Lawyers sometimes forget that, as the American Bar Association has noted, we cannot “take off the lawyer hat” to circumvent ethics rules. Likewise, lawyers are not any less susceptible to discipline for ethics violations just because their conduct takes place on social media instead of the courtroom. These are important rules to keep in
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
Whether to flee from areas experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks, or simply to take advantage of the opportunity to work far away from the office, lawyers may sometimes wish to work remotely from a jurisdiction other than the one where they are licensed. Though you may dream of “practicing” from a laptop in the distant California mountains,
If you’re admitted to handle a case PHV, mind your P’s and Q’s.
Translation: Pro hac vice admission to practice before a court outside the state where you’re licensed requires attention to a range of ethics duties, and running afoul of them can have bad consequences. Two recent cases spotlight some of the issues.
We’re
It’s cold outside, baby! At least it is here in northeast Ohio. If you live in the frozen north, you might be lucky enough to have a winter home in a more weather-friendly state where you spend part of your time. What if you want to do legal work from there while enjoying the sunshine
Has your mother-in-law ever asked you for legal help? Giving legal advice to family members can be challenging for lots of reasons — but it comes with the territory when you have a law license. A Colorado lawyer, however, recently got into disciplinary trouble for helping his Minnesota in-laws in a small collection matter. In a badly flawed decision, the Minnesota Supreme Court decided that he’d engaged in the unauthorized practice of law.
In a puzzling ruling handed down on May 25, a Florida district court judge ruled that the court lacked jurisdiction to address whether a Massachusetts lawyer who appeared on behalf of his defendant client at a Florida mediation was engaging in the unauthorized practice of law.
The client of a Colorado lawyer who filed an administrative appeal in North Dakota without being admitted there got a harsh result — the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled in Blume Construction v. State that the lawyer’s action was the unauthorized practice of law, and therefore that the client’s appeal was void.
Admission ticket required
With the goal of positioning his on-line legal forms company as a solution to America’s access-to-justice problem, Chas Rampenthal, General Counsel of LegalZoom, zoomed through my home state last week, with two speaking engagements. I caught his speech at a breakfast meeting at my home-town bar association, the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association (@clemetrobar).
A panacea
We’ve written before to remind in-house lawyers that even if you don’t sign pleadings or appear in court on behalf of your corporate employer, you are still practicing law when you give advice and participate in business transactions on your employer’s behalf. If you do so without being duly licensed, you are straying into unauthorized