Law Commons^™

Protecting The Guild Or Protecting The Public? Bar Exams And The Diploma Privilege, Milan Markovic

Faculty Scholarship

The bar examination has long loomed over legal education. Although many states formerly admitted law school graduates into legal practice via the diploma privilege, Wisconsin is the only state that recognizes the privilege today. The bar examination is so central to the attorney admissions process that all but a handful of jurisdictions required it amidst a pandemic that turned bar exam administration into a life-or-death matter.

This Article analyzes the diploma privilege from a historical and empirical perspective. Whereas courts and regulators maintain that bar examinations screen out incompetent practitioners, the legal profession formerly placed little emphasis on bar examinations …

Aba Model Rule 8.4(G), Discriminatory Speech, And The First Amendment, Bruce A. Green, Rebecca Roiphe

Hofstra Law Review

The article focuses on American Bar Association (ABA) adopted Model Rule of Professional Conduct 8.4(g), for incivility might be used as a disciplinary standard to restrict lawyers' constitutionally protected speech. It mentions rule targets unlawful behavior including racial discrimination and sexual harassment, as well as some bad conduct that may otherwise be lawful and that might be hard to reach under existing rules, but that plainly should be sanctioned.

Sexual Misconduct By Louisiana Lawyers, N. Gregory Smith

Louisiana Law Review

The article discusses how the Louisiana Supreme Court is disciplining state lawyers due to sexual misconduct and the implementation of the American Bar Association's (ABA) Model Rules of Professional Conduct rule 1.8(j) to Louisiana lawyers.

Keeping Lawyers' Houses Clean: Global Innovations To Advance Public Protection And The Integrity Of The Legal Profession, Susan Saab Fortney

Faculty Scholarship

Around the globe regulators are rethinking the scope of their mandates and responsibilities. They are assuming more expansive roles rather than limiting their efforts to disciplining lawyers after misconduct occurs. This Article examines such regulatory initiatives in three areas. First, it discusses developments related to proactive management-based programs in which regulators partner with lawyers who self-assess their firms’ management systems. Data reveal that such assessments help lawyers avoid problems through developing their firms’ ethical infrastructure. When misconduct occurs, injured persons often seek monetary redress. These persons may not be able to obtain recovery unless they have suffered substantial damages to …

The Codification Of Professionalism: Can You Sanction Lawyers Into Being Nice?, Debra Moss Curtis

Debra Moss Curtis

On October 31, 2013, the Florida Supreme Court in The Florida Bar v. Norkin made it clear that “it wants the trend of escalating incivility among lawyers to stop.” With that decision, in which a lawyer was suspended and publicly reprimanded for his behavior, the court urged “Members of the Florida Bar, law professors, and law students should study” this case “as a glaring example of unprofessional behavior.” This article heeds the courts’ directive to do so, but also places it in the context of the movement to enhance professionalism statewide.At the heart of the professionalism movement is a conflict—between …

Rehabilitating Lawyers: Perceptions Of Deviance And Its Cures In The Lawyer Reinstatement Process, Bruce A. Green, Jane Moriarty

Jane Campbell Moriarty

State courts’ approach to lawyer admissions and discipline has not changed fundamentally in the past century. Courts still place faith in the idea that “moral character” is a stable trait that reliably predicts whether an individual will be honest in any given situation. Although research in neuroscience, cognitive science, psychiatry, research psychology, and behavioral economics (collectively “cognitive and social science”) has influenced prevailing concepts of personality and trustworthiness, courts to date have not considered whether they might change or refine their approach to “moral character” in light of scientific insights. This Article examines whether courts should reevaluate how they decide …

Domestically Violent Attorneys: Resuscitating And Transforming A Dusty, Old Punitive Approach To Attorney Discipline Into A Viable Prescription For Rehabilitation, Ignascio G. Camarena Ii

Golden Gate University Law Review

This Comment will discuss (1) the prevalence of domestic violence in America, (2) the governmental responses to domestic violence, and (3) preserving the integrity of the legal profession. This Comment will then focus on how disciplinary courts have treated domestically violent attorneys. Part III examines the murky judicial approach to disciplining domestically violent attorneys, and Part IV criticizes that approach. Finally, Part V sets forth a proposal to cure the ill effects of the current approach, by injecting a greater degree of uniformity, ease, predictability and certainty into the disciplinary process.

On Pitbulls, Piranhas & Other Creatures: Why Attorney Advertising Makes Us Gnash Our Teeth And Wring Our Hands And What Can Be Done About It, Victoria V. Kremski

Victoria V. Kremski

This article argues that certain objectionable attorney advertising is a professionalism issue and that the rules of professional conduct do not readily address objectionable attorney advertising. Actual cases of attorney discipline are used to illustrate the premise that the rule of professional conduct prohibiting false, fraudulent and misleading advertisements is not an effective tool for addressing rude and objectionable attorney advertising. An exploration is also made into the question of whether prosecuting attorneys for advertising violations has an unintentional, de facto, discriminatory consequence. Educational and preventative alternatives are discussed as a partial solution for addressing objectionable attorney advertising.

A Public View Of Attorney Discipline In Florida: Statistics, Commentary, And Analysis Of Disciplinary Actions Against Licensed Attorneys In The State Of Florida From 1988-2002

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

A review of Florida Bar discipline from documents available to the public from 1988-2002.

