In today’s soft legal services market, some aspiring members of the profession feel pressure to work for free, but the fairness of such arrangements in general has come under scrutiny. In a twist, the New York State Bar Association earlier this month said that law firms could bill clients for services provided by unpaid legal interns, as long as the amount is not excessive, and the internship program complies with applicable law.
“Don’t they have e-filing where you come from?” Tech-challenged lawyer dodges suspension
My spouse and I visited Chicago years ago, and confusedly started driving the wrong way down a one-way street. We were promptly pulled over by one of the Windy City’s finest. I gave him my best smile, and said, “Sorry, officer, we’re from out of town.” He grunted, “Don’t they have one-way streets where you come from?” But he didn’t give us a ticket. A recent disciplinary opinion out of Oklahoma, involving a tech-challenged bankruptcy lawyer, brings the story to mind.
No duty to raise claims unless “viable,” even if they are “colorable,” says court
A lawyer’s duty of care to a client does not include raising claims on the client’s behalf that are merely “colorable,” and not actually “viable,” the Oregon Supreme Court held last month. The court quoted with approval from an amicus brief from the state’s mandatory provider of malpractice insurance, which said that a “colorability” standard would only promote “scorched earth litigation,” and expose lawyers to “hindsight bias.”
Ticket to hell: Fla. judge resigns after taking Rays tix from law firm with pending case
A Florida judge resigned last week in the wake of a state judicial ethics investigation launched after he accepted baseball tickets from a law firm that was litigating a slip-and-fall case before him. The outcome for the judge seems like a foregone conclusion, but it also is a timely reminder for lawyers about the ethics rules governing their interactions with judges.
Documenting who you do — and don’t — represent is key to avoiding malpractice trap
We’ve blogged about this before, but if you need any more reasons to be sure that you document who your client is and is not, see the Oregon court of appeals opinion in Lahn v. Vaisbort.
“I represent only your brother”
In Lahn, the lawyer had represented the plaintiff, her brother and
Don’t bcc your client on e-mails to opposing counsel, NY state bar advises
What’s ethical may nonetheless not be a best practice — timely advice from the ethics committee of the New York State Bar Association, which weighed in recently with an ethics opinion on the practice of blind copying your client on e-mails you send to opposing counsel.
The inquiry to the NYSBA’s Committee on Professional Ethics
Avvo misappropriated identity for commercial use, says lawyer in class action
Lawyer-rating site Avvo is violating a state statute barring unauthorized use of “an individual’s identity for commercial purposes,” an Illinois lawyer has charged in a putative class-action complaint filed last week in the chancery division of Cook County Circuit Court.
Fee- based marketing plan
The gist of the complaint is that without any authorization or
60 Minutes segment shows ethics issues in client representation
The set-up: Potential client calls you on the phone. He says he is representing a government minister from a mineral-rich West African nation — he won’t say which one. But his (unnamed) principal needs legal help in order to move millions of dollars into the U.S. — consisting of what the representative candidly describes as
“Good … luck sweetie” letter, unauthorized practice, draw discipline complaint
Be aware of your jurisdiction’s limits on what a “retired” lawyer can and cannot do, and obey them — or risk being tagged for the unauthorized practice of law. And, oh yeah — communicate politely. That’s a dual lesson a lawyer in Illinois may be about to learn, according to a disciplinary complaint filed in
Lawyer tries advice-of-counsel defense in disciplinary case; didn’t disclose client’s death
Here’s an update on a case we reported on last year, where a lawyer agreed to a settlement on behalf of his plaintiff client — who happened to already be dead at the time. The court of appeals in the Illinois case, Robison v. Orthotic & Prosthetic Lab, (predictably) tossed out the settlement based