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Academic

Legal Profession Blog

Cover legal ethics, bar discipline, business practice, the tension between the bar and the academy, ethical theory, and comparative legal professions.
By Alan Childress, Mike Frisch, and Jeff Lipshaw

Post Frequency: 40.8/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 14:56:26

Short Suspension For False Testimony Under Oath

Posted on January 15, 2009
An attorney who had testified falsely under oath at a deposition was suspended for 90 days by the Minnesota Supreme Court. The testimony related to his employment compensation. A referee had proposed an indefinite suspension with the right to apply...

No Exclusionary Rule In Bar Discipline

Posted on January 15, 2009
A Louisiana attorney was arrested on charges of distribution of marijuana as a result of a purchase by a person arrested on drug charges who set up the buy in exchange for leniency. The trial court suppressed the evidence and...

Varied Acts Of Misconduct

Posted on January 15, 2009
The Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board has recommended disbarment where [t]he individual acts of misconduct which have been proven...vary widely. At times, the misconduct was directed toward clients, which was the case with representing a client in litigation over ownership of...

How to Teach the Difference Between Restatement of Agency 2d §8 and Restatement of Agency 3d §2.03 in Limerick Form

Posted on January 15, 2009
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw On the question who must cause appearance, Say classical doctrine adherents, "The principals do it; That's how we construe it, At the cost of some real world coherence!"

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Anger Management

Posted on January 15, 2009
The South Carolina Supreme Court reinstated an attorney who had been suspended on an interim and indefinite basis with the following conditions: 1) after the date of this order, petitioner shall attend and successfully complete an anger management course; thereafter,...

Divorce Settlement No Bar To Malpractice Claim

Posted on January 14, 2009
A lawyer drew up an antenuptial agreement for a husband shortly before the wedding. The bride elect, who was not represented, signed the agreement. After six years of marriage, the wife filed for divorce. The husband's new lawyer raised concerns...

Personal Growth Leads To Reinstatement

Posted on January 14, 2009
The Oklahoma Supreme Court reinstated an attorney who had resigned from the bar while facing allegations of personally use of missing entrusted guardianship funds: Testimony before the Trial Panel showed that at the time of his resignation, Mr. Jones was...

Return To Practice

Posted on January 14, 2009
The Oklahoma Supreme Court has ordered the reinstatement of an attorney admitted in 1987 who had resigned from the bar in 2006 after a lenghty period of non-legal employment: 1. Petitioner is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma College...

A Conspicuous Violation

Posted on January 14, 2009
The Pennsylvania Court of Judicial Discipline has found that a Philidelphia municipal court judge has engaged in misconduct and ordered that a hearing be held to determine the appropriate discipline. The court found that the judge had been introduced to...

Standard Of Review

Posted on January 13, 2009
On review of a report of its Disciplinary Commission, the Arizona Supreme Court held that the commission must defer to a hearing officer's findings of fact that have a reasonable record basis. The court imposed censure and probation rather than...

No Vicarious Liability For Negligence Of Appointed Counsel

Posted on January 13, 2009
Is a state subject to liability if court-appointed criminal defense counsel provides negligent representation? No, according to a recent decision of the Arizona Supreme Court. The court held that the duty of the state begins and ends with the appointment...

Tulane Symposium on Side Effects of States' DOMAs: Feb. 13, 2009

Posted on January 13, 2009
Posted by Alan Childress A cutting-edged Tulane law journal offers a Friday the 13th conference on an interesting subject. That is also a great weekend to see New Orleans -- lots of great parades (days and nights) and fun during...

No Prosecutorial Misconduct

Posted on January 13, 2009
The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed a conviction for second degree murder, concluding that the prosecutor did not engage in misconduct by commenting on the defendant's refusal to voluntarily submit to DNA testing: ...the investigators asked Mr. Smith to voluntarily give...

No Second Bite

Posted on January 13, 2009
An attorney had represented a client since 1984. The client (a non-lawyer) went to work for a law firm and, on the client's recommendation, the attorney represented the firm in several matters. The client was then terminated by the law...

Eight Years Of Misrepresentations

Posted on January 12, 2009
A Massachusetts attorney was indefinitely suspended for mishandling a claim of medical malpractice on behalf of a client. After the case had been dismissed, the lawyer embarked on a eight year pattern of misrepresenting the status of the case to...

