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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

After Disbarment, Clients Remain

Posted on October 12, 2010
The New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department has disbarred an attorney convicted of the theft of escrowed settlement proceeds. The court also appointed an attorney to clean up the mess left behind: The [Departmental Disciplinary] Committee advises...

Magistrate's Greatest Hits

Posted on October 12, 2010
A recent opinion from the South Carolina Judicial Ethics Adfvisory Committee: FACTS A newly appointed Associate Municipal Judge is concerned about the impact of two songs released by the judge before his appointment. Over fifteen years ago, the judge released...

No Lesser Sanction

Posted on October 12, 2010
The South Carolina Supreme Court declined to impose a lesser or different sanction than disbarment after an attorney had been disciplined in Georgia: Rule 4-104 of the Rules of the State Bar of Georgia clearly provides that a lawyer may...

Aggavation, Mitigation And A Proposal Not Adopted

Posted on October 11, 2010
The Georgia Supreme Court adopted a recommended two year suspension of an attorney who plead guilty to a count of felony residential mortgage fraud. The attorney had only been in practice for 2 1/2 years at the time of the...

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Plotting Wall Street Bankers on the Saddam Hussein - Salem Witch Trials Continuum

Posted on October 11, 2010
Posted by Jeff Lipshaw Imagine how difficult public debate in these partisan times can be for someone like me whose motto is "extremism in the pursuit of moderation is no vice." I haven't seen Inside Job, but I have read...

Free Soviet Jewelry

Posted on October 11, 2010
The cutting edge issue whether a judicial clerk can host a jewelry sale or conduct a jewerly business is addressed in a recent judicial ethics opinion from South Carolina. The Advisory Commitee on Standards of Judicial Conduct opines: Rule 506,...

Ohio Oral Arguments On Line

Posted on October 11, 2010
The (outstanding and user-friendly) web page of the Ohio Supreme Court now features video access to oral arguments before the court. Linked here is a case argued in July, 2010 involving an attorney found to have neglected two client matters....

Bank Error Leads To Bar Charges

Posted on October 11, 2010
The North Carolina State Bar has filed a complaint alleging that $81,570.99 was transferred by wire into the bank account of an attorney from the Asheville Savings Bank. According to the complaint, the funds were intended for another attorney's escrow...

No Home At UPS

Posted on October 08, 2010
An attorney whose bar address turned out to be a UPS store mailbox has been suspended by the New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department for failure to respond the a complaint but not because the proofs conclusively...

Default Does Not Establish All Violations

Posted on October 08, 2010
The New Jersey Disciplinary Review Board has ordered a reprimand of an attorney who had been paid $600 to represent a client and had failed to appear for a rescheduled court session because he was owed a $200 balance. The...

No "Serious Crime"

Posted on October 08, 2010
A criminal conviction for possession of a handgun (misdemeanor) does not involve a "serious crime" and merited a public censure, according to the New York Appellate Division for the Second Judicial Department. The attorney had a record of prior discipline:...

Excerpt from Susan Neiman's Slow Fire

Posted on October 08, 2010
Posted by Alan Childress Much of my (re)publishing project is in legal history, law and society, and legal ethics, yet one that is easy to get lost in older works but has no law to it at all may be...

Snakes In A Court

Posted on October 08, 2010
The Kansas Supreme Court has disbarred an attorney for a series of incidents that reflected a rather profound civility deficit. In one matter in the Shawnee Municipal Court, the attorney told a court clerk to tell a prosecutor to "get...

"Amber Alert" Sanction

Posted on October 07, 2010
The web page of the Ohio Supreme Court reports: The Supreme Court of Ohio today imposed a six-month suspension, with the full term of suspension stayed on conditions, against the law license of Judge Daniel Gaul of the Cuyahoga County...

A Run Of Bar Luck

Posted on October 07, 2010
The Louisana Supreme Court has imposed a two-year suspension of an attorney for misconduct in two matters. One involved multiple failures to appear in bankruptcy matters; the other the failure to pay medical providers out of a personal injury settlement...

