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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.

Inadvertent Disclosure: A Cautionary Tale Of A Speakerphone And A Voicemail Message , Grace M. Giesel

Grace M. Giesel

No abstract provided.

Exceptions, Lawrence Raful

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Aba, The Rules, And Professionalism: The Mechanics Of Self-Defeat And A Call For A Return To The Ethical, Moral, And Practical Approach Of The Canons, Benjamin H. Barton

Scholarly Works

In this Article I argue that there was once a single animating goal for American legal ethics - providing moral, ethical, and practical guidance on practicing law. Throughout the 20th Century lawyer regulators worked to bisect that goal, and we now have two quite distinct, and frequently conflicting goals. On the one hand, bar regulators pushed ceaselessly to narrow the regulations governing lawyer conduct to black-letter minimum, and eliminated the broadly moral from the Rules. On the other hand, bar regulators sought to raise lawyers' ethical and moral standards through professionalism and other non-mandatory efforts.

These bisected goals clash in …

Learning From Practice: What Adr Needs From A Theory Of Justice, Kate Kruse

Faculty Scholarship

Adding to the impressive body of work that has made her a leading voice in the fields of both alternative dispute resolution and professional responsibility, Carrie Menkel-Meadow's Saltman Lecture connects the theoretical exploration currently occurring on two parallel tracks: (1) theories of justice that investigate the ideal of a deliberative democracy; and (2) theories of alternative dispute resolution arising from its reflective practice. As she notes, theorists on both tracks are grappling with similar questions about the processes or conditions that will best bring together parties with widely divergent viewpoints to consensus-building dialogue around contested issues.

While Menkel-Meadow focuses on …

Protecting The Interests Of Older Clients In Multi-Generation Representations, Carolyn L. Dessin

Akron Law Faculty Publications

Estate planning is a field in which attorneys often represent members of the same family of different generations. This frequently leads to situations in which the family members have conflicting, or at least potentially conflicting, financial interests. Unfortunately, attorneys sometimes do not recognize the difficulties that such conflicting interests may cause until a full-blown fight develops between members of the family. At that point, the attorney may find himself open to a disciplinary complaint or a malpractice action, or, at the very least, a group of unhappy former clients.

Special concerns arise when one or more of the family members …

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, Debra Curtis, Billie Jo Kaufman

Faculty Scholarship

This article is intended to serve as a commentary and analysis of a public-eye view of disciplinary actions taken against licensed attorneys in the State of Florida during the past 15 years. The idea for this statistical review arose in 2002, prompted by discussions regarding self-regulation of various professions following the many corporate scandals then playing out in the headlines. Through these discussions, Professors Curtis and Kaufman developed the idea of looking at empirical data--from the Florida Bar to determine how the disciplinary system treated Florida lawyers.

Commitment And Responsibility: Modeling And Teaching Professionalism Pervasively, Marjorie A. Silver

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Protecting The Interests Of Older Clients In Multi-Generation Representations, Carolyn L. Dessin

Carolyn L. Dessin

Estate planning is a field in which attorneys often represent members of the same family of different generations. This frequently leads to situations in which the family members have conflicting, or at least potentially conflicting, financial interests. Unfortunately, attorneys sometimes do not recognize the difficulties that such conflicting interests may cause until a full-blown fight develops between members of the family. At that point, the attorney may find himself open to a disciplinary complaint or a malpractice action, or, at the very least, a group of unhappy former clients.

Special concerns arise when one or more of the family members …

Rethinking Attorney Liens: Why Washington Attorneys Are Forced Into "Involuntary" Pro Bono, Zach Elsner

Seattle University Law Review

After a brief discussion of the history of the attorney lien in Part II, Part III discusses the basic rules governing the attorney lien in Washington. Part IV of this Comment discusses the various limitations on attorney liens and how those limitations have discouraged use or encouraged misuse of the statute. Part IV begins with a discussion of general professional responsibility concerns and continues with withdrawal and termination as they relate to attorney liens. Part IV concludes the Comment with a discussion of the inconsistencies of the retaining lien and a discussion of the various limitations on the charging liens.

Popular Culture As A Lens On Legal Professionalism, Alex Scherr, Hillary Farber

Scholarly Works

Why use art to teach lawyering?' Despite divergences in method and intention, the two disciplines overlap. If the prevalence of lawyers in movies, television, literature, and even humor means anything, popular culture remains fascinated with lawyers. Our practices, our ethics, and our professional personae serve as a mine for image and narrative, a target for cultural critique, and a catalyst for expression. Not surprisingly, images of lawyers in cartoons, film, television, and literature offer unique opportunities to teach and explore professionalism. The proliferation of lawyer images in popular culture provides an array of material ranging from career choice to particular …

Enron, Titanic, And The Perfect Storm, Nancy B. Rapoport

Scholarly Works

In this article, I explore the contention of Jeffrey Skilling, former Enron CEO, that Enron's debacle was due to a perfect storm of events. I reject his contention, arguing instead that Enron's downfall was more like Titanic's - hubris and an over-reliance on checks and balances led to Enron's downfall. I then explore how character (especially of those at the top of an organization) can lead to Enron-like disasters, and I talk about how cognitive dissonance can lead to very smart people making very stupid decisions. I end with some musings about how lawyers can learn from Enron.

Learning From Practice: What Adr Needs From A Theory Of Justice, Katherine R. Kruse

Scholarly Works

Adding to the impressive body of work that has made her a leading voice in the fields of both alternative dispute resolution and professional responsibility, Carrie Menkel-Meadow's Saltman Lecture connects the theoretical exploration currently occurring on two parallel tracks: (1) theories of justice that investigate the ideal of a deliberative democracy; and (2) theories of alternative dispute resolution arising from its reflective practice. As she notes, theorists on both tracks are grappling with similar questions about the processes or conditions that will best bring together parties with widely divergent viewpoints to engage in consensus-building dialogue around contested issues.

However, while …

Lawyers Should Be Lawyers, But What Does That Mean?: A Response To Aiken & Wizner And Smith, Katherine R. Kruse

Scholarly Works

Lawyers should be more like social workers. That is the message of Law as Social Work, the provocative essay by Jane Aiken and Stephen Wizner (Aiken & Wizner) in the Washington University Journal of Law & Policy volume, which preceded the conference on Promoting Justice Through Interdisciplinary Teaching, Practice, and Scholarship, hosted by Washington University School of Law in March 2003. Almost as if in reply, Abbe Smith's contribution to the same pre-conference volume reasserts the importance of lawyers as zealous and partisan advocates, using the realities of the criminal defense context to argue for the value of the lawyer's …

Legal Malpractice In Texas: Examining Selected Cases And Forecasting Future Trrends Third Annual Symposium On Legal Malpractice & Professional Responsibility: Symposium Presentations., Wallace B. Jefferson

St. Mary's Law Journal

Little hard data exists concerning legal malpractice in Texas. What’s more, few legal law malpractice rulings are published. To date, there are only fifty written opinions on legal malpractice from Texas intermediate appellate courts. The activity that most often gave rise to a claim of legal malpractice involved the preparation, filing, and transmittal of documents, accounting for about a quarter of all claims. In San Antonio, Chief Justice Alma Lopez of the Fourth District Court of Appeals discussed common issues she sees in her courtroom. The issues ranged from failures to follow simple court rules to more substantial failures of …

Stress, Burnout, Vicarious Trauma, And Other Emotional Realities In The Lawyer/Client Relationship (Symposium: Lawyering And Its Discontents: Reclaiming Meaning In The Practice Of Law), Marjorie A. Silver, Sanford Portnoy, Jean Koh Peters

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.