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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

Censure Too Harsh

Posted on June 12, 2008
The Nevada Supreme Court rejected a proposed censure of a Las Vegas municipal judge as unduly harsh and directed that the judge write a letter of apology and attend (at his own expense) a class in judicial ethics. The misconduct...

Suspension For Misconduct In Adoption Case

Posted on June 12, 2008
In a lengthy opinion, the Florida Supreme Court today rejected a referee's public censure with probation and suspended the lawyer for three years. The misconduct involved a series of false representations to a tribunal in connection with an adoption. The...

On Being a Happy and Successful Lawyer

Posted on June 12, 2008
[posted by Bill Henderson] A must read: the 2008 commencement address at Case Law by Stephen C. Ellis, managing partner at Tucker, Ellis & West. Mr. Ellis sees the big picture. (HT: David Maister's blog, Passion, People and Principles, and...

Graduates of Concord, First Online Law School, Admitted to US Supreme Court

Posted on June 12, 2008
[posted by Bill Henderson] As I was catching up on my reading, I ran across an interesting story on four Concord Law grads who were recently admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court. See Tony Mauro, "Online Law School Grads Defies...

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Dead Man's Statute Not Applied In Bar Discipline Matters

Posted on June 12, 2008
The New York Court of Appeals today held that the Dead Man's Statute does not preclude the admission of evidence in a bar disciplinary proceeding, reversing the decision of the First Judicial Department and remanding for further proceedings. The First...

File Retention Not Malpractice

Posted on June 11, 2008
The Connecticut Appellate Court affirmed the dismissal of a legal malpractice claim brought by a client who retained the attorney to represent him in a habeas corpus claim that had been filed pro se. After receiving thirteen boxes of materials,...

Depression Played A Role In Misconduct

Posted on June 11, 2008
The New York Appellate Division for the Fourth Judicial Department censured an attorney for failure to effect withdrawal from representation after being discharged from representation and continuing contact with a former client after discharge that led to settlement of the...

Parental Discipline Not Criminal

Posted on June 11, 2008
Not a legal profession case, but of possible interest to the parents among us, is a decision today from the Indiana Supreme Court. The court reversed a criminal conviction for battery on a child. The defendant was the child's mother....

Secretary Takes Deposition, Lawyer Gets Reprimand

Posted on June 11, 2008
The web page of the Virginia State Bar reports the following agreed disposition: On May 28, 2008, the Virginia State Bar Eighth District Committee imposed a public reprimand on Marcus Noah Perdue for violating the disciplinary rule that governs candor...

More From Arizona

Posted on June 10, 2008
An Arizona attorney has consented to discipline consisting of a censure and one year of probation for attempting to kiss and inappropriately touching a client. After the client terminated his services, he sent an email to his law office staff...

Debriefing on the ISBA Solo & Small Firm Conference

Posted on June 10, 2008
[posted by Bill Henderson] Last week, I attended the Indiana State Bar Association (ISBA) Solo & Small Firm Conference. I first started attending this event back in 2004 when I was preparing to teach my course on The Law Firm...

Personal Interests Trump Ethical Obligations

Posted on June 10, 2008
A recent hearing officer report, now pending before the Arizona Supreme Court, involves misconduct by a lawyer in the course of representing a friend. The friend had married an exotic dancer, who the lawyer told the friend prior to undertaking...

Gaining Insight

Posted on June 10, 2008
An Arizona hearing officer has filed a report that recommends a public censure and one-year probation for lack of diligence and failure to adequately communicate with a client in a dissolution matter. The attorney also had not responded to the...

Attorney As Expert

Posted on June 10, 2008
The Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed a criminal conviction for securities fraud. Among other things, the court held that the trial court did not commit eror in admitting the testimony of an attorney expert: ...appellate courts use the deferential erroneous exercise...

Less Than One-Tenth Of One Percent

Posted on June 10, 2008
The web page of the Ohio Supreme Court reports that over $200,000 was awarded to 25 clients from the Clients' Security Fund. The summaries are interesting in that Ohio appears to reimburse clients who pay for legal services that are...