Another Permanent Disbarment

Posted on January 12, 2009
A Louisiana attorney who had been suspended for two years in 1993 and never reinstated was permanently disbarred for practicing after he had been suspended. In 2004, he appeared on behalf of a criminal defendant before a parish district criminal...

Threat Of Contempt Draws Admonition

Posted on January 12, 2009
The New York Commission on Judicial Conduct imposed a stipulated admonition on a family court judge who had improperly threatened contempt on court officer who had taken a litigant into custody: The record indicates that when respondent learned that officers...

Too Harsh?

Posted on January 11, 2009
An associate in a Baton Rouge law firm was assigned to handle a claim for a mother and four children arising out of an accident in the parking lot of Wal-Mart. The lawyer submitted medical bills totaling over $23,000 to...

More Transparency In Judicial Discipline Proposed

Posted on January 09, 2009
A subcommittee of an Article 6 Commission of the Nevada Supreme Court has proposed modifications of the rules and procedures governing judicial discipline. The subcommittee seeks amendments that will make the process more transparent: To increase transparency, the Article 6...

Suspension Imposed Rather Than Reprimand

Posted on January 09, 2009
A justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court imposed a 30 day suspension with a requirement that the attorney take and pass a professional responsibility examination within 18 months in a case that involved misconduct committed while under extraordinarily stressful...

Detailed Probation Conditions

Posted on January 09, 2009
An attorney who had failed to diligently pursue an estate and trust matter was placed on probation for three years by the Kansas Supreme Court. The attorney had also initially failed to cooperate in the disciplinary matter, but eventually submitted...

Reinstatement Granted

Posted on January 09, 2009
An attorney who had been disbarred on consent in Pennsylvania after practicing for about ten years was reinstated almost twenty years. The Supreme Court accepted the recommendation of its Disciplinary Board favoring reinstatement, concluding that the misconduct (in two matters,...

More Sleeping Lawyer As Not Ineffective Assistance, This Time In Arkansas

Posted on January 08, 2009
Posted by Alan Childress The blog Law of Criminal Defense reports on an Arkansas Supreme Court opinion decided today which finds no ineffective assistance of counsel for [yet another] sleeping defense counsel. The blog's editor, John Wesley Hall Jr., notes...

Witness Excused

Posted on January 08, 2009
From the web page of the Virginia State Bar: On November 21, 2008, a three-judge panel in the Roanoke County Circuit Court imposed a public reprimand on [an attorney] for violating a professional rule that governs fairness to opposing party...

A Kafkaesque Maze

Posted on January 08, 2009
The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct imposed public discipline (an admonition) on a city court judge who had sought support for a State Supreme Court run from a lawyer during a court proceeding. The commission found: By soliciting...

By Writ Or Appeal

Posted on January 08, 2009
The Florida Supreme Court suspended a lawyer for 91 days (requiring him to demonstrate rehabilitation) and published an opinion to "articulate our reasoning so that other members of The Florida Bar can avoid [his] misconduct." The lawyer defended a client...

Re-Suspended

Posted on January 08, 2009
The Minnesota Supreme Court had reinistated an attorney who had been suspended for 90 days. The reinstatement order required the attorney to take and pass the professional responsibility portion of the state bar exam within a year of reinstatement. Today,...

Satyam and Governance

Posted on January 08, 2009
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw Once again, our mouths are agape as a putative paragon of "good governance" - the Indian outsourcing firm, Satyam - turns out to be rife with out-and-out fraud. Larry Cunningham has a nice post on this...

The Stress Of Practice

Posted on January 08, 2009
An Arizona hearing officer has recommended a 30 day suspension followed by two years probation in a disciplinary matter brought against an attorney retained to defend a divorce. The client paid a $5,000 retainer to "cover all [his] divorce" and...

Disbarment For First Degree Murder

Posted on January 07, 2009
From the web page of the Texas Sate Bar: On December 23, 2008 the Board of Disciplinary Appeals signed a final judgment disbarring Troy, Virginia attorney Piper A. Rountree, 48, State Bar of Texas Card No. 17323050. On July 13,...

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