Professional Responsibility Blog

The ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility recently issued Formal Ethics Opinion 477, which updates Formal Ethics ...

The Florida Supreme Court has adopted new rules addressing collaborative family law practice.  You can read the details here .

Long time readers of this blog know that I have been following and writing about the debates related to Avvo Legal Services for some time no...

Back in 2015, the Florida Supreme Court rejected amendments to state regulations on referral services and directed the State Bar to instead ...

NPR has published an interesting short article chronicling a criminal case recently dismissed because of prosecutorial misconduct.  The tit...

The Georgia Supreme Court recently absolved a state prosecutor of ethics charges arising from an alleged violation of the duty to disclose ...

The Virginia Supreme Court has announced that it will adopt new lawyer advertising rules effective July 1, 2017.  Here is the announcement ...

The Law for Lawyers Today blog is reporting on a recent case applying the "hot potato doctrine" in Mississippi.  You can read the ...

My article Justice Gap vs. Core Values: The Common Themes in the Innovation Debate was recently published by the Journal of the Legal Profes...

Earlier today, the Illinois Supreme Court amended the Illinois rule that imposes a minimum number of hours of CLE dedicated to Professional...

Over at Above the Law , David A. Lash, the Managing Counsel for Pro Bono and Public Interest Services at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, has publ...

In an important and highly anticipated opinion, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has rejected an argument against the rules of pr...

A few days ago I posted a note about a recent case on the issue of whether a fee sharing contract that does not strictly meet all the requir...

A few years ago I reported on an Illinois case that held that a contract that violated the rules of professional conduct could not be enforc...

Feb. 24, 2017   The ABA Standing Committee on Ethics & Professional Responsibility is currently accepting comments on APRL’s comprehens...

Last week, the Supreme Court of Tennessee issued an order adopting a number of amendments to the state's rules of professional conduct, ...

The Ohio Board of Professional Conduct recently issued an advisory opinion on lawyer advertising that emphasizes the need to be clear about ...

Legal Ethics in Motion is reporting that the California Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct has finalized an op...

The New York State Bar Association, and Legal.io, a developer of referral-network and marketplace platforms for the legal industry, have tea...

Earlier this month a federal magistrate judge in Virginia held that placing privileged materials on an unprotected file-sharing site waived ...

If you saw the original story, scroll down to the end for an update: I am sure you have heard by now that fifteen professors of legal eth...

As reported in Legal Ethics in Motion , a recent opinion of a Texas bar panel concludes that there is no duty to inform opposing counsel tha...

Back in October, the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) issued a Professional Conduct Advisory Opinion stating that a lawyer may use clou...

October 1, 2016.   Last week the Supreme Court of Florida became the 25th state to adopt the duty of technological competence that the ABA ...

Law Sites has a story and a critique of a recently launched company helps consumers find lawyers based on their win rates.  The ABA Journal...

Here is a new short article on ethical considerations when switching from criminal defense to the prosecution published by the New York Leg...

Last week I discussed the comment to Model Rule 1.1 which makes it an element of the duty of competence to understand, and stay current on, ...

Just a few days ago, the ABA House of Delegates adopted a new Model  Rule  for  Minimum Continuing Legal Education (MCLE).  You can find the...

Just about a year ago I reported ( here ) that the two most recent decisions on whether a convicted criminal defendant had to prove actual...

Yesterday, the Illinois Supreme Court announced rule amendments that make Illinois the first state to adopt so-called “proactive management ...

Readers of the blog might be interested in this forthcoming law review article: Restraining Lawyers: From 'Cases' to 'Tasks'...

The ABA Center for Innovation, about which I wrote not too long ago here , is accepting applications for its inaugural fellowship program. ...

Just a few minutes ago I posted an item on the much discussed newly adopted ABA Model Rule 8.4(g), and then I found this new bit of news:  ...

The ABA recently approved an amendment to Model Rule 8.4 to make it misconduct to use discriminatory or biased speech.  Back in January I ...

For those of you interested in issues related to the criminal justice system, you may want to check out a new article by David Patton (NYU L...

The ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility has issued a new Formal Opinion (No.475) to explain the duties of a la...

Above the Law has published an interesting take on the issue of jury nullification.  You can read it here .

New Mexico’s chief public defender has been found in contempt of court and fined $5,000 for refusing to provide lawyers to represent crimina...

A few years ago, the issue of whether it was proper for an attorney to "ghostwrite" documents for pro se litigants was hotly debat...

The Legal Profession blog is reporting that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has adopted an amendment to its rules to add a new subsection (e...

Model Rule 1.8(j) was adopted a number of years ago to regulate possible sexual relationships with clients.  It states that "a lawyer ...

During the spring and summer I wrote an article on ethical issues related to joining Avvo Legal Services.  I started writing the article soo...

I recently read in the Legal Profession blog a summary of a recent decision out of the Utah Supreme Court with the oddest fact pattern I ha...

The Legal Ethics Committee of the District of Columbia Bar has just issued two opinions on social media use.  Ethics Opinion 370 is availabl...

My essay Through the Looking Glass in Indiana: Mandatory Reporting Child Abuse and the Duty of Confidentiality was recently published by No...

IPethics & INsights has published two articles reviewing the current state of the law on advanced waivers.  Go here for part 1 and here...

I am happy to report that my humble blog is one of the finalists in the 2016 Best Legal Blog Contest.  But it now needs your help!   Please ...

In 2008, the American Bar Association adopted as a goal to work to "eliminate bias and enhance diversity” by promoting full and equal p...

The Sixth Amendment Center has published two articles analyzing in detail Indiana's system for providing attorneys to indigent defendant...

Last August I reported on the ABA Report on the Future of Legal Services and concluded that I was not impressed.  You can read my detailed r...

Back in August I reported that the parents of two Americans killed in Benghazi, Libya, filed a lawsuit Hillary Clinton for wrongful death, ...

Back in March of 2015, I reported that a state judge in California removed an entire DA's office from a high-profile murder prosecution ...

For the third time in four months, a state bar ethics committee has warned attorneys that participating in an Avvo like client referral prog...

The Legal Profession Blog is reporting that the Supreme Court of Virginia has approved amendments to Rules 1.6 and 3.3. The amendments cla...

Long time readers of this blog know I often complain about the fact that courts do not seem to take prosecutorial misconduct too seriously....

IPethics & INsights  has published a short and informative post called Five Myths About USPTO Ethics Investigations and Disciplinary Com...

As you probably know, there are differences of opinion as to whether the duty to disclose information imposed on prosecutors by ABA Model Ru...

Just about a month ago, I reported that the Ohio board that oversees attorney conduct decided that attorneys aren’t allowed to help someon...

Ohio has two parallel disciplinary mechanisms:  the certified grievance committees of local bar associations and the state disciplinary co...

Last July, Professor Ron Rotunda wrote a column in Verdict arguing that the government should not force lawyers to perform pro bono service...

There is a new way to find a lawyer online in Michigan (and soon in other midwest states).  Using data from the State Bar of Michigan, Zeek...

September 10, 2016 If you used the textbook by Prof. Stephen Gillers in your Professional Responsibility course (as a student or professor...

Citing the fact that many law graduates are facing high debt, California Gov. Jerry Brown has vetoed a bill that would have required recent...

Back in 2015, in a case called Searcy v Florida Bar , a Federal District Court Judge enjoined the Florida Bar from enforcing a rule prohib...