If your opposing counsel is from out of state and jumps the gun by filing a complaint before being admitted pro hac vice, can you get the complaint tossed? According to a recent opinion from the Seventh District Ohio Court of Appeals, the answer is “yes.” By implication, the opinion also points to some
Lack of privity sinks fiancée’s suit against divorce lawyer
After winning more than $250,000 at trial, the fiancée of a deceased postal worker came up short in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals based on lack of privity between her and the lawyers who mishandled the decedent’s divorce.
In Scott v. Burgin, the fiancée and the decedent had lived together for years,
Ohio Supreme Court proposes amendments to conduct rules
The Ohio Supreme Court will accept public comment until October 15 on proposed amendments to the Ohio Rules of Professional Conduct and the Ohio Rules for the Government of the Bar. Ohio becomes the latest state to consider incorporating some version of the Model Rule revisions that the ABA adopted in 2012 and 2013.
Here
Lawyer’s forgetfulness doesn’t require disciplinary report — unless…
What should you do if you notice that one of your partners has become extremely forgetful, and you think it raises concerns about the partner’s ability to competently represent your firm’s clients? Do you have a duty, under your state’s version of Model Rule 8.3, to report those concerns to a disciplinary authority?
The Kansas
No inherent conflict in confessing judgment via cognovit note, Ohio Board says
Confessing judgment on behalf of a cognovit note debtor does not place a lawyer in an inherent conflict of interest, the Ohio Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline has held in an advisory opinion.
The Ohio Board’s opinion updates an older opinion issued under the state’s former Code of Professional Responsibility. (Ohio adopted
Court upholds attorney-client privilege for in-house counsel
Employee communications made in confidence during a company’s internal investigation can be protected by the attorney-client privilege even where in-house counsel leads the investigation, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has said in a recent ruling.
While the result in In Re: Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc. is not surprising, the case is noteworthy both
Lawyer who obstructed deposition questions must make educational video
Here’s a cautionary tale about the line between vigorous advocacy and obstructionist conduct during discovery, and particularly at depositions.
A federal district court judge has administered an embarrassing bench-slap to a lawyer from a top-tier firm, requiring her to make a video about proper discovery procedures and to provide it to her firm’s litigators. The
LegalZoom: Unauthorized practice? Or new legal services model?
Does a company like LegalZoom, that provides low-cost do-it-yourself legal documents, necessarily stray into the unauthorized practice of law? The ABA Journal reports here, summarizing recent salvos in the LegalZoom war.
Under LegalZoom’s business model, customers create legal documents by answering on-line questionnaires. Then, LegalZoom employees review the answers, and out comes a will,
Thelen update: 2nd Circuit says former partners can keep hourly fees
On Wednesday, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals put a nail in the coffin of the attempt by Thelen LLP’s bankruptcy trustee to claw back fees on work that the firm’s former partners took with them to their new firm, Seyfarth Shaw LLP. Here’s the opinion.
The Second Circuit ruling came after it asked
Succession planning can save lawyers’ estates from liability
If you feel the grim reaper approaching, you’d better inform your clients of any looming statutes of limitations — if you don’t, your estate may be liable on a legal malpractice claim. That’s the message of a case decided earlier this year by the New York court of appeals.
In Cabrera v. Collazo, the