Daily Compliance News: July 11, 2025, The What is a COI Edition
Nonprofit Basics: Conflict of Interest Policies and Best Practices for Approving Insider Compensation
Nonprofit Basics: Insider Transactions and Nonprofits – What’s the Big Deal?
Conflicts of Interest in Healthcare and Elsewhere
Payment for Order Flow (PFOF) and Gamification: Your Questions Answered
Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 124: Listen and Learn -- Duty of Loyalty (Corporations)
Law School Toolbox Podcast Episode 282: Listen and Learn -- Duty of Loyalty (Corporations)
What to Do When Your University, FBI, or DOJ Knocks on Your Door: Responding to University, Criminal, and Civil Investigations
Videocast: Asset management regulation in 2020 videocast series – The ADV season
Videocast: Asset management regulation in 2020 videocast series – DOL: What’s ahead
Podcast: Credit Funds: Compliance Considerations for Valuation
CONVERGE18-Preview Podcasts-David Bunker on COIs in the Gig Economy
Podcast - Credit Funds: A Framework for Addressing and Mitigating Conflicts of Interest
Day 7 of One Month to Better Investigations and Report-How Investigations Inform Remediation
Day 15 of One Month to Better Compliance Through HR-Employment Separation Issues
Bill Beutler on Editing Wikipedia
Rules for rewarding 'super' condo board members
Bill on Bankruptcy: US Airways Need a Merger More than AMR
The landscape of legal practice has significantly changed due to the proliferation of third-party litigation funding, a financial mechanism that provides capital to plaintiffs, including patent owners, in exchange for an...more
The American Bar Association recently issued a Formal Ethics Opinion addressing the ethics of attorney office sharing arrangements. In Formal Opinion 507, issued on July 12, 2023, the ABA Standard Committee on Ethics and...more
Some conflicts of interest are easy to spot. Most lawyers recognize, for example, that a lawyer cannot act as an advocate in one case against a person the lawyer represents in another case, even if the matters are unrelated. ...more
You may not have heard the phrase before, but most likely you have encountered a “litigation terrorist” – an attorney who deliberately creates chaos in litigation. This is a growing trend in litigation and can manifest...more
Are you and your law firm running conflicts checks on your and your colleagues’ thought-leadership marketing content? Yes, really, I am talking about running conflicts checks on your and your colleagues’ blog posts, bylined...more
In some Ohio counties and municipalities, prosecutors and judges are permitted to serve in part-time roles. In such circumstances, the representation of clients in the part-time judge’s or part-time prosecutor’s private...more
There is a well-worn joke about a lawyer who runs into an old acquaintance on the street. “I’m so glad to see you!” the friend exclaims. “I’m in terrible trouble—can I ask you a couple of questions?” “Of course,” replies the...more
In a case of first impression in North Carolina, a judge for the North Carolina Business Court was recently asked to decide whether a single law firm may simultaneously represent both a corporation and its individual...more
Amidst a “bitter family dispute” over future control of a closely held oil company, can the same law firm represent the directors paving the way for their son to take the reins and the company that minority shareholders seek...more
“To err is human, to forgive, divine.” But how many of us have godlike clients? At some point in their careers, most lawyers will make a mistake, whether trivial or significant in terms of the representation or the outcome of...more
On February 11, 2021, the California Lawyers Association Ethics Committee (the Committee) issued Formal Opinion 2021-1, which identified the "Elements of Effective Ethical Screens" that comply with the California Rules of...more
The Supreme Judicial Court Standing Advisory Committee on the Rules of Professional Conduct has solicited comments on proposed amendments to the Rules that will have a broad impact on lawyers’ ethical obligations. The...more
The nature of tax practice presents a number of unique ethical issues. Tax practice requires compliance with multiple ethical frameworks. This creates ambiguities and raises complex questions. Courts have even questioned...more
These days, more employers than ever are purchasing Employment Practices Liability Insurance (“EPLI”) to cover them in the event they get sued for employment-related claims. (See our earlier posting on that topic: “A Handy...more
Engagement Agreements – Mandatory Fee Arbitration Provisions – Malpractice Arbitration Provisions - District of Columbia Ethics Opinion 376 - Risk Management Issue: What are the requirements to make agreements to arbitrate...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit concluded that a firm’s ongoing representation of the opposing parties’ indirect subsidiary and affiliate in three patent infringement appeals created a concurrent conflict of...more
Jarvis Properties is a limited partnership with two general partners. As fate would have it, the two general partners are brothers and each brother holds a 50% interest in the partnership. When one brother, James, sued for...more
Federal Circuit Summary - Before Lourie, O’Malley, Reyna. Appeals from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, and United States District Court for the...more
California overhauled its Rules of Professional Conduct effective November 1, 2018. This post highlights some impactful revisions for commercial litigators. However, all California lawyers should familiarize themselves with...more
The case of RehabCare Group East, Inc. v. Village Health Care Management, LLC demonstrates the importance of thorough and vigorous conflict of interest checks by attorneys to avoid representation overlap. This case...more
SkyBell Technologies, Inc. v. Ring, Inc., No. 18-cv-14 (C.D. Cal Sept. 18, 2018) - Brief Summary - Law Firm bid on the representation of the plaintiff, Sky Bell Technologies ("Plaintiff"), prior to the filing of...more
Chief Judge Saris in the District of Massachusetts recently granted a motion to disqualify the Sunstein law firm from representing Altova in a patent suit against Syncro Soft, upon finding that the conflict was foreseeable...more
• In Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, LLP v. J-M Manufacturing Company, Inc., the Supreme Court of California held that an attorney-client engagement agreement that is arguably tainted by an unwaived or inadequately...more
After coming under scrutiny by North Carolina Supreme Court officials, appearance-of-impropriety standards are no longer sufficient in determining when former clients may or may not disqualify counsel. As of last April,...more
On July 26, 2018, Chief Judge Patti B. Saris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts disqualified plaintiff’s counsel in the patent infringement case Altova GmbH v. Syncro Soft Srl, 17-cv-11642, finding...more