Professional Responsibility Blog

Long time readers of this blog know that I have posted a lot of stories about prosecutorial misconduct over the years (go here and scroll ...

By now, I am sure you have heard all the jokes about the lawsuit filed by Rep. Devin Nunes.  If not, here is the bottom line: Rep. Devin Nun...

The ABA Journal is reporting that an ethics complaint filed by the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission accuses Indiana Attorney ...

The Georgia Supreme Court has vacated and remanded the murder conviction of two parents accused of the crime based on evidence that their h...

George Conk, of Professional Responsibility: A Contemporary Approach , is reporting that the New Jersey Supreme Court has issued a " No...

As you probably know, IOLTA (short for "interest on lawyer trust accounts") programs are a mechanism for funding legal services fo...

Three Texas lawyers have filed a federal lawsuit claiming that mandatory membership in the State Bar of Texas violates their First Amendment...

I recently posted a few stories ( here ) that raise the same question:  under what circumstances is the state justified in imposing sanction...

I always tell my students that because there are no penalties associated with specific rules of conduct, "you always risk disbarment....

The US Supreme Court recently held (in a 6-3 opinion) that a lawyer renders ineffective assistance of counsel when he or she decides not to ...

A prominent metro Detroit attorney is facing new claims of professional misconduct for allegedly mouthing off to a young female prosecutor a...

A few days ago, I posted a note with links to stories of lawyers getting in trouble for things they said.  It included two stories about jud...

Yesterday I posted that the Washington DC bar is considering adopting the Model Rules' approach to competence which now includes a duty ...

The US Supreme Court announced a decision today in which it expanded the notion of ineffective assistance of counsel.  The court ruled for G...

The Daily Beast is reporting that the Florida Bar has opened an investigation into whether Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) violated professional cond...

Michael Cohen is making news everywhere today.  Yesterday he testified (in a private hearing).  Today, he is testifying in a public hearing ...

The Ohio Board of Professional Conduct has issued an advisory opinion which reiterates three basic and uncontroversial principles on conflic...

Have you ever tried to install an app, only to get a message saying the app wants to access your contacts?  Do you know why the app needs s...

At a recent meeting of the ABA, the ABA House of Delegates was due to consider a resolution that proposed model rules for companies that off...

A recent report by Thomson Reuters concludes that the "alternative legal services provider" market grew approximately 25 percent f...

A recent column in Above the Law reflects on the regulation of the profession.  It concludes that "the legal profession is one of the...

The Law for Lawyers Today is reporting that "[t]he Ohio Supreme Court is continuing its trend of suspending lawyers who violate the di...

This is a question that is addressed in the comments to Model Rule 1.10, but it is not a bad idea to review it once more.  Michael Kennedy, ...

The District of Columbia Bar Legal Ethics Committee has issued a new Ethics Opinion (Number 375) on whether an attorney can finance the repr...

As you probably remember, the ABA recently amended the rules related to advertising and solicitation.  Some states are now following its lea...

The US Supreme Court recently issued its opinion in Culbertson v. Berryhill holding that a federal law imposing 25 percent cap on attorney’s...

Years ago, I wrote a short essay on whether we could reduce the professional conduct rules to just a few basic principles.  I concluded that...

The Virginia State Bar has proposed a significant revision to Rule 4.4(b) and its comments that does NOT follow the text of the Model Rules....

Long time readers of this blog might remember that I have published a couple of short articles on flat fees. (See here and here , for examp...

If you need another reminder about the perils of posting internet comments that may disclose confidential information, take a look at this s...

Some jurisdictions have recently abandoned the view that a convicted criminal defendant who wants to recover for malpractice against his or ...

Recently, the ABA Journal posted its “Top 10 most-read legal news stories of 2018.”  Three related to professional responsibility.  Michael...

My most recent post was about ABA Opinion 484, which attempts to contribute to the effort to help close the access-to-justice gap. Today,...

