Every year, the Association of Corporate Counsel takes the temperature of inside counsel practice by surveying general counsel and chief legal officers across a wide number of sectors. Unsurprisingly, the 2015 survey, with nearly 1,300 respondents, put ethics and compliance at the top of the list of chief legal officer concerns, together with data
“Comprehensive” ethical screen fails to avoid disqualification from side-switching paralegal
Small may be beautiful, but when it comes to law firms, small can signal disqualification troubles that a bigger firm might sometimes be able to avoid, according to the reasoning of a recent opinion.
We’ve posted here before about screening non-lawyer personnel in order to avoid imputed disqualification when a secretary or paralegal arrives
“Appearance of impropriety” is now dead in Kentucky
Although almost every U.S. jurisdiction now has some version of the ABA’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct, some of us who have been around awhile remember the old Disciplinary Rules, which governed lawyer conduct under the former Model Code of Professional Responsibility. (Or maybe you remember the Disciplinary Rules because you practice in a state
Judge not DQ’d by appearance of former spouse’s former law partner
In the olden days, lawyers and judges were men, couples lived together only after a wedding, divorce was less common, and marriage equality was not on the radar. So there was little occasion to wonder about ethical conflicts of interest that might be raised by lawyers or judges being married to each other, cohabiting with
No disqualification, even where parent and subsidiary are unified, district court rules
Although a corporate parent and its subsidiary may be unified in structure, that may not be enough to disqualify a law firm that is involved in suing the subsidiary while representing the parent.
That’s the message the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York recently sent via its decision in HLP Properties
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
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
Screening paralegals may avoid conflict problem
Can a non-lawyer staff member who joins your firm bring with her a conflict of interest that may be imputed to your firm and disqualify you from representing your client? It can happen.
In this age of employment mobility, staff members may come to your firm after having worked for opposing counsel on cases (or