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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

Court Sanctions Lead To Bar Discipline

Posted on December 11, 2008
A lawyer who was found, in four separate instances, to have made false or friviolous assertions in litigation was suspended for one year by the New York Appellate Division for the Third Judicial Department. In each instance, the lawyer had...

Falling Flag Litigation

Posted on December 11, 2008
Off topic again, but hard to resist is a decision earlier this week from the Tennessee Court of Appeals in a premises liability action brought for personal injuries sustained at a party on election night 2004 in the grand ballroom...

Too Late To Mitigate

Posted on December 11, 2008
The web page of the Ohio Supreme Court reports a decision imposing permanent disbarment: In today?s 6-1 per curiam decision, the Supreme Court of Ohio adopted the findings and recommendation of the Board of Commissioners on Grievances & Discipline, which...

Libby Disbarred In Pennsylvania

Posted on December 11, 2008
The web page of the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania reports that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was disbarred in that jurisdiction yesterday as reciprocal discipline based on his disbarment in the District of Columbia. The order of....

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"Unfortunate Platform"

Posted on December 11, 2008
An attorney who in 2002 had been declared severely mentally disabled and been involuntarily committed by the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County Pennsylvania was transferred to disability inactive status in that same year. He had been convicted of...

Association of Media & Entertainment Counsel (AMEC) Honors Law Professor

Posted on December 10, 2008
And the only law professor to be so honored is . . . our colleague Nancy Rapoport. (She of UNLV law school, Enron movie IMDB, and competitive ballroom dancing infamy.) The Association of Media and Entertainment Counsel, which recognizes the...

Charges Dismissed

Posted on December 10, 2008
A post today on the ABA Journal web page brought the site of the Pennsylvania Court of Judicial Discipline to my attention. As a result, I found an interesting case decided this May involving dismissed allegations of judicial misconduct against...

Not Unethical By 5-4 Vote

Posted on December 10, 2008
The Arizona Disciplinary Commission, by a 5-4 vote, approved the dismissal of ethics charges in a matter that that we had earlier discussed. The attorney had (1) gone to a police station for an interview wearing a t-shirt that declared...

Non-Compete Clause Upheld

Posted on December 10, 2008
In a case involving interpretation of Massachusetts Rule 5.6, the Supreme Judicial Court concluded: In Pettingell v. Morrison, Mahoney & Miller, 426 Mass. 253, 256 (1997) (Pettingell ), we precluded the enforcement of a provision in the Morrison, Mahoney &...

No Summary Judgment In Legal Malpractice Case

Posted on December 09, 2008
The Oregon Court of Appeals reversed an order granting summary judgment to a lawyer defendant in a legal malpractice action. The putative client had sought assistance with respect to a property division in a divorce case. It was undisputed that...

"A Mild Mannered Person"

Posted on December 09, 2008
An Arizona hearing officer has recommended a censure with probation for one year of an attorney for conduct in defending a client on charges of first-degree murder and drive-by shooting. The lawyer had prevailed on a motion to exclude "prior...

Every Partner's Nightmare

Posted on December 09, 2008
The Kansas Supreme Court imposed an indefinite suspension of an attorney who had failed to represent a number of clients as a result of depression. The court notes the intervention of other attorneys in the firm: The Respondent practiced law...

No PAC For Judicial Candidate

Posted on December 09, 2008
A new opinion from the Oklahoma Judicial Ethics Advisory Panel: Question(s): May an attorney who intends to become a candidate for judicial office at the next election cycle (2010) establish a "political action committee" as opposed to a "candidate committee"...

You Can Pick Your Friends and Your...But Not Your Family

Posted on December 09, 2008
The Massachusetts Committee on Judicial Ethics opines that a judge may not continue to serve as a court-appointed conservator absent a close familial relationship with the ward, which was not present in the situation presented: The Committee dealt with similar...

MPRE Scaled Scores and Percentiles: Minimum Passing Score in NY and Other States

Posted on December 08, 2008
The MPRE scores are now out for the November 8, 2008 testing. Here is an earlier LPB post discussing percentiles and scaled scores, and a follow up post here on minimum scores in various states (including New York, California, and...