At the end of November, the ABA Committee on Professional Responsibility issued Formal Opinion 484 on whether a lawyer may refer a client t...

Last October, the ABA Committee on Professional Responsibility published Formal Opinion 483 to provide guidance on how lawyers should handl...

While I was away from blogging during the last few weeks I saw a few articles about artificial intelligence that you might find interesting....

Regular readers of this blog know I have been writing about Avvo Legal Services for a long time, and that I have expressed serious concerns...

Almost a year ago, I wrote that the Florida Supreme Court was considering the question of whether a judge should be disqualified from presid...

On December 17, 2018, the ABA will host a webinar with the author of The Attorney-Client Privilege: A Practitioner's Guide, on client co...

It has been a while since I posted on the blog, and I am sorry about that.  My semester became extremely busy at one point because I had to ...

On October 12, The Florida Bar’s Board of Governors voted to approve substantive revisions to Bar Rule 4-7.14 related to the use of “expert”...

Back in August I reported that the ABA had adopted a few amendments to the rules related to communication of legal services (aka advertisin...

Last week, the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility issued a formal opinion in which it concludes that lawyers h...

The Legal Talk Network has posted a new podcast on the California Rules of Professional Conduct.  You can listen to it by clicking on the ...

Thousands of drug cases tied to a state-run Amherst drug lab will be dismissed, and the state attorney general's office will bear the co...

In September 2018, Utah launched a small claims court online dispute resolution (ODR) system which has been designed to provide “simple, qui...

You may have heard stories about divorce clients "interviewing" good divorce lawyers so that their spouses would not be able to hi...

As a reminder that lawyers can be sanctioned for conduct outside the practice of law, take a look at a recent case in which the Ohio Supreme...

As you probably know by now, Avvo Legal Services shut down earlier this year, but Avvo itself did not.  The controversial original directory...

Earlier today, the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility issued a new Formal Opinion (Number 482) on “Ethical Obl...

I am sure that there are lots of stories of lawyers threatening to fight during depositions; and, unfortunately even more of lawyers using ...

About two weeks ago I reported that the Indiana Supreme Court had imposed sanctions on a prosecutor for failing to disclose exculpatory evid...

As you may recall, back in May the US Supreme Court issued its opinion in McCoy v Louisiana , an eagerly awaited case on whether an attorney...

Over at the Legal Ethics Forum, Prof. Milan Markovic (Texas A&M) has posted a short comment on whether Judge Kavanaugh i) had a duty to ...

Because statistics show that the vast majority of people don't have access to legal representation, for years there has been a debate ab...

Continuing our long-running list of obviously dumb things lawyers do, here is the latest: Faughnan on Ethics is reporting on a recent cas...

Long time readers of this blog know I have posted many comments and articles on the lack of accountability for prosecutorial miscondcut (mos...

Back in 2014 I wrote a short article about ethical issues related to cloud computing.  See here .  Since then, obviously, the practice of us...

Back in May I reported (and commented on the fact) that Tennessee had rejected Model Rule 8.4(g).  See here . Now comes news that the Ariz...

A few days ago I wrote about a new opinion by the Board on Professional Responsibility of the Tennessee Supreme Court stating what is the ge...

Ethical Grounds has a short comment on ethics issues related to "of counsel" lawyers here . UPDATE 8/17/18:  If you want more in...

Since 2015, there has been a lot of discussion on whether non lawyers should be allowed to provide some legal services.  Back then, Washingt...

As I reported yesterday, the ABA just approved amendments to the Model Rules on advertising and solicitation.  I think the amendments are v...

Last week, the ABA adopted some amendments to the Model Rules that regulate attorney advertising and solicitation.  You can read the amendme...

Earlier this month I reported that Avvo Legal Services was shutting down; but I also stated that I was sure ALS' demise would not be th...

Bernie Burk (Campbell) offers some thoughts on the question here .

The June edition of the ABA Journal has a short article on whether it is ethical for an attorney to "ghostwrite" a document for a ...