Judge Subject To Public Discipline For Conflicts Of Interest

Posted on June 09, 2008
The New Jersey Supreme Court imposed an admonishment of a municipal court judge for conflicts of interest in his representation of a client in family court and civil matters. The judge did not recuse himself from a matter that involved...

California Malpractice Disclosure Rule Moves Forward

Posted on June 09, 2008
The California Bar Journal reports that the State Bar's Board of Governors has "finally" approved a malpractice insurance disclosure rule. The web summary notes; By a vote of 16-4, the board accepted a compromise rule of professional conduct that a...

An Excess Of Passion

Posted on June 09, 2008
The Arizona Supreme Court adopted the recommendation of a hearing officer and the Disciplinary Commission for public censure and probation for one year in a case where the attorney had failed to supervise a paralegal in the drafting and filing...

Disbarment For Misconduct In Personal Life

Posted on June 09, 2008
The Arizona Supreme Court disbarred a former deputy county attorney with no prior disciplinary history and a reputation "as an ethical, professsional, and highly competent lawyer." The facts are set out in a hearing officer's report. The problems started when...

The Summer Before Law School?

Posted on June 08, 2008
Posted by Alan Childress I think hard work (preferably non-law) and/or travel are the best preparation for starting law school, for opposite reasons. Hard work so that being back in school will be fun, will feel like a reminder that...

Author of the Greatest Fictional Lawyer of All Time Speaks Out (Well, Spoke)

Posted on June 07, 2008
Posted by Alan Childress That writer would be Nelle Harper Lee -- we southerners tend to go by our middle names, or by two names [President Clinton should have been Billy Jeff]. And the lawyer would be Atticus Finch. If...

International Law Students Ass'n Elects New President

Posted on June 07, 2008
As reported by the new (and affiliated) International Law Prof Blog (per Mark Wojcik), hearty congratulations are in order for Wash U law professor Leila Sadat (who is also a Tulane law grad), shown left. She will be the next...

Achieving Finality In Bar Discipline

Posted on June 07, 2008
One of the difficulties that I encountered as a disciplinary prosecutor related to the complaint-driven nature of the process. Bar Counsel as a general proposition does not go looking for problems in a particular attorney's practice (with the exception of...

Unrequited Love

Posted on June 06, 2008
A petition for reinstatement was rejected by the Mississippi Supreme Court despite the support of the Bar. The petitioner had been suspended for three consecutive 18 month periods. He had moved to Texas and provided testimony as to his moral...

Judge Reprimanded

Posted on June 06, 2008
A county court judge was publicly reprimanded by the Mississippi Supreme Court for misconduct in his handling of a series of landlord-tenant matters. He had ex parte communications with a tenant and had become involved in the matter by actions...

Client Cannot Waive Escrow Obligations

Posted on June 06, 2008
The Iowa Supreme Court "respectfully" rejected the public censure recommendation of its Disciplinary Board and suspended a lawyer with no possibility of reinstatement for six months. The charges involved the lawyer's operation of his escrow account and dealings with his...

Non-Admitted Attorney Disbarred

Posted on June 06, 2008
The Delaware Supreme Court disbarred an attorney who has never been admitted to practice in Delaware for unauthorized practice in estate planning matters and violation of a cease-and-desist order that had been entered in connection with such practice...

Petition Denied

Posted on June 06, 2008
The Supreme Judicial Court of Maine has denied the petition of Husson College School of Law (which has not yet opened its doors) for permission to have its graduates sit for the Maine bar examination. While the court recognized the...

CTS--Chronic Tardiness Syndrome--Sends Lawyer To Jail Without Passing Go

Posted on June 06, 2008
Reader and philosopher Patrick O'Donnell forwarded us this headline and link from his local paper, the Los Angeles Times: Judge orders chronically late lawyer jailed in Compton. And here is the story as seen in the online ABA Journal: "A...

Deferred Suspension

Posted on June 06, 2008
Adopting the recommendation of the Attorney Discipline Board, the Supreme Court of Louisiana imposed a fully-deferred 90 day suspension in a case involving a lawyer who had engaged in a sexual relationship with a client involved in divorce and child....

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