Law Commons^™

Am I A “Licensed Liar”?: An Exploration Into The Ethic Of Honesty In Lawyering . . . And A Reply Of “No!” To The Stranger In The La Fiesta Lounge, Josiah M. Daniel Iii

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

After hearing for the first time the lawyer-disparaging phrase, “licensed liar,” the author investigated its significance. This article presents the question of those two words’ meaning and explains how the author reached the conclusion that, as applied to attorneys, the phrase is an unmerited epithet. The phrase is known and utilized in nonlegal texts in fields such as fiction, poetry, literary criticism, and journalism, but the two words are absent from legal texts. The author’s discovery of the phrase in various criticisms of lawyers in other publications illuminates and confirms that the phrase constitutes the pejorative allegation that an attorney …

The Impact Of Technological Developments On The Rules Of Attorney Ethics Regarding Attorney–Client Privilege, Confidentiality, And Social Media, Pamela A. Bresnahan, Lucian T. Pera

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

This article focuses on the development of the law of ethics and technology. Emphasis is placed on how technological developments have affected the rules and means by which lawyers practice law and certain ethical pitfalls that have developed hand-in-hand with technological advancements. Topics examined include: (1) the ways by which electronic communication has increased the potential for the attorney–client privilege to be waived and the resulting impact on the present-day practice of law; (2) the effect of social media on lawyers’ ethical obligations, including counseling clients regarding the client’s use of social media and the lawyer’s own use of social …

Responding To Judicial And Lawyer Misconduct: Analyzing A Survey Of State Trial Court Judges, Peter M. Koelling

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

While reported cases or incidents may give us insight into the interpretation of Rule 2.15 of the Model Code of Judicial Conduct, they do not give us a sense of how often judges undertake the obligation to act under the rule. The Judicial Division of the American Bar Association developed a survey to explore the interpretation and the implementation of Rule 2.15 of the Model Code of Judicial Conduct, and to determine how and in what manner state trial court judges responded to ethical violations by lawyers and other judges. The survey looked back over a ten-year period and was …

Clearing The Smoke: The Ethics Of Multistate Legal Practice For Recreational Marijuana Dispensaries, Eric Mitchell Schumann

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

With many firms practicing in multiple states, a lawyer could represent a marijuana dispensary in a legalized state while practicing in a state, like Texas, which continues to criminalize the drug. This raises a question of whether Texas attorneys who make the bold attempt to assist a company that sells marijuana violate the rules of professional responsibility.

In Section II, this Comment examines the background of the criminalization of marijuana and looks into the movement to liberalize the laws surrounding it. Section III analyzes the rules of professional conduct in Texas and in Colorado to determine what a lawyer in …

Personal Jurisdiction In Legal Malpractice Litigation, Cassandra Burke Robertson

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

Lawyers are increasingly engaging in multi-jurisdictional practice—and their representation is increasingly giving rise to cross­-jurisdictional malpractice actions. Over the years, courts have issued divergent and contradictory opinions about whether out-of-state attorneys representing clients only on out-of-state matters can constitutionally be subject to personal jurisdiction in the client’s home state. The Supreme Court’s recent opinions in Daimler v. Bauman and Walden v. Fiore do little to settle this question and, in fact, may raise more questions than they answer. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court’s new personal jurisdiction jurisprudence offers an opportunity for courts to adopt a more cohesive analysis of personal jurisdiction …