Our Friend Ficker

Posted on December 08, 2008
The Maryland Court of Appeals has reinstated Robin Ficker with an order that does not discuss either the prior discipline or any findings concerning present fitness to practice. Ficker is perhaps best known as a heckler at Washington professional basketball...

A Dog Named Mike

Posted on December 08, 2008
At the risk of being accused of going off topic, I found rather interesting a decision of the Oregon Court of Appeals holding that a settlement agreement resolving the breakup of a domestic partnership was not invalidated by a subsequent...

True Confessions

Posted on December 08, 2008
An attorney (by the name of True) was suspended for three months by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, with the suspension stayed in favor of probation. The attorney had overbilled and made false billing statements to the clients (an estate...

Long Time Coming

Posted on December 08, 2008
An attorney who had been disbarred in Illinois in 1997 failed to report the order to Kansas, where he continued to register as an inactive lawyer. The attorney had been convicted of the following: ...the respondent was convicted by a...

Beyond IRAC: Law School Exam Taking Tips

Posted on December 07, 2008
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw It's that time of year when law school professors (including me) procrastinate and whine about grading, even though it's one of the few burdens that fall upon us in our privileged lives. I thought I would...

Well, Yeah...

Posted on December 06, 2008
Teacher sorry for binding girls' hands, feet in slavery lesson --Yahoo! News headline this morning Number of times in teaching Torts that a very young Childress answered a 1L's question about the difference between assault and battery with a physical...

Final Links and Resources From Harvard's Conference on Globalization of the Legal Profession

Posted on December 06, 2008
Harvard Law School's Program on the Legal Profession has put up a useful webpage organizing sessions and materials presented at its intensive Nov. 21 conference. Links to conference materials are included, and for several sessions you can view their presentations...

Running For Judicial Office

Posted on December 05, 2008
In a case where the Kansas Supreme Court answered five questions certified by the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, the court dealt with the propriety of a candidate for judicial office in responding to a written...

Moving On

Posted on December 05, 2008
An attorney convicted of seven counts of lewd and lascivious behavior was suspended for six months by the Kansas Supreme Court, which rejected a proposed suspension of one year. The attorney, who had self-reported the conviction through counsel, had been...

Legal Profession Blog Re-Named To ABA Journal's Top 100 Law Blogs

Posted on December 05, 2008
Posted by Alan Childress Thank you to the ABA Journal for -- like last year (Jeff's funny post in 07) -- naming our blog to its 2008 edition of Top 100 blawgs of interest. We were one of just five...

Not Every Trackback We Are Asked To 'Publish' Is Reputable

Posted on December 05, 2008
" Free Networking Digree Online Course " : I deleted this one. This is worse than those blogs on capital punishment that had used Google AdSense and suddenly found they were advertising lots of mobility scooters (electric chairs). [Alan Childress]

Outbursts Violate Rule 8.4(b)

Posted on December 05, 2008
A Virginia lawyer was admonished for violating Virginia's version of Rule 8.4(b), which prohibits a criminal or "deliberately wrongful" act that reflects adversely on honesty, integrity or fitness to practice law as a result of two incidents. The lawyer had...

Exclusive Authority

Posted on December 05, 2008
In a judicial misconduct matter where an interim suspension had been imposed, the Mississippi Supreme Court held that the Commission on Judicial Performance had exceeded its authority by entering into an agreement to settle the matter, as the authority to...

Pondering the Heuristics of Baseball Players, CEOs, Lawyers, and Toothpaste

Posted on December 05, 2008
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw Over at Concurring Opinions, the always insightful Lawrence Cunningham ponders the seeming immunity to the present financial crisis in the world of baseball salaries. Baseball salaries versus CEO salaries have always been something of a mystery...

Court Clerk Censured

Posted on December 05, 2008
The Chief Clerk of the King's County Surrogate's Court was censured by the New York Appellate Division for the Third Judicial Department. After a rule had been enacted limiting fee payments to 6% of an estate, the clerk had routinely...

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