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Full-Text Articles in Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility
The Specter Of Malpractice: When Law Firm General Counsel And Risk Management Professionals Are Confronted With Potential Malpractice Claims And Ethics Violations, Joseph R. Tiano Jr., Nancy B. Rapoport, William J. Siroky
The Specter Of Malpractice: When Law Firm General Counsel And Risk Management Professionals Are Confronted With Potential Malpractice Claims And Ethics Violations, Joseph R. Tiano Jr., Nancy B. Rapoport, William J. Siroky
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Every day, law firm general counsel and other law firm risk management professionals face a very practical, very vexing problem. The problem is what to do when hearing that a serious ethical mistake or impropriety may have occurred—but without any concrete confirmation that something problematic has, in fact, happened. This essay discusses the most important initial steps and questions that the firm’s general counsel or other risk management professional must address in this confounding situation where the “specter of malpractice” is present. We call this the “specter of malpractice” because a malpractice claim has not yet fully materialized (and it …
Training Law Students To Maintain Civility In Their Law Practices As A Way To Improve Public Discourse, Nancy B. Rapoport
Training Law Students To Maintain Civility In Their Law Practices As A Way To Improve Public Discourse, Nancy B. Rapoport
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Our current social discourse is broken. Not only have we resorted to name-calling instead of reasoned discussion, but we have also resorted to the fundamental attribution error: we attribute bad motives to people with whose positions we disagree rather than starting with the presumption that, perhaps, buried deep within their positions could be a grain of truth. As Yoni Appelbaum observed in a recent article in The Atlantic, "Recent research by political scientists at Vanderbilt University and other institutions has found both Republicans and Democrats distressingly willing to dehumanize members of the opposite party."' We need to find a …
Navigating Technology Competence In Transactional Practice, Lori D. Johnson
Navigating Technology Competence In Transactional Practice, Lori D. Johnson
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In 2012, the American Bar Association House of Delegates, based on the work of the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20, amended the Model Rules of Professional Conduct (Model Rules) to include a new requirement concerning lawyer competence. The obligation, enacted as Comment 8 to existing Model Rule 1.1 (outlining a lawyer's requisite competence) (Rule 1.1), requires lawyers "keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology." To date, Comment 8 to Rule 1.1 (Comment 8 or the Comment) has been adopted in thirty-eight states, and has begun generating scholarship and …
Legal Ethics And Law Reform Advocacy, Jeffrey W. Stempel
Legal Ethics And Law Reform Advocacy, Jeffrey W. Stempel
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Social activism, particularly law reform, has long been an accepted, even revered part of the lawyer's identity. However, modern developments such as nation-wide firms, the economic importance of client development, and aggressive attempts by clients to deploy attorneys as de facto, undisclosed lobbyists have put substantial pressure on the traditional vision of the attorney as a "lawyer-statesman" or someone who "checks clients at the door" when participating in law reform activities. Furthermore, law reform activism on behalf of one client (or prospective client when attorneys use their law reform lobbying as part of their marketing strategy) poses a real danger …
Using Data Analytics To Predict An Individual Lawyer's Legal Malpractice Risk Profile: Becoming An Lpl "Precog", Nancy B. Rapoport, Joseph R. Tiano Jr.
Using Data Analytics To Predict An Individual Lawyer's Legal Malpractice Risk Profile: Becoming An Lpl "Precog", Nancy B. Rapoport, Joseph R. Tiano Jr.
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The power of data analytics is revolutionizing the way that business is conducted in nearly every industry. The medical industry, the consumer/retail space, and the banking and financial industries are taking their business operations to the next level by leveraging the power of big data. Despite radical transformations in nearly every other aspect of the legal industry, though, the approach to preventing, predicting, assessing, and resolving malpractice claims hasn't really changed. Malpractice insurers and their law firm clients continue to take an old-fashioned approach when it comes to legal professional liability. Unlike the insurers pricing automobile policies, the vast opportunity …
In Re: Discipline Of James Colin, 135 Nev. Adv. Op. 43 (Sep. 19, 2019), Jose Tafoya
In Re: Discipline Of James Colin, 135 Nev. Adv. Op. 43 (Sep. 19, 2019), Jose Tafoya
Nevada Supreme Court Summaries
The court found James Colin made statements he knew were false or with reckless disregard as to their truth or falsity concerning the qualifications or integrity of a judge. Colin also engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice. The court suspended him for six months and one day.
