Law Commons^™

Large Law Firm Lateral Hire Conflicts Checking, James M. Fischer

James M. Fischer

Lateral lawyer movement between private law firms has become an accepted practice. More than one-half of the lawyers who became partners at AM LAW 100 firms began their professional careers at another firm. Yet, lateral lawyers carry potential risks to their new firms in the form of conflicts of interests that may prevent the firm from representing one of its existing clients. To identify and quantify this risk, firms require that laterals disclose information that enables the firm to conflicts check the lateral.

While conflicts checking of laterals is accepted practice by firms, it raises a question whether laterals in …

Good Persons, Good Lawyers, And Good Lawyering, James M. Fischer

James M. Fischer

Should lawyers be morally accountability for the legal assistance they provide clients to achieve lawful but immoral ends? Should lawyers be obligated as a matter of professional duty to counsel clients about the moral implications of achieving lawful objectives? These questions have provoked spirited discussion in the aftermath of the “Torture Memoranda” prepared by the Office of Legal Counsel and the recurrent financial irregularities this country has experienced over the past 25 years beginning with the Savings & Loan failures in the 1980s, the Enron and WorldCom bankruptcies at the beginning of this century, and the financial industry meltdown in …

How Should Lawyers Handle The Unintended Disclosure Of Possibly Privileged Information?, James M. Fischer

James M. Fischer

The inadvertently sent email that contains opposing counsel’s settlement strategy, the opposing party’s client opinion letter negligently included in a discovery response, and the opposing party’s work papers taken by a whistle blowing client all share a common theme – the materials were not intended to be disclosed by the opposing party to the recipient lawyer. Notwithstanding the similarities, case law, commentary, and ethics opinions have tended to treat the issues as separate. This separation has not, however, helped lawyers who are subjected to conflicting and inconsistent opinions as to how they should respond in situations when they have received …