Looking for marketing ideas to help you or your firm stand out from the crowd? If you’re tired of branding tee shirts and mugs with your logo, how about donating your legal services to be auctioned off by a charity? As you might suspect, there are ethics issues — and Maryland’s state bar association recently
NJ lawyer suspended for make-believe FINRA arbitration, hiding default against firm
A New Jersey lawyer was suspended for six months for misrepresenting to clients for about eight years that their arbitration matter “was proceeding apace,” when he actually had never filed their claim. The lawyer also concealed from his firm for almost two years the malpractice suit that the clients later filed, including the default judgment
Military prosecutor sent “bugged” e-mail to defense lawyers, says motion
We’ve written before about “web bugs” — tracking devices consisting of an object embedded in a web page or e-mail, that unobtrusively (usually invisibly) reveal whether and how a user has accessed the content. Three jurisdictions (Alaska, New York and, most recently, Illinois) have issued opinions pointing to the ethics
Lie to the FTC? Don’t try it, warns agency blog post
Do lawyers need to be reminded not to lie to a federal agency?
As reported earlier this week on Law 360, the staff of the Federal Trade Commission has issued a wake-up call to lawyers who practice before the agency, warning them that intentionally misleading the Commission could lead to “public reprimands, sanctions and even
Arrest threat draws suspension for NY lawyer
A New York lawyer representing a landlord was suspended earlier this month for conduct that included threatening a tenant with arrest and telling him that he was worthless and should commit suicide.
In its opinion, the court found that the lawyer violated Rule 3.4(e) of the state’s Rules of Professional Conduct, which bars threatening
Employee’s theft leads to discipline for former OH judge
A former part-time Ohio judge and bankruptcy trustee whose bookkeeper was convicted of stealing funds from his trust account was publicly reprimanded last week for failing to reconcile his trust account monthly and failing to adequately supervise his staff. The court’s opinion spotlights the potential legal ethics problems that dishonest non-lawyer staff can create. Below
Ohio considers rule change to allow practice while lawyers wait to “waive in”
Although I love my home state of Ohio, I have to acknowledge that we are not often in the avant-garde when it comes to legal ethics. After all, Ohio was one of the last jurisdictions in the Union to adopt the Model Rules of Professional Conduct (2007). But last week, the Ohio Supreme Court put
Prosecutor’s conflict DQ’s entire office, says WA appeals court
A Washington appellate court recently disqualified a county prosecutor’s entire office from participating in the re-trial of a murder case. The chief prosecutor had previously represented the defendant while in private practice. The case shines a light on government lawyers and imputed conflicts of interest.
Election win spells DQ
The county prosecuting attorney, Garth Dano,
Congressman’s tweet about Michael Cohen draws FL disciplinary review
Do we ever take off our “lawyer hats”?
The question has been in the news because of a tweet by Rep. Matt Gaetz, who represents Florida’s first congressional district and is a member of the Florida bar. Pictured at the right, the tweet was directed at Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former attorney, the night before
Law firm’s “block billing” helped obscure overcharges, plaintiffs allege in TX federal suit
Five businesses filed suit earlier this month in a Texas federal district court against Morrison & Foerster, a 1,000+-lawyer mega-firm headquartered in San Francisco. The case is unremarkable in most ways: on the one hand, former clients who assert wrongdoing in how the law firm handled their matters (including billing improprieties) and a less–than-desirable outcome