Leveraging Legal Analytics And Spend Data As A Law Firm Self-Governance Tool, Nancy B. Rapoport, Joseph R. Tiano Jr.
Leveraging Legal Analytics And Spend Data As A Law Firm Self-Governance Tool, Nancy B. Rapoport, Joseph R. Tiano Jr.
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This paper discusses the advantages that law firms can get by using legal analytics (big data) to analyze how they do their work for their clients (and how their clients can benefit as well). We discuss the external forces that are reshaping the economics of today’s legal industry; the types of decisions, in determining how best to represent a client in a given matter, that tend to drive up costs; the possible reasons for those decisions; how law firms can use data-analytics tools to examine their own choices; and the benefits that stem from a data-driven analysis of those choices.
Legal Analytics, Social Science, And Legal Fees: Reimagining "Legal Spend" Decisions In An Evolving Industry, Nancy B. Rapoport, Joseph R. Tiano Jr.
Legal Analytics, Social Science, And Legal Fees: Reimagining "Legal Spend" Decisions In An Evolving Industry, Nancy B. Rapoport, Joseph R. Tiano Jr.
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This article discusses how legal analytics can help law firms and clients understand, monitor, and improve the components that comprise bills for legal fees and expenses.
Big Law, Public Defender-Style: Aggregating Resources To Ensure Uniform Quality Of Representation, M. Eve Hanan
Big Law, Public Defender-Style: Aggregating Resources To Ensure Uniform Quality Of Representation, M. Eve Hanan
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Stories abound of public defenders who, overwhelmed with high caseloads, allow defendants to languish in pre-trial detention and guilty pleas to be entered without examining the merits of the case. Most defendants cannot afford to hire an attorney, and, thus, have no choice other than to accept the public counsel appointed by the court. In this Essay, I consider whether Professor Benjamin Edwards' central argument in The Professional Prospectus: A Call for Effective Professional Disclosure '-that attorneys should provide potential clients with a prospectus disclosing their performance history-applies to criminal defense. I reject the proposition that most people charged with …
New Horizon Kids Quest Iii, Inc., V. The Eighth Judicial District Court Of The State Of Nevada, 133 Nev., Adv. Op. 409 (Apr. 6, 2017), Andrew Clark
Nevada Supreme Court Summaries
Under the Nev. Rule of Professional Conduct 1.9(b), an attorney whose former firm represented a now adverse client, may be disqualified only when the attorney actually obtained confidential, adverse information while employed by the former firm.
Summary Of Greenberg Traurig, Llp V. Frias Holding Company, 130 Nev. Adv. Op. 67, Tom Stewart
Summary Of Greenberg Traurig, Llp V. Frias Holding Company, 130 Nev. Adv. Op. 67, Tom Stewart
Nevada Supreme Court Summaries
The Court adopted an exception to the common law litigation privilege for legal malpractice and professional negligence actions. A client can pursue malpractice and professional negligence actions against an attorney, and support those actions with communications made in the course of litigation.
Behavioral Legal Ethics, Jean R. Sternlight, Jennifer K. Robbennolt
Behavioral Legal Ethics, Jean R. Sternlight, Jennifer K. Robbennolt
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Complaints about lawyers’ ethics are commonplace. While it is surely the case that some attorneys deliberately choose to engage in misconduct, psychological research suggests a more complex story. It is not only “bad apples” who are unethical. Instead, ethical lapses can occur more easily and less intentionally than we might imagine. In this paper, we examine the ethical “blind spots,” slippery slopes, and “ethical fading” that may lead good people to behave badly. We then explore specific aspects of legal practice that can present particularly difficult challenges for lawyers given the nature of behavioral ethics - complex and ambiguous ethical …
Third Party Payments To Criminal Defense Lawyers: Revisiting United States V. Hodge And Zweig, David Orentlicher
Third Party Payments To Criminal Defense Lawyers: Revisiting United States V. Hodge And Zweig, David Orentlicher
Scholarly Works
No abstract provided.
The Relevance Of Religion To A Lawyer's Work: Legal Ethics, Leslie C. Griffin
The Relevance Of Religion To A Lawyer's Work: Legal Ethics, Leslie C. Griffin
Scholarly Works
No abstract provided.