Professional Responsibility Blog

The ABA/BNA Lawyers' Manual on Professional Responsibility is reporting today on a recent case in which the court wrote “We have repeate...

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a comment on McCoy v. Louisiana , a case before the U.S. Supreme Court in which a Louisiana death row inma...

If you watch any TV, you have seen commercials of firms announcing they are available to represent client suffering from any number of inju...

Unless you have been hiding in a cave for the last few weeks, you are now familiar with Roy Moore: the twice removed from the bench former j...

In an effort to provide better access to legal services, back in 2012 Washington became the first state to adopt rules to allow (and to reg...

We all learned in law school that the regulation of  the profession is not really limited to practice of the profession.  And we all know th...

You may have heard recent accounts of negotiations between lawyer Marc E. Kasowitz, a lawyer for the Trump family and the Manhattan District...

In Shapero v. Kentucky Bar Association , 486 U.S. 466 (1988), the Supreme Court held that a state can not ban a lawyer from sending targeted...

In response to the efforts of a task force convened by the state’s chief judge to address the causes of wrongful convictions in New York, be...

    Applying the principle that a federal court of appeals can not reverse a conviction unless the defendant shows that the lower state cour...

"Bitcoin and the Legal Ethics of Lawyers," Prof. Ron Rotunda's most recent column, is now available here .

The ACLU of Nevada has sued the state, alleging that indigent defense in rural counties is so inadequate—and so poorly overseen by state a...

You have probably read or heard about the story of the 17 year old detainee who was seeking to get an abortion while in custody.  After the ...

Readers of this blog know that I have written extensively on the issues related to Avvo Legal Services.  You can go here and scroll down to...

A few days ago I reported that the Louisiana Supreme Court recently held that the duty to disclose exculpatory evidence in Rule 3.8(d) is n...

Law Technology Today has posted a short video discussing a number of ethical issues related to the use of social media, including the dange...

As you probably know already, Louisiana has a long (and on might say troubling) history as it relates to the duty of disclosing exculpatory ...

Last summer, the Third District Florida court of appeals affirmed an order refusing to disqualify a judge who was Facebook friends with one...

Just as my students and I are about to start discussing ethical issues related to litigation, including the rules related to filing frivolou...

It has been a while since I posted a story to the running "How not to practice law" series, so here are two new ones. How not t...

As long time readers of this blog know, I have been following the developments related to Avvo Legal Services for a while.  You can read all...

As readers of this blog know, the Model Rules of Professional Responsibility and now more than half the states, consider part of the duty of...

The U.S. Supreme Court has granted review in McCoy v. Louisiana in which a Louisiana death row inmate is arguing ineffective assistance of...

The news that some of Trump's attorneys inadvertently disclosed some confidential information raised issues as to whether the conduct co...

About two weeks ago, the Illinois Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a very interesting case that started last year when a trial judge ap...

Last week I reported that the New York City Bar Association  issued an ethics opinion holding that lawyers must take reasonable precautions...

How we define "the practice of law" has been a difficult question for a long time.  At one point, the ABA created a task force to ...

Given a number of recent reports that people's phones are being "searched" by customs officials when entering the US or other ...

It has been a while since I have posted an entry into the " How not to practice law " series, a series of posts about incredibly s...

Back in April, the Los Angeles County Bar Association issued an ethics opinion on whether a lawyer hired by an insurance company to represen...

A few days ago, I reported that the NY state bar association issued an opinion holding it would be unethical to participate in Avvo Legal Se...

The New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Professional Ethics has issued a new opinion holding that participating in Avvo Legal Serv...

The Florida bar is likely to adopt an ethics opinion that would make it easier for Florida lawyers to enter into co-...

Last month I reported ( here ) that three committees of the New Jersey Supreme Court issued a joint opinion concluding that it would be unet...

The Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics, the Committee on Attorney Advertising, and the Committee on the Unauthorized Practice of Law ...

The Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility of the State Bar of California recently issued an advisory opinion on whether “bloggin...

Back in January I wrote a long post on a proposal to amend Model Rule 8.4 to make it a sanctionable offense to engage in harassment or di...

Back in May I reported that the Virginia Supreme Court announced it was going to adopt new lawyer advertising rules.  See here .  The new ru...

As I am sure you know by now, the ABA recently approved an amendment to Model Rule 8.4 to make it misconduct to use discriminatory or biased...

I have often complained that judges don't do enough to discourage misconduct by lawyers during discovery in civil trials, which I think ...

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...