2021

2021 was a whirlwind! Lawyers have had to be more flexible and resourceful than ever. It is the year that the ups and downs of the pandemic made it abundantly clear that this is more of a marathon than a sprint. While resilience can be invigorating, the challenges are ongoing. The stress of keeping up…

A Florida lawyer violated the ethics rules by texting his witness during a deposition, the Florida Supreme Court recently held.  The court imposed an even stiffer penalty than recommended.

Just the facts, ma’am  

In January 2020, the Florida Bar filed its Complaint against the lawyer for conduct during a telephone deposition in a worker’s…

Can violating a legal ethics rule qualify as an unfair trade practice under a state’s consumer protection statute?  A Florida district court recently said “Yes.” The question arose in motion practice over the admissibility of expert testimony in a timeshare-exit case.

And then there was one

A group of entities connected to Wyndham Vacation Resorts…

“Pervasive incivility” was part of a package of wrongdoing that resulted in disbarment for a D.C.-area lawyer last month.  The case sheds light on the potential, and very real, downsides when lawyers depart from professional conduct ideals.

Client authority lacking

The lawyer was admitted in Maryland and D.C., as well as Virginia, and his troubles…

Ethics authorities in New York and Georgia recently issued opposing opinions on whether lawyers can represent clients in navigating what Justice Clarence Thomas last month called the “half-in, half-out regime” related to both recreational and medical marijuana, “a contradictory and unstable state of affairs” that “conceals traps for the unwary.” The issue, which we have…

Two recent developments in states accounting for a hefty percentage of U.S. lawyers spotlight the profession’s move toward technology-based practice models that are untethered from physical offices.

In New York, the state senate last month unanimously passed a bill that would remove the requirement — dating to 1909 — that New York-licensed lawyers residing outside…

Remember your first days in law school, when you were introduced to a whole Black’s Law Dictionary-worth of exotic legalese?  Words like “estop,” “arguendo” and “gravamen”?  (If you’re like us, you’ve spent your post-school days learning how to avoid this jargon and write plain English; but we digress.)  Remember “escheatment”?  The term of course…

Law firms that want to include mandatory arbitration provisions in their client engagement agreements must explain to the client the benefits and disadvantages of arbitrating a prospective dispute, the New Jersey state supreme court held late last year — and merely providing a link to the arbitration rules doesn’t satisfy the requirement, the court said. …