Professional Responsibility Blog

Long time readers of this blog might remember that I have posted a few times about the split among jurisdictions on whether Rule 3.8 imposes...

The 2019 ABA Profile of the Legal Profession was published recently.  It contains data on lawyer demographics, wages, legal education, pro b...

A few days ago I wrote that the California Bar’s Task Force on Access Through Innovation of Legal Services submitted its recommendations for...

As you probably know, jurisdiction are divided on the issue of whether a convicted criminal defendant should be required to show actual inno...

The Alaska Bar Association recently announced that it is considering adopting a rule equivalent to Model Rule 8.4(g), although the rule woul...

I have discussed in the past whether it would be constitutional to discipline attorneys for expressing their views when criticizing judges. ...

The New York Times has published an article on how a new Trump administration immigration initiative is forcing many asylum seekers to navig...

If you are a reader of this blog you know that the legal profession in the United States has been involved in a long standing debate on whet...

Conventional wisdom states that lawyers should advise their clients (or other witnesses) to answer deposition questions "narrowly....

A task force on "access through innovation of legal services" appointed by the State Bar of California has prepared a report which...

Back in September 2018, the Texas Bar Ethics Committee issued a short ethics opinion trying to explain the proper analysis attorneys should ...

The ABA Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility just released a new ethics opinion on splitting fees with a client's prior att...

Martindale-Avvo has published its 2019 compensation survey available here .  I am not sure it has any surprises, but there are a few interes...

UPDATED (6-17-19) In my original post on this, I stated something along the lines of "Maine adopted the Model Rule" and several ...

A couple of years ago, I published an article on an advisory opinion of the Legal Ethics Committee of the Indiana State Bar Association on w...

In apparent violation of a long-standing federal court settlement, the Trump administration government has stopped paying for legal services...

In 2017, the ABA National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being published a report on attorney well-being which described the wellness deficienci...

As reported in the Legal Profession blog , the D.C. Bar Rules of Professional Conduct Review Committee is soliciting public comment from Bar...

Long time readers of this blog will remember that in recent years a few states have adopted programs to allow non lawyers to provide limited...

A few days ago I posted a story about a challenge to the constitutionality of the unified bar system in Texas.  See here . Today's new...

We all know that lawyers can be disciplined for conduct outside of the practice of law; and we all know that criminal conduct outside the pr...

Not long after the State Bar of California’s board decided against requiring lawyers to carry malpractice insurance, the Washington State Ba...

As you know the Model Rules, and now at least 36 states, consider that understanding and keeping up with developments in "technology...

The Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC), the administrative agency that regulates licensed Illinois lawyers, has filed ...

A few days ago I saw a report on a case out of the Tennessee Supreme Court on a topic that you don't see that often:  an unreasonable co...

As you may remember I have been following the news about attacks in several states to the notion of a "unified bar."  See here an...

Last week, the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility issued a new formal opinion on duties of prosecutors.  See O...

I have written a number of stories in the past about cases in which appeals' courts reverse convictions simply based on what prosecutors...

I often tell my torts students that forgetting to file a claim before the statute of limitations runs is possible the dumbest mistake they c...

A couple of days ago I posted a video of a lawyer commenting on courtroom scenes from movies and TV shows.  Because I watched that video on ...

As of last year, 36 states had adopted the Model Rules' comment that adds understanding "technology" as an element of competen...

I recently found this video in which a former prosecutor comments on courtroom scenes from TV shows and movies. She comments on a lot of dif...

This week, I will spend a few class hours discussing the duties of prosecutors and issues related to prosecutorial misconduct. As I coinci...

If you are interested in professional responsibility matters, you know that courts and scholars have struggled over the years to define exac...

Earlier today, the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility released its latest Formal Opinion (No. 485) which addre...

A few days ago I posted about Devin Nunes' lawsuit against Twitter and others and asked whether it violated the rules against frivolous...

In what is quickly becoming the hot issue in Professional Responsibility this year, here is yet another news item regarding an attach on the...

I have not posted any entries in the ongoing "how not to practice law" series in a while, so here you go: As reported ( here ) b...

The Sixth Amendment Center has published a short article criticizing the system used in Maine to provide counsel to indigent defendants.  Ac...

Over at Ethical Grounds (the unofficial blog of Vermont's bar counsel), Michael Kennedy discusses a recent NY opinion on whether an att...

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....