Professional Responsibility Blog

On October 26, 2015, the Sixth Amendment Center released a report criticizing Utah’s long-standing, deep-rooted indigent defense system...

Interesting article in the New York Times here . Thanks to Professional Responsibility: A Contemporary Approach for the link.

The Legal Profession blog is reporting that the District of Columbia Court of Appeals has amended its Rules of Professional Conduct to permi...

About three weeks ago, the American Bar Association and Rocket Lawyer announced the creation of a pilot program that provides on-demand leg...

My most recent post was about technical competence.  To continue along that topic, here is a podcast (from the Legal Talk Network ) on the 2...

A couple of days ago I posted a comment on a new study that shows a vast majority of lawyers may be incompetent when it comes to protecting ...

In 2011, the president of the Florida Bar appointed a special committee to review “whether and to what extent [the bar] can or should direct...

Back in July, the Florida Supreme Court rejected a proposal to improve legal aid funding by increasing annual bar dues by $1000 which would ...

A little over a month ago, I reported that the Indiana State Bar Association recently issued a new opinion that concludes that absent clien...

Back in July, I reported that the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers ( APRL ) had released a comprehensive report in which...

Since the ABA adopted an amendment to the comment of Model Rule 1.1 (on competence) to explain that being competent requires lawyers to unde...

Last year I reported that a split panel of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held in a case called Fields v Wharrie , that a pro...

Long time readers of this blog know that I have often commented on the fact that courts do not seem to take prosecutorial misconduct too se...

Ethical Systems.org is reporting on a new paper on Professionalism and Moral Behavior which tests the hypothesis that individuals in tradit...

Chicago's Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez is again under fire.  I say "again" because it is not the first time ...

The blog IP Ethics & Insights has a monthly feature on "what they don't teach you in law school" which is actually making ...

About three weeks ago, the Florida Supreme Court adopted some changes to the state's rules to provide better definitions of some concept...

When a hurricane, fire, or other disaster destroys client files, attorneys face the difficult question of how to communicate the loss to cl...

A comprehensive series of reform proposals have been set forth in a recent report evaluating the New York State bar disciplinary system by t...

IPethics&Insights has a short post reviewing the basics on handling clients' money, firm bank accounts and the like, here.

Less than a week ago, I wrote about a case in Colorado where a judge ordered a prosecutor to appear for a hearing to explain why the prosecu...

In another example of a court not doing anything to curb prosecutorial misconduct, the ABAJournal.com is reporting on a case from Texas whe...

I have posted numerous stories on courts reversing convictions because of the conduct of a prosecutor.  Most of the time, the conduct relate...

Last week, the South Carolina Supreme Court overruled prior precedent and held that the statute of limitations in a legal malpractice claim ...

To discuss the formation of an attorney client relationship, I give my students a hypo in which a lawyer gives a presentation at a seminar o...

As you know, prosecutors have vast discretion to decide whether to charge someone with a crime.  Prosecutorial discretion can be a dangerous...

The Indiana State Bar Association recently issued a new opinion on confidentiality that concludes that absent client consent an attorney may...

According to a story in NPR, a new report by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers concludes that judges have too much power...

The Bar Standards Board that regulates barristers in England and Wales recently approved a proposal from to change an existing rule which sa...

In most jurisdictions, a plaintiff suing an attorney for malpractice arising out of the attorney's representation in a criminal matter h...

I always tell my students that the easiest way to get disbarred is to steal money from clients.  Disbarment is almost guaranteed.  But there...

Last week I read a story in the ABA Journal.com and I wonder what everyone thinks.  Here are the facts, in a nutshell: Prosecutor gives de...

According to the rules in most jurisdictions (based on Model Rule 1.8), it is improper for attorneys to provide financial assistance to clie...

Back in May I reported that the Florida Bar Committee on Advertising had found that a law firm’s proposed texting campaign was impermissib...

Back in September of 2013, I reported that U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt ordered a new trial for officers accused of deadly shootings ...

Prof. Ronald Rotunda's most recent column at Verdict (Justicia.com) discusses instances of judges behaving badly and embarrassing the c...

As you probably know by now, the ABA Model Rules and the rules in many jurisdictions have been amended to include a comment related to compe...

Model Rule 8.4(d) (and most, if not all, its state equivalents) considers misconduct to engage in conduct that prejudicial to the administra...

If I had to pick what is the "hottest" issue in professional responsibility today, I would say it is a collection of issues all re...

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently issued an opinion in an interesting case with important implications for ...

The Law Technology Today blog has just posted a panel discussion on artificial intelligence (the subject of my most recent post, below).  In...

Have you seen the newest commercial for LegalZoom in which lawyers say "I am definitely not a robot!"?   This line is a reference ...

As everyone knows, the legal service industry has been changing rapidly. Some jurisdictions allow non lawyers to provide some legal services...

Jonathan Turley's Res Ipsa Loquitur is reporting that a state court has ordered a new trial for a man convicted in 2007 due to unethic...

 The Legal Profession blog is reporting today on an interesting case out of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia...

My colleague Prof. Cynthia Bond is working on a article and she needs your help.  Here is her request: I am working on an article this su...

Over at Justicia.com, Prof. Ronald Rotunda has posted a short comment on Celgard, LLC v. LG Chem, LTD ., which he calls "a most unusua...

Professor Laurel Terry has written a short review of Andrew M. Perlman's article Towards the Law of Legal Services, Suffolk University L...

Addressing what in class I call the "chicken dinner" approach to attracting clients, the North Carolina State Bar recently announc...

The Florida Bar has released guidelines for electronic communication that consider issues of professionalism and legal ethics that may aris...

Professional Responsibility: A contemporary approach reports that "[a] recent ethics opinion from the California State Bar Committee on...

The American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility has issued a new opinion on the obligations of law...

Professional Responsibility students often have a hard time understanding that the duty of confidentiality includes a duty to keep confident...

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals is soliciting public comment on proposed amendments to the D.C. Rules of Professional Conduct tha...

The Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers ( APRL ) recently released a comprehensive report in which it argues that “It is l...

I have commented before how the concept of "moral turpitude" is used inconsistently and how I am still confused as to what it real...

In my last two posts I mentioned the recently discussed social media guidelines in New York.  Are this guidelines really needed or are exis...

Yesterday I reported that the New York State Bar Association was going to discuss whether to adopt new rules on social media later this week...

Since the ABA adopted a comment to Model Rule 1.1 on competence as it relates to "technology" there has been a lot of discussion (...

Here is a short comment on whether using technology can constitute unauthorized practice of law.  It starts "[a]s technology becomes s...

It is often said , and I have discussed it here many times, that prosecutors rarely face accountability for prosecutorial misconduct.  Yet, ...

Lawyer Ethics Alerts Blog has the full story here .

The Legal Talk Network has posted a podcast of an interview with Judy Perry Martinez, chair of the ABA Commission on the Future of Legal Se...

The most recent edition of the New York Legal Ethics Reporter is now available here .  It includes three articles:  Tinker, Tailor, Lawyer...

When a court orders disqualification, the court obviously has authority to enjoin the attorney or law firm from appearing before the court o...

A few days ago I wrote about a case in which the Kentucky Supreme Court criticized the use of the notion of "appearance of impropriety...