Are Women More Ethical Lawyers – An Empirical Study, Patricia W. Moore, Kevin M. Simmons

Faculty Articles

We first noticed a possible "gender gap" in attorney discipline when we ran across the Oklahoma Disciplinary Commission's annual report for the year 2000. Women currently constitute 27% of Oklahoma attorneys, but 0% of the disciplined attorneys—none of the seventeen named—were women. Wondering whether the Oklahoma figures were aberrational, we attempted to locate research concerning gender and attorney discipline. But there have been few such studies, although “[p]robably no issue in the social sciences receives more attention than the difference between men and women.”

We thus embarked upon a national study of disciplinary actions decided in 2000. After collecting, coding, …

Attorneys: The Americans With Disabilities Act Should Not Impair The Regulation Of The Legal Profession Where Mental Health Is An Issue, Kelly R. Becton

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Attorneys: The Hypocrisy Of The Anointed--The Refusal Of The Oklahoma Supreme Court To Extend Antidiscrimination Laws To Attorneys In Bar Disciplinary Hearings, Stephen M. Hines

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tending The Bar In Texas: Alcoholism As A Mitigating Factor In Attorney Discipline., Patricia Sue Heil

St. Mary's Law Journal

This Comment describes the nature and scope of alcoholism and chemical dependency in the legal profession. It reviews the current state of the law regarding alcoholism as a mitigating factor in attorney discipline. Addictive illnesses manifest themselves in ways which leave afflicted attorneys unable to practice law in accordance with professional rules of conduct. The majority of attorney-discipline cases involve alcoholism or chemical dependency. An attorney whose illness remains untreated will likely become the subject of grievance-committee investigations. For disciplinary cases involving alcoholism, a suggested analysis includes establishing a nexus between illness and misconduct. Additionally, it includes a causal connection …

Professional Responsibility—Lawyer Advertising—Restrictions Must Be Narrowly Drawn To Serve Substantial State Interest, James Gerard Schulze

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sec Disciplinary Proceedings Against Attorneys Under Rule 2 ( E ), Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note reassesses SEC authority to discipline attorneys under rule 2( e ). Part I explores the history of rule 2( e) proceedings against attorneys and the troublesome policy issues raised by the SEC's new approach to rule 2(e) enforcement. Part II examines the SEC's claim that general rulemaking provisions give it authority to discipline attorneys. The Note concludes that a proper construction of statutes and case law bars rule 2( e) proceedings against attorneys.

Professional Discipline Of Solicitors In England, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note begins with an examination of the disciplinary role of the Law Society, the solicitors' most important organization, and of the Society's attempt to prevent professional misconduct through regular financial audits and by providing advice to solicitors on questions of professional conduct and etiquette. It then describes the composition, function, and operation of the Disciplinary Tribunal, the statutorily created organization occupying the second level of the disciplinary system. Particular attention is directed toward recent statutory changes that provide for lay representation on the Tribunal. The Note concludes with a brief discussion of the appeals process and the procedures for …

The Florida Bar V. Thomson, 310 So. 2d 300 (Fla. 1975), Douglas A. Shropshire

Florida State University Law Review

Attorney Discipline- SUSPENDED LAWYER MAY TAKE EMPLOYMENT AS A LAW CLERK.

The Florida Bar V. Moriber, 314 So. 2d 145 (Fla. 1975), Carol Ann Turner

Florida State University Law Review

Attorney Discipline- ATTORNEY MAY BE PUNISHED FOR CHARGING EXCESSIVE FEE ABSENT AGGRAVATING CIRCUMSTANCES, FRAUD, OR DISHONESTY.

Self-Incrimination: Privilege, Immunity, And Comment In Bar Disciplinary Proceedings, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The questions of the extent of an attorney's right to claim the privilege against self-incrimination during bar disciplinary proceedings and of the consequences of the exercise of the privilege has created a sharp division of opinion. The privilege against self-incrimination necessarily involves a conflict between the public's interest in disclosure and the individual's interest in privacy and nondisclosure. However, the conflict is exacerbated when the individual claiming the privilege is entrusted with important public responsibilities.

Tonini V. State Bar Of California [Dissent], Jesse W. Carter

Jesse Carter Opinions

A three-year suspension was an appropriate sanction for "ambulance chasing" attorneys; the Rules of Professional Conduct prohibited the attorneys from engaging in unprofessional conduct in order to obtain legal employment.

Burns V. State Bar Of California [Dissent], Jesse W. Carter

Jesse Carter Opinions

An attorney was sanctioned for professional misconduct because he had appropriated for his own use funds belonging to his client and commingled those funds with his own.

Lowe V. State Bar Of California [Dissent], Jesse W. Carter

Jesse Carter Opinions

An attorney's discipline for failing to safeguard his client's trust fund account was reduced from disbarment to a suspension of two years because the punishment was not proportionate to the seriousness of the attorney's offense.

Roth V. State Bar [Dissent], Jesse W. Carter

Jesse Carter Opinions

An attorney who had been disbarred for committing grand theft was denied readmission to the bar because he was not remorseful about a previous ethical violation and because he had misinformed one his witnesses about the grand theft conviction.

Feinstein V. State Bar Of California [Dissent], Jesse W. Carter

Jesse Carter Opinions

A disbarred attorney who did not conclusively establish his rehabilitation and present good moral character was not reinstated to the practice of law.

Mcmahon V. State Bar Of California [Dissent], Jesse W. Carter

Jesse Carter Opinions

An attorney who misinformed a court about the existence of a will violated the disciplinary rules even if the dispositive provisions of the will were invalid because the will could have validly provided for the appointment of an executor.

Clark V. State Bar Of California [Dissent], Jesse W. Carter

Jesse Carter Opinions

Where attorney acted as guardian of incompetent person and sold the property, negligently retained the funds in an envelope in attorney's safe for over three years, and filed misleading accounts that led to investigation, discipline was merited.