You’re chatting with your pals at the bar association cocktail hour, and talk turns to the indictment just handed down against a former city official. Someone says, “Hey, didn’t your firm used to represent her?” “Yes,” you reply, “and a couple years ago, I had a really interesting case involving her. Maybe I shouldn’t discuss
Privilege shields internal firm discussions about conflict, N.D. Cal. magistrate rules
Internal discussions among Orrick’s chief legal officer and other firm lawyers about a conflict of interest remain privileged under federal common law, a federal magistrate judge for the Northern District of California has held, in quashing a third-party subpoena directed to the firm — even though the firm still represented the client at the time of the discussions. The opinion is the latest in the line of federal and state cases that have been developing a jurisprudence of law-firm privilege.
Ticket to hell: Fla. judge resigns after taking Rays tix from law firm with pending case
A Florida judge resigned last week in the wake of a state judicial ethics investigation launched after he accepted baseball tickets from a law firm that was litigating a slip-and-fall case before him. The outcome for the judge seems like a foregone conclusion, but it also is a timely reminder for lawyers about the ethics rules governing their interactions with judges.
Client defames lawyer on review site — court upholds $350,000 in punitive damages
A Florida appeals court has affirmed $350,000 in punitive damages awarded to a lawyer who claimed that a former client defamed her in on-line reviews. Some courts have turned back claims based on internet reviews. But in Blake v. Ann-Marie Giustibelli, P.A., the court said there was no free-speech shield for the former client’s false statements on various internet review sites.
Documenting who you do — and don’t — represent is key to avoiding malpractice trap
We’ve blogged about this before, but if you need any more reasons to be sure that you document who your client is and is not, see the Oregon court of appeals opinion in Lahn v. Vaisbort.
“I represent only your brother”
In Lahn, the lawyer had represented the plaintiff, her brother and