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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

"Some Realism About Bar Associations"

Posted on June 19, 2008
That is the title of a new essay by Elizabeth Chambliss (NYLS) and Bruce Green (Fordham), which is now available on SSRN. Here is an excerpt of the abstract: What are bar associations' responsibilities for law reform? Under what conditions...

Elefant Announces New Clearinghouse Website for Lawyers' Events On- and Off-line

Posted on June 19, 2008
The new site will be called Lawagora. Long-time blogger Carolyn Elefant (she is at myshingle and at law.com) announced it here and welcomes reader content, easily input on the platform she chose. Here is her intro: I've just completed a...

Upcoming Minnesota Ethics CLEs (Including Today) Are Also Available for Out-of-Staters

Posted on June 19, 2008
Posted by Alan Childress The late-June fare out of Minnesota looks interesting and the remote programs are pretty affordable. An archived one available to non-Minnesota participants, and earning 2 hours credit, is "Chemical Dependency and Mental Health in the Legal...

Legal Post Mortem the Night After the Texas Execution That Wasn't

Posted on June 18, 2008
Posted by Alan Childress I am flat wrung out a day after following minute-by-minute via emails the near-execution of Charles Hood in Texas, though I hope the twitter-like effort was worth it to some of our readers who were not...

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Attorney-Client Privilege for LLC's?

Posted on June 18, 2008
The Unincorporated Business Law Prof Blog, and that is a mouthful (or a typeful), raised the interesting question in this recent post, per Donald Scotten (Lect., Southern Cal). "The federal district court in Nevada recently addressed an issue of first...

Rule 3.3 Requires Candor to the Tribunal. But...

Posted on June 17, 2008
Posted by Alan Childress An actual motion filed last year in federal court within the Sixth Circuit, shown in full here at Legal Antics (and hat tip to The (New) Legal Writer blog, inspiring this title), states: Comes now the...

Breaking: Tx Court Orders New Judge to Reinstate Death Warrant

Posted on June 17, 2008
The prior petition for writ of mandamus was denied, but a new one aimed at the new (transferred-to) Judge just got granted. Download cca20order2008202006.17.2008.pdf [Alan Childress]

Update: Tx Ct Crim App Denies Prosecutors' Mandamus Request to Reinstate Death Warrant

Posted on June 17, 2008
Further Update (8:44 pm Texas time): The latest in the Texas case of Charles Dean Hood, noted earlier below, is that very recently the state's highest criminal court issued an opinion essentially denying mandamus, thus the death warrant is not...

Breaking News: Texas Judge Removes Date of Execution in Case Involving Allegations that Trial Judge and DA Were Involved; State Appeals

Posted on June 17, 2008
Posted by Alan Childress Updating Nancy Rapoport's post on LPB here (and more at her personal blog), and the vital efforts of Monroe Freedman at LEF here, I just received an email from one of Charles Dean Hood's attorneys (Andrea...

Conspiracy To Bribe Warrants Disbarment

Posted on June 17, 2008
The D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility has recommended the disbarment of an attorney convicted of conspiracy to pay a $40,000 bribe to a Mississippi state court judge. The attorney was a co-defendant in the criminal case against "Dickie" Scruggs...

Tx Ct Crim App denies appeal of death row inmate who alleges that judge & prosecutor slept together during case

Posted on June 17, 2008
OK, here's a first for me. Charles Hood is set to be executed tonight because the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has denied his appeal, which alleged that the judge and prosecutor on his case were sleeping together at the...

No CPO For Website Comments

Posted on June 17, 2008
The North Carolina Court of Appeals today held that a civil protection order was improperly issued in a case involving "cyberstalking." The conduct at issue: Plaintiffs alleged defendant had ?posted information on her website stating that Erin Knox [Linda Ramsey's...

Duty To Investigate

Posted on June 17, 2008
The South Carolina Supreme Court affirmed a sanctions award against an attorney for instituting a frivolous claim against another attorney. Attorney Malloy was retained to represent a seriously injured client through the client's elderly mother. An agreement was reached and...

Indefinite Suspension

Posted on June 17, 2008
An attorney who had taken his fee in a bankruptcy case without court approval was indefinitely suspended by the Maryland Court of Appeals. The court approved findings below that the misconduct was a result of the lawyer's unfamiliarity with bankruptcy...

