Information Filled Under 'LPO Models' Category
Allegations that Winnipeg Judge’s Sexual Photographs Created a Reasonable Apprehension of Bias Wednesday, September 8th, 2010
The Winnipeg Free Press reported today ( Here ) that a new complaint has been filed against Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench Justice Lori Douglas at the Canadian Judicial Council. Lori Douglas is the judge whose photographs were posted by her husband on the internet, and used by the husband to solicit sex from a client.
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Allegations that Winnipeg Judge’s Sexual Photographs Created a Reasonable Apprehension of Bias
We've seen a lot of interesting scholarship on this theme, including from Andy Perlman and this article I posted about last week.
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More scholarship on lawyers and judges not knowing what’s really motivating them (Cassandra Robertson; Moses Shayo & Asaf Zussman)
Attached is a new case, Favila v. Katten Muchin , published by the Second District Court of Appeal. Although the facts are dense, it addresses a number of issues critical to professional liabilities of corporate lawyers, so it’s worth reading.
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Important new California case on non-clients suing transactional lawyers for fraud (and much, much more): Favila v. Katten Muchin
Brian Leiter describes a remarkable attempt by an aspiring law professor to sabotage a competing applicant's job talk at a major law school. The perpetrator allegedly sent the competing applicant an email under a pseudonym, which falsely suggested that the Law School where the competing applicant was giving a job talk thought poorly of the applicant's scholarship. Apparently, the email was designed to throw off the applicant so that the applicant would do poorly during the interview.
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An Aspiring Law Professor’s Violation of Rule 8.4(c)?
Strange story here , out of Florida. (h/t: our commenter Judith) A lawyer sued the Church of Scientology and part of the settlement was an agreement, approved by the court, not to represent anyone against Scientology again. (How is that ethical?) Now the same lawyer has been ordered to keep suing and not to sue Scientology.
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When one judge says "you must," and another says "you must not"
John Flood has thoughts about the UK, and Vivia Chen reports the statistics on non-equity partners and gender. Isn't it possible that the stats Chen reports can be viewed as half-full or half-empty? If there are more women in the non-equity status, does that reflect increasing efforts to retain skilled women lawyers who choose to divide their waking hours between work and family in particular ways?
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Diversity in the US and UK
From an unpublished California Court of Appeal opinion, Robbins v. Taylor : It is a rare case in which the person who allegedly engaged in complicated machinations to disguise his true ownership of a corporation — purportedly in an effort to deceive those who had business dealings with his prior company and might wish to assert claims against the new entity — comes out looking like the honorable one
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Opening paragraphs you wouldn’t want written about yourself
From Texas Lawyer (ALM) : The Texas Department of Insurance wants insurers to notify insureds when a settlement is made. The fear is that lawyers are increasingly stealing the settlements and the insureds never even know the payment had been made. Tennessee adopts a pro bono emeritus program , whereby, if I am reading it correctly, lawyers from other jurisdictions can do some pro bono work in Tennessee under the supervision of Tennessee lawyers
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Legal ethics news (September 5, 2010)
Op-ed writing has some significant disadvantages. Unlike academic writing, it doesn't allow time for rumination and rethinking ideas to get the expression of them right. And unlike blogging it doesn't have the conversational aspect which allows one to restate or revise one's thinking/ideas through discussions with others.
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More reflections on sex, lawyers, judges and race…
(h/t: Prawfsblawg ) Gonzaga University School of Law seeks applications for the newly established Donald Curran and VaLena Scarpellli Curran Professor of Legal Ethics. The purpose of this chair is to advance teaching and scholarship in the areas of ethics and professionalism. The chair holder will be expected to fulfill the normal responsibilities of a faculty member and to be a leader in the area of professional development. For example, the chair is expected to participate in seminars and projects with local, state, and national organizations, take an active interest in providing education to the bench and bar, and to publish regularly. Tenured faculty applicants with a proven publication record are preferred. The law school is strongly committed to diversifying its faculty and furthering Gonzaga’s mission as a Jesuit, Catholic and humanistic institution. Application is encouraged by December 3, 2010. To apply, send a resume and letter outlining relevant experience and teaching interests to Professor Cheryl Ann Beckett, Chair, Faculty Recruitment Committee, Gonzaga University School of Law, P.O.
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Gonzaga seeks to fill ethics chair
According to this story from Courthouse News , Navy lawyers may now disclose client conditions that may lead the client to harm himself or herself, thus aligning the Navy JAG rules with Model Rule 1.14. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the source documents to verify the change. From Huffington Post: Sean Segan comments on Kim Wright's book, Lawyer as Peacemakers , which looks at new, less adversarial modes of lawyering.
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Legal Ethics bits and pieces (September 3, 2010)
Article . Abstract: Improper use of new technology by jurors inside and outside the courtroom has become so pervasive that commentators have coined new phrases to describe it: “Google Mistrials,” the “Twitter Effect,” and “Internet-Tainted Jurors.” Yet, despite the attention garnered, few legal scholars, to date, have examined this area in-depth
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Thaddeus Hoffmeister, "Jurors in the Digital Age"
Announcement here . Key passages: The United States Department of Justice, Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), is seeking an experienced attorney for the position of Assistant Counsel in Washington, D.C. The Assistant Counsel investigates allegations of professional misconduct made against federal prosecutors and other Justice Department attorneys, formulates findings and conclusions, and drafts formal investigative reports to senior Department of Justice officials
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DOJ seeks experience lawyer for OPR position
Opinion here . Key passage: The Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel (OCDC) seeks to discipline the law license of Renae Lynn Ehler for multiple violations of the rules of professional conduct in her representation of a client in a dissolution proceeding and another client in an unrelated civil case
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In re Ehler (Missouri Supreme Court; disbarment)
In re Muscle Improvement . Key passages: Rule 3-310(E) applies principally to a lawyer's actual engagements for separate clients with possibly differing interests.