Let The Sunshine In

Posted on October 06, 2010
The Oklahoma Supreme Court has refused the request of a sanctioned attorney to seal and expunge the records of the bar discipline proceedings. The court concluded that the public interest required that such records be open and available to interested...

No License Required

Posted on October 06, 2010
An investigative reporter with 30 years of experience was denied the right to renew her license from law authorities to work as a death penalty mitigation specialist. An administrative law judge concluded that no private investigator's license was required...

A Single Lapse Does Not Prevent Reinstatement

Posted on October 05, 2010
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed with its Disciplinary Board and reinstated an attorney who had been suspended for five years in 2004. The attorney had been convicted of criminal attempt to commit involuntary deviate sexual intercourse after he arranged a...

False CLE Statement Draws Reprimand

Posted on October 05, 2010
From the web page of the Virginia State Bar: On September 22, 2010, a Virginia State Bar Fourth District-Section 1 Subcommittee issued a public reprimand with terms to [an attorney] for violating professional rules that govern knowingly making a false...

Arbitration Rule Enforced

Posted on October 05, 2010
An attorney who had filed suit in Maryland for allegedly unpaid legal fees appealed a decision that removed the case to the District of Columbia Bar's fee arbitration process and thereafter enforced the award in favor of the client. the...

Blowin In The Wind

Posted on October 05, 2010
In another of a series of recent cases involving the duty of confidentiality, the Indiana Supreme Court imposed an agreed public reprimand of an attorney who had asked his adult children to dispose of 12-14 banker boxes of client files....

40% Done

Posted on October 05, 2010
The Michigan Attorney Discipline Board has issued an order that brings to an end a part of the Kwame Kilpatrick legal ethics morass. Samuel McCargo was suspended for 179 days for his role in the representation of the then-Detroit Mayor...

Bonded Out

Posted on October 04, 2010
The Louisiana Attorney Discipline Board has recommended the permanent disbarment of a former didtrict judge of Caddo Parish, who was convicted of bribery. The judge left his elective office in the wake of the conviction. The scheme involved a bail...

No Right To Seek Disqualification

Posted on October 04, 2010
The web page of the Pennsylvania disciplinary board reports: On August 17, 2010, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania decided a high-profile case involving an attempt by a pharmaceutical company to disqualify the private law firm hired by the Commonwealth to...

Trail Of E-Mail

Posted on October 04, 2010
The Indiana Supreme Court has imposed a 90 day suspension of an attorney who represented a client in, among other matters, a prenuptial agreement and the subsequent marriage dissolution proceeding. At the time of the dissolution proceeding, the attorney and...

Handling Funds

Posted on October 04, 2010
The New York Appellate Division for the Second Judicial Department imposed a six-month suspension on a attorney who had violated escrow obligations. The court found that the mitigation warranted the sanction: In mitigation, the respondent testified that he came to...

May I Have The Envelope, Please?

Posted on October 01, 2010
The Florida Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee has opined on the following issue: May a Judge participate in a program or skit for an American Inn of Court if the presenting group competes for a "best skit" award which includes a...

Doing The Right Thing

Posted on October 01, 2010
If you want to get a sense of what is wrong with the attorney discipline regime in the District of Columbia (and do not wish to read my article on that subject in the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics), check...

Permanent Disbarment

Posted on September 30, 2010
The Ohio Supreme Court web page reports a decision yesterday: [A] Toledo attorney has been permanently disbarred by the Supreme Court of Ohio for multiple violations of state attorney discipline rules arising from his involvement in a criminal conspiracy that...

"Deeply Flawed" But All Is Forgiven

Posted on September 30, 2010
A rather remarkable reinstatement case decided today by the Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected an unfavorable recommendation and granted the return to practice of a former attorney. The court really could not point to much that favored reinstatement. The attorney had...

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