Book, Movie Do Not Require Disqualification Of Prosecutor

Posted on June 16, 2008
There is an interesting article in the June 2008 California Bar Journal by Diane Karpman. She discusses two recent California Supreme Court decisions in cases where disqualification of the prosecutor had been sought. One matter involved a "lead prosecutor who...

Unequal Treatment Of Witnesses

Posted on June 16, 2008
The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals affirmed the grant of habeas corpus relief to a convicted defendant serving a life sentence. The basis? Both state and the defense called incarcerated individuals as witnesses. The state's witnesses were permitted to...

The "Pillow Note"

Posted on June 16, 2008
The Supreme Court of South Dakota decided an interesting case concerning the validity of a holographic codicil to a decedent's will. The document was found in the decedent's pillow and became known as the "pillow note." The issue related to...

"Law Of The Streets"

Posted on June 16, 2008
The Maryland Court of Appeals reversed a criminal conviction based on its conclusion that the prosecutor made an improper closing argument. The alleged victim had offered testimony that did not inculpate the defendant; the prosecutor argued that the victim was...

Continuous Representation Doctrine Not Applied

Posted on June 16, 2008
The New York Appellate Division for the Second Judicial Department ordered that summary judgment be granted to a defendant law firm on statute of limitations grounds. The representation involved the interests of a tenant in connection with the sale of...

Not a Gambling Problem

Posted on June 15, 2008
An attorney who had converted $10,500 in trust funds was suspended for at least three years by the Indiana Supreme Court. The attorney went into partnership with an attorney who had an existing escrow account. The old account was being...

Next Time Ask For Damages In the Amount of $138,542,796

Posted on June 14, 2008
Best line in the story, reported as Sudoku Addicts Halt Drugs Trial, is: "The judge was alerted after some of the jurors were observed writing their notes vertically, rather than horizontally." Not quite as inspirational as is Nancy's post on...

Local lawyer in Vegas does the right thing

Posted on June 14, 2008
There's a lovely article in the local Las Vegas paper about a lawyer who, after discovering that his boss had stolen $200K from her client trust accounts, repaid each and every client for the theft. (See here.) For my take...

Ski Thefts, Endangering Crossing Guard Result In Censure

Posted on June 14, 2008
The New York Appellate Division for the Second Judicial Department imposed a public censure of an attorney for a criminal conviction for retail theft from three Vermont ski shops. It appears from the order that the offenses had occurred on...

Underfunded Public Defenders In Several States Say They Cannot Do Their Work

Posted on June 14, 2008
Posted by Alan Childress An ABC News story yesterday, forwarded to us by Paul Caron (visiting San Diego), highlights the resource problem in many states for public defenders just trying to do their constitutionally-mandated effective assistance of counsel...

Help Wanted: Executive Director for the Georgetown Center for the Study of the Legal Profession

Posted on June 13, 2008
[posted by Bill Henderson] Here is a terrific opportunity for a lawyer interested in advancing the study of the legal profession. The Center for the Study of the Legal Profession at Georgetown University Law Center is seeking an Executive Director...

Zealous, Not Unethical

Posted on June 13, 2008
An Arizona hearing officer dismissed charges of ethical misconduct against a criminal defense lawyer who had subpoened the alleged victim's counselling records in a case involving charges of sexual misconduct with a minor. After the court had denied the attorney's...

Disbarment For Misappropriation

Posted on June 13, 2008
The Ohio Supreme Court rejected a proposed indefinite suspension and imposed permanent disbarment in a case involving misconduct in three matters. The court's web page summarizes the misconduct as follows: in one case, Mason mishandled and misappropriated funds from a...

Anger And Zeal Leads To Suspension

Posted on June 13, 2008
An attorney, during the course of representing a client charged with assault, intentionally misrepresented his identity to a person who he believed to be the alleged assault victim. The attorney claimed to be a police officer, and left a voice...

Neglect And Related Misconduct Merits Suspension

Posted on June 13, 2008
The Nebraska Supreme Court imposed a 30 day suspension of an attorney who had been retained to help an animal welfare society seek nonprofit corporation status. The attorney had failed to complete the matter, communicate with the client and return...

Misplaced Trust Or Knowing Misconduct?

Posted on June 12, 2008
The Supreme Court of Washington imposed the sanction of a three month suspension for escrow account violations and failure to properly supervise a non-lawyer assistant who had embezzled entrusted funds. The court concluded that suspension was appropriate for violations that...

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