Professional Responsibility Blog

 Discipline for prosecutorial misconduct is relatively rare which is why I am reporting on this story , which you can find in the Legal Prof...

 The Arizona Supreme Court’s two-year-old Attorney Ethics Advisory Committee has issued its first four ethics opinions. They deal with signi...

We have seen stories like this before but it is notable that the discipline imposed is for an attempt to violate the rules of professional ...

Some of you might remember an incident caught on video about two years ago in which a lawyer went on an offensive/racist tirade at a restaur...

The New Jersey Supreme Court in Delaney v. Sills  has validated the use of retainer agreements that provide that all disputes between attorn...

Attorney Lin Wood, a lawyer for the Trump campaign, has filed a lawsuit challenging the election results in Georgia in which he asserts that...

Long time readers of this blog know that I have posted many stories about Model Rule 8.4(g) since way back when it was first proposed.  Go h...

 Over at Ethical Grounds, Michael Kennedy reminds us of the proper way to withdraw from representation without violating the duty of confide...

Long time readers of this blog know that I have posted many stories on prosecutorial misconduct and, within that broad topic, on the issue o...

Unless you have been hiding somewhere with no access to the news, you know that there has been a lot of press recently on Trump's legal ...

 Back in July I reported that the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility published a new opinion in which it tried...

 More than 5,300 lawyers participated in the Gender Survey 2020 by the New York State Judicial Committee on Women in the Courts. The survey ...

Above the Law has a short summary of the situation here .  In a nutshell, some states will admit graduates without having to take the bar ex...

As you know, when a plaintiff sues a lawyer for malpractice in a litigation matter alleging that the defendant's representation caused t...

 The ABA Journal is reporting that a law school graduate (class of 2014) has been sentenced to prison for practicing law even though she flu...

 Over at Ethical Grounds, Michael Kennedy (Vermont's Bar Counsel, and a friend) has a short but insightful post on whether competitive k...

 Here is a list (with links) to the top rated law podcasts.   But wait! There's more!  Here is a link to a good YouTube channel you can...

 Would that be wrong?...  Yes, yes it would be.  Here is the story .

Do lawyers have to encrypt e-mail messages?   Model Rule 1.6(c) states that a lawyer "shall make reasonable efforts to prevent the inad...

Over at The Law for Lawyers Today, Karen Rubin has published a comment on a recent ethics opinion on whether an attorney can withdraw from r...

Last week, the ABA's Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility issued a new opinion on "conflicts arising out of...

As you probably know, earlier this year Utah and Arizona approved new regulatory systems that allows for some non-lawyers to provide some le...

Long time readers of this blog know that I have posted many stories over the years on prosecutorial misconduct including many in which convi...

 Need I say more?  You can read the full story here .

Back in June, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court adopted a revised version of the controversial anti-discrimination Model Rule (ABA Model Rule 8...

Back in 2016, the Puerto Rico legislature adopted by statute a statute of limitations for disciplinary proceedings.  See here .  I felt so s...

Prosecutors are usually protected from possible civil liability because they can claim immunity.  However, immunity only applies to their co...

As you probably know, contrary to popular belief, in most states disbarment is not permanent. In most jurisdictions disbarred lawyers can as...

 The ABA Journal has a good short article on prosecutors here .

The Utah Supreme Court announced that it has approved five entities to enter the legal market under its new regulatory scheme.  The Lawyer E...

An assistant attorney general in Texas lost his job last week after reports surfaced that he referred to Black Lives Matter protesters as “t...

 As predicted, the recently approved changes to regulation in Arizona continue to generate very good commentary.  Here is another good short...

August 27, 2020 The Arizona Supreme Court announced today that it has voted to approve far-reaching changes that it claims "could trans...

 The Legal Profession blog is reporting that the Ohio Board of Professional Conduct issued four opinions to replace or modify opinions previ...

Not too surprisingly, the ethics complaint says the judge failed to promote public confidence in the judiciary; manifested bias or prejudice...

Last week the Utah Supreme Court unanimously approved a number of reforms that allow for non-lawyer ownership or investment in law firms and...

Long time readers of this blog might remember that earlier this year I reported about a series of complaints filed against the Orleans Paris...

Back in May I reported ( here ) that a proposal was going to be brought up at the annual ABA meeting to amend Model Rule 1.8(e) which would ...

LawSites has a summary here .

At a time when several states are trying to adopt regulatory reforms to try to provide better access to legal services (see here ,  here  an...

Last week the Chicago Bar Association and Chicago Bar Foundation published a report that provides recommendations for reforming attorney re...

Long time readers of this blog know that I have written many times about Model Rule 8.4(g) and that I have expressed concerns about its bre...

In a case called Laughlin v. Perry, decided on June 30, 2020, the Missouri Supreme Court found that public defenders are immune for legal ma...

As you probably know already, many jurisdictions have adopted the ABA Model Rule's view that knowledge or understanding of technology sh...

In class, we often discuss whether the cases we read resulted in a proper sanction and we also discuss how inconsistent courts often are whe...

About a month ago, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued an Order adopting a modified version of ABA Model Rule 8.4(g). The new rule makes i...

Long time readers of this blog know I have posted many stories on prosecutorial misconduct including many in which convictions have been rev...

Long time readers of this blog may remember that I have posted many stories commenting on the fact that many (probably most) jurisdictions r...

Long time readers of this blog might remember an incident reported a few years ago out of Chicago that involved two lawyers who came forward...

The ABA Journal has published a short article on "dos and don'ts" for when lawyers want to reply to a negative online review. ...

Reading some old news I came across this headline:  "Man convicted by jury that included judge's wife isn't entitled to new tri...

For those of you interested in prosecutors' ethics, I recently found this collection of short podcasts discussing instances of possible...

As you probably know, but is often misunderstood by those outside the profession, disbarment is more often that not NOT permanent. In most s...

Here is a short article on tips to help you avoid disciplinary proceedings.  The tips are good ones: 1. Implement Strong Law Office Manage...

Long time readers of this blog might remember that I have been following the many lawsuits filed around the country alleging that mandatory ...

A couple of days ago, the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility issued formal opinion 492 in which it discusses t...

Long time readers of this blog will remember that I have posted many comments about or related to Washington's program that allows non-l...

It has been a very busy three weeks (for me personally and for everyone else around the country) since I last posted a comment here, but I a...

The Illinois State Bar Association’s Board of Governors approved three new Professional Conduct Advisory Opinions on May 15 during its regul...

As I am sure you know, subject to some exceptions that are not relevant here, lawyers have a duty to keep confidential information secret.  ...

The Illinois State Bar Association has approved an ethics opinion that says recent law school graduates who have not yet taken the bar exam ...

Long time readers of this blog may remember that I have posted many stories commenting on the fact that many (probably most) jurisdictions r...

At the end of April, the ABA's Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility issued a new Formal Opinion (No. 491) titled...

Just over a week ago, the New York City Bar Association proposed an "urgent amendment" to Rule 1.8(e) of the New York Rules of Pro...