal defendants to challenge their convictions alleging that their lawyers did no...

In a case called Dwyer v. Cappell, the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has found that a certain rule adopted in New Jersey to ban att...

As many of you know, I keep a list of recommended movies for lawyers and law students.  It does not includes all the law related movies out...

As you probably know, there are a number of decisions out there addressing the issue of whether Legal Zoom engages in "unauthorized pra...

The Philadelphia Bar Association’s Professional Guidance Committee recently addressed the following questions: (1) Whether a lawyer may advi...

Here is a webimar by the ABA's Legal Technology Resource Center on ethical issues related to cloud computing.  

The voting for the ABA top 100 legal blogs is now open.  If you like this blog, I would appreciate your vote! To vote go to this link and fi...

Misappropriation of clients' funds is often considered to be one of the worst types of misconduct and usually results in disbarment.  In...

Back in January I commented on a complaint filed by a law professor against a blogger for what the professor called cyber-bullying or haras...

A recently adopted amendment to the comment of Model Rule 1.1 (on competence) explains that being "competent" requires lawyers to ...

The Legal Talk Network recently posted a podcast on the ethical issues related to the dissolution of law firms.  Go here to listen to it.

News and comments regarding General Motors keep piling up and none of it is good for the automaker. You can go to my Torts blog fore more in...

About two weeks ago I posted a note about a judge in Florida who was disbarred because, while serving as the presiding judge in a capital fi...

The New York City Bar Association’s Committee on Professional Ethics has issued an opinion (2014-02) on the use of virtual law offices. The ...

The Legal Profession blog has an article on calls to reform the disciplinary system in Wisconsin.

The debacle surrounding GM's car recalls, lawsuits and corporate culture has generated a great debate on issues related to torts, safety...

Here are three recent stories to add to the on-going list of "how not to practice law" posts: 1. While serving as the presiding ...

Although there are always exceptions, misappropriation of client's funds will almost always result in disbarment.  This is certainly tru...

Last year we celebrated the 50th anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright and there was a lot of discussion on the state of access to legal repre...

Bernard A. Burk, Assistant Professor of Law Faculty Fellow, Parr Center for Ethics University of North Carolina School of Law, wrote to me i...

A few days ago, The Atlantic published an article titled Is There Such a Thing as an Affordable Lawyer?   The article argues that the monopo...

Yesterday, the Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit dismissed a settlement agreement reached in a class action case citing a laundry list o...

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

Last week, the Oregon Supreme Court became the third state high court to hold that consultations between a law firm's attorneys and the ...

Here is a podcast discussing issues related to lawyer advertising.  There is nothing particularly new here, but it might be interesting to t...

I think the discussion of whether it would be ethical for an attorney to encourage the jury to engage in "nullification" is very i...

There is a new chapter in the shameful history of prosecutorial misconduct in New Orleans.  Another prisoner has been released, this time af...

Here is an interesting article in today's New York Times that reports on an on-going internal investigation on the role of GM's law...

Back in August of 2012 I first reported on a complaint filed by 3M Corp. against the law firm Covington & Burling alleging that the firm...

Back in April I reported that the South Carolina Supreme Court found LegalZoom is not engaged in unauthorized practice of law.  However, th...

I have been following the debate about whether (or under what circumstances) should the state be allowed to discipline a lawyer for comments...

In class we spend a lot of time discussing ethical issues related to the practice of discovery.  A few days ago, Max Kennerly, of the Litiga...

A few years ago, I posted a link to an article describing the deposition discussion regarding the definition of a photocopier.  Today, the ...

I just posted a long comment on the political ad in South Carolina attacking a candidate because he used to do criminal defense work (see be...

The Legal Ethics Forum has t he story, links and comments here .

In case the double negative in the title of this post is too confusing, here is the bottom line:  if your case settles, tell the judge!  Alt...

The Republican Governors Association has launched an ad campaign in support of the reelection of Gov. Nikki Haley that should be of concern ...

The ABA Journal.com is reporting today that legislation allowing the California State Bar to levy fines for unauthorized practice of law ha...

Here is a short article  arguing that the Model Rules should have a rule directly requiring honesty to clients. Thanks to the Legal Ethics...

The Smithsonian Magazine has a review of an article that attempts to determine the factors that go into making a lawyer happy.  According ...

The ABA Journal.com is reporting that a former New Hampshire judge has been reprimanded for comments he made at a meeting with public defend...

I always make a point of reminding my students that being competent includes understanding the day to day operation of law practice and the ...

The Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission recently recommended a five month suspension for a criminal defense lawyer af...

On March 28, the Board of Governors of the Florida Bar approved a number of revisions to the state's rules on trust accounts. Among othe...

Next week we will begin discussing conflicts of interest in criminal law practice.  Right on cue, the Legal Profession blog is reporting to...

A lawyer who years ago got in trouble when she was caught on tape engaging in sexual contact with a client in a room for attorneys to meet w...

Yesterday, the Michigan Supreme Court issued an opinion ( available here ) removing from the bench a judge who was in the news some time ago...

As you know, attorneys have a duty not to pursue frivolous claims, a principle that appears both in the rules of professional conduct and ...

Just over a week ago, the Illinois Appellate Court, First District, issued an opinion addressing two important issues related to fee splitti...

As you probably know, a cause of action against a lawyer for "breach of fiduciary duty" is different than a cause of action for ma...

Because many aspects of the use of marijuana and the marijuana industry violate federal law, there is some debate as to whether counseling c...

Can an attorney accept a loan from a private lender if the attorney must commit to pay it back by agreeing to grant the lender a certain per...

Long time readers of this blog know that I have posted many stories on prosecutorial misconduct and that I have been critical of the Departm...

I don't think there is anything illegal or unethical about offering unpaid internships in a law firm.  However, the fact you can do some...

Here is a new article on the latest prosecutorial misconduct scandal in North Carolina.

Disbarring the Critics is reporting that in late February, the Maryland Court of Appeals disbarred a long-time Maryland attorney for allegi...

Just when we thought we had seen the worst attorney ad of the year during the Super Bowl (see here and here ), in comes an internet commerc...