Seventh Circuit affirms dismissal of lawyer’s suit over disclosure of ethics investigation Thursday, September 2nd, 2010Opinion here . Key passages: The plaintiff, Mervin Wolfe, is a lawyer who in 2008 ran for State's Attorney of Cumberland County, Illinois, and lost. He brought this suit in federal district court against his opponent, Barry Schaefer (the incumbent State's Attorney), and others, under 42 U.S.C.
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Seventh Circuit affirms dismissal of lawyer’s suit over disclosure of ethics investigation
It now appears (see below) that the Law Society of Manitoba was aware of the incident with the client, but did not do anything, perhaps because the client had not brought a complaint? That may clear the law firm of my complaints about them (depending on how the Law Society became aware).
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More on the ethics scandal
Seven times lodestar is pretty sweet, but when it was part of an agreement between a sophisticated firm and a sophisticated client to share risks and benefits, it's not “unconscionable.” Opinion from the California Court of Appeal is here . (Note: in ABA jurisdictions, the fee must be ” reasonable .” In California, the fee cannot be ” unconscionable .” The list of factors the courts look at are essentially the same under the two approaches, and it's not clear to me how often, if ever, the difference in terminology really makes a difference.)
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Cotchett firm wins a big (but not unconscionable) fee from a sophisticated client
From Legal Malpractice Law Review : more on Black v. California Appellate Project, an unpublished California decision from earlier this summer applying basic malpractice principles — but against a public interest firm. From the Sun News (Myrtle Beach): a former government official suing for wrongful discharge now claims that the city and individual defendants cannot be represented by the same lawyers, because of the potential conflicts of interest
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Legal ethics round up (September 1, 2010)
CBC's The National is running a story tonight on an ethics case out of Winnipeg, Manitoba involving some fairly sordid facts (print story here ). A husband and wife were lawyers at one of – if not the – most prestigious firms in Winnipeg. They both practiced some family law.
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Our latest ethics scandal
[by John Steele] I've previously defended the “judge as ump/ref” analogy, in part because the job of the ref/ump is far from mechanical. Mitchell Berman has written an interesting paper about reffing at the end of game — specifically, on whether the rules should/do change at critical junctures. (h/t: Legal Theory Blog ) That aspect of reffing was one I had mentioned in one of my previous posts on the topic, because it demonstrates to me that you can't be a good ref without a theory of reffing.
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Judges and umps/refs; Mitchell Berman’s "‘Let ‘em Play’: A Study in Sports and Law"
A nunc pro tunc prospective client? In this disciplinary opinion , the Indiana Supreme Court conceded that the information that a woman shared with a lawyer had not been shared in the role of prospective client. Later, the woman asked the lawyer for a recommendation, the lawyer recommended a second lawyer in the same firm, and the woman hired that second lawyer.
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Nunc pro tunc prospective client?
Article by Michael Hatfield . (h/t to Tax Prof Blog , via Jack Marshall ) Abstract: This draft chapter’s objective is to raise interesting tax ethics issues in practical contexts. There are 43 notes and questions to prompt and guide discussions, and primary source materials to inform classroom discussions (e.g., cases, IRC provisions, and Circular 230 excerpts)
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Michael Hatfield, "The Ethics of Tax Lawyering: An Introduction"
Legal process outsourcing or LPO as its popularly called, is an emerging field in the offshore outsourcing industry. Especially in the wake of recession, the whole question about cost of legal services is coming under great scrutiny and outsourcing of legal processes is seen as a efficient way to reduce costs and maintain profit margins in a challenging economy
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Legal Process Outsourcing – 5 Things You Need To Consider!
Medical data entry outsourcing is one of the fastest emerging branch of offshore outsourcing. In fact, the medical & health care industry, after embracing the outsourcing model has witnesses a tremendous increase in the overall productivity and efficiency of processes.
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How Does Medical Data Entry Outsourcing Help Boost Your Productivity?
Overlawyered linked to an op-ed by Joel Cohen and Katherine Helm and an ALM news story discussing ties between the oil industry and judges on the Fifth Circuit — ties that were discussed in a report issued by the Alliance for Justice in the context of the litigation over the moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. We've had lots of discussions at this blog about criticizing lawyers and judges for their former clients, and for impugning the integrity of lawyers who represent unpopular clients.
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What should one say about Fifth Circuit judges’ ties to the oil industry?
From Lancaster Online , here's a news account of a study of whether donating to a judicial campaign appears to affect the rulng. (Mostly not, but perception issues remain.) From ALM , Judge Sharon Keller has asked that her “public warning” be rescinded. The Times of India carries this profile of Ashok Harnahalli, the advocate-general of Karnataka
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legal ethics items (August 2, 2010)