Professional Responsibility Blog

As I reported recently ( here ), the California Supreme Court has decided not to adopt a proposal for new rules of professional conduct. As ...

Here is another podcast on ethical issues related to social media.  If you can't see the play button below, you can listen to the progra...

Legal Ethics in Motion is reporting on an interesting Advisory Opinion issued a couple of months ago by the Ethics Committee of the State Ba...

Whether law firm ownership should be limited to lawyers is one of the most important debates going on in the American legal profession today...

Last week the Puerto Rico Supreme Court issued an opinion resolving a debate that had been hanging over the legal profession in the island f...

After writing about the recent decision by the California Supreme Court to reject a proposal to adopt the ABA Model Rules, I realized that I...

About two months ago I reported ( here ) that the Kentucky Supreme Court issued a very important opinion concluding that the use of ineffect...

About a year ago, the State Bar of California’s Board of Trustees charged the Task Force on Admissions Regulation Reform with “[e]xamin[ing]...

The headlines in today's ABA Journal online include the following stories: Ex-judge gets 60 days and 6 months of house arrest for fals...

You may have heard the expression "better (easier?) to ask for forgiveness than to request permission" (or something to that effec...

As I reported recently ( here ), the California Supreme Court has decided not to adopt a proposal for new rules of professional conduct. As ...

About a week ago, the Connecticut Appellate Court addressed a very interesting question that I have to confess I had not thought about befor...

The ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility has issued ABA Formal Ethics Opinion 468 – Facilitating the Sale of a L...

In case you are not familiar with Saul Goodman, here is his website .  Check it out.  My favorite ad is the one called "Sue 'e...

Some time ago I asked whether it was likely that attorneys could be replaced by machines or computer programs.  Here is another post (with...

The Legal Profession blog is reporting on a recent report and recommendation by the Illinois Review Board.  In a nutshell, the recommendati...

The Legal Ethics Forum has a story on (and link to) a recent report that concluded the disciplinary system in Wisconsin is inadequate in a ...

A few days ago I reported that the Supreme Court of California rejected a proposal to adopt new rules based on the ABA Model Rules.  Here ar...

Does anyone know if this ad is real or is it a parody?  If you can't see the video below, you can watch the video here . UPDATE (1...

In May of last year I criticized a decision by a Louisiana Hearing Committee recommending a reprimand for an attorney based on the fact that...

As I reported earlier today, the California Supreme Court has decided not to adopt a proposal for new rules of professional conduct.  Kafkae...

Very surprising!  Sounds like California wants to be the only state that does not follow the ABA Model Rules.  Go here for the story.

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 ...