Corporate organization
charts increasingly include slots for departments with names like “risk management,” “claims handling,” and the like. When lawyers head or staff such departments, does the attorney-client privilege cover their communications with company management? Not necessarily, says a new opinion from the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Casey v. Unitek Global Services, Inc.
Sex discrimination
No matter how much empathy you feel for a client with financial woes, giving a litigation client money generally violates your state’s version of Model Rule 1.8(e). The rule provides that the only financial assistance you may give a client in connection with pending or contemplated litigation is: (1) to advance litigation expenses and
If you or your firm were ordered to pay a party’s legal fees as a “sanction” for professional misconduct, would your professional liability insurance cover that payment?
In a recent case, the district court for the Northern District of Illinois left a law firm high and dry, holding that the policy exclusion for sanctions meant
Here’s a reminder that when it comes to running a law business, the ethics rules limit the ability to restrict competition.
The Indiana Supreme Court recently issued a public reprimand to a lawyer who violated the state’s version of Model Rule 5.6(a), which bars employment agreements restricting a lawyer’s right to practice after termination.
Rule 1.2(c) of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct permits lawyers to enter into limited-scope engagements, in which you can agree with the client that you will be providing only certain designated legal services, and not the full scope of services that might ordinarily be expected in an engagement of that sort. The rule is
Failing to check whether the claim against your client might be covered by insurance can get you in hot water — or at least keep you there, preventing a speedy exit from a malpractice suit, as a Florida lawyer recently learned.
In Pharma Supply, Inc. v. Stein (PACER access ID required), the client alleged it
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
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
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
Everyone wants to avoid disputes with clients, and a good way to do that is with an engagement letter that lays out the agreed scope of your legal services. Disagreements over the intended parameters of the representation can be ugly — and they can land you in disciplinary trouble or lead to a malpractice claim.