This week’s not-to-be-missed article on lawyer folly is a jaw dropping round-up of bad billing conduct, as reported in the American Lawyer.
It’s well-known that every jurisdiction’s version of Model Rule 1.5 prohibits charging an unreasonable fee or an unreasonable amount for expenses. So what could lawyers have been thinking when they did things
As Willie Sutton supposedly said, he robbed banks “because that’s where the money is.” That also explains why law firms and lawyers are increasingly the targets of cyber-intrusion, particularly phishing scams. Apparently, phishing in legal waters can yield a full net of stolen information.
“Most likely” to take the bait
Verizon’s 2015 Data Breach
The ABA Ethics Committee last week issued an opinion aimed at giving guidance on a sometimes-puzzling question: what portions of the file does a lawyer have to provide to a client at the end of the matter — including a client who pulls the plug on the representation?
In Opinion 471, the Committee interpreted Model
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
Over at the Legal Profession Blog, Prof. Mike Frisch, of Georgetown Law Center, has posted a good list of ways to stay out of ethics trouble and avoid disciplinary complaints. Several of his points resonated with me — part of my work in “Ethics World” involves dealing with bar grievances filed against lawyers, and
Lawyers who leave a firm for greener pastures can present challenges, with the lawyer and the former firm each trying to position itself to take or keep clients.
While several states have ethics opinions with guidelines on managing the process, Virginia has now become the second jurisdiction in the country to add such guidelines to
Only one jurisdiction in the nation — Oregon — requires lawyers to carry legal malpractice insurance. But all the other states have varying requirements about malpractice insurance and disclosing whether or not you carry it. Knowing the rule in your jurisdiction is vital to staying out of ethics trouble.
Disclosure data
A helpful piece by
One of your ethical duties with respect to an Internet scam is to not fall for it, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York Committee on Professional Ethics has said in a new opinion.
Competent? Don’t fall for Nigerian check scam
The Committee considered the ethics rules that apply to
Some law firms or solos searching for efficiency and ways to trim overhead have considered arrangements with a “professional employer organization,” or PEO. A PEO, which some states permit by statute, is a separate company to which an organization allocates some or all of its human resources functions. The PEO sometimes acts as a co-employer
When you represent a business entity, do you also necessarily represent the shareholders? How about the owners? What if there are just two of them? Representing closely held entities can raise thorny ethics issues for business lawyers. Model Rule 1.13(a) says that when you represent an organization, your client is the entity. And when you