Having a plentiful number of clients in a law firm is vital. To attract new clients, law firms must have a successful marketing plan. It is also crucial to make as many clients as possible happy to ensure they refer others to...more
New Jersey appears poised to become the next state to explicitly add a duty of technology competence to its professional code of ethics. Proposed revisions to the New Jersey Rules of Professional Conduct would, if adopted,...more
California courts are readying new standards for court interpreters with most changes focused on ethical behavior during remote and hybrid court proceedings. The proposed revisions to the Professional Standards and Ethics for...more
It is becoming increasingly difficult to practice law without some knowledge of climate change as well as the law related to climate change. Irma Russell, Matt Bogoshian, and I recently published an article making the case...more
This blog post is the third in a series on common ethical challenges that arise while preparing for and conducting depositions. Insurers and large corporate legal departments are sophisticated consumers of legal services, but...more
Summer is here and, for many lawyers, that means taking a well-deserved vacation and spending time with friends and family. However, any lawyer — particularly litigators who do not have complete control over their...more
Many attorneys have long and successful careers without ever having to practice law outside of the jurisdiction where they obtained their license. But for litigators and in-house counsel, the need to be conversant with the...more
By now most lawyers are familiar with the story of DoNotPay, the company that promised to provide a traffic offense defendant with a “robot lawyer” to fight the ticket in court. The plan went like this: The defendant would be...more
Congratulations, you won (or more likely settled) the case! Your last invoice has been paid, you have closed out the file, and after a handshake from your thankful client, you are ready to move on to your next matter. There...more
On August 8, 2023, the American Bar Association (“ABA”) House of Delegates voted overwhelmingly (216–102) to pass Revised Resolution 100 (the “Resolution”), which in turn revised ABA Model Rule of Professional Conduct 1.16...more
The American Bar Association has again called on law firms to do more to protect their computer systems from intrusion by bad actors. The ABA’s House of Delegates approved Aug. 8 a trio of resolutions addressing cybersecurity...more
In Formal Opinion 504, the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility sought to clarify ABA Model Rule 8.5’s choice-of-law provision. The Opinion provides an overview of Rule 8.5, and illustrates the...more
The COVID-19 pandemic, along with government stay-at-home orders, required millions of professionals to work from home, including attorneys. However, as the pandemic comes to an end, many attorneys wish to continue to work...more
The Ohio Board of Professional Conduct recently considered an interesting issue related to deposition practice: whether or not nonlawyers such as paralegals can ethically participate in pretrial depositions. The board decided...more
The duty of loyalty is the highest duty that a lawyer owes to a client. Indeed, it can be argued that all of the duties that an attorney owes to a client are derivative of the duty of loyalty. Not surprisingly, conflicts of...more
Referral fees, or fee sharing, among attorneys have become so commonplace that it may be easy to forget about the headache that they can cause to attorneys and clients alike. Our focus today is on the potential consequences...more
The American Bar Association (ABA) has issued its second formal opinion concerning Model Rule 4.2 in as many months. The so-called “no-contact rule” prohibits a lawyer from having contact with a represented party about the...more
We all know that there are Federal and State rules that govern how eDiscovery is conducted, but legal professionals need examples to illustrate how the rules should be applied, and what NOT to do. This webinar will use actual...more
American Bar Association (ABA) Model Rule 4.2, the “no-contact rule,” provides that: “In representing a client, a lawyer shall not communicate about the subject of the representation with a person the lawyer knows to be...more
To achieve modernization, the legal industry is operating off a new mindset requiring focus on efficiency and innovation when making operational decisions. Legal departments, law firms, legal service providers, and other...more
We recently wrote about ethical considerations that are present in every deposition. We saw that the ethical rules applicable to depositions are mainly concerned with ensuring the integrity of the judicial process —...more
EUROPEAN COMMISSION ADOPTED A PROPOSAL DIRECTIVE ON CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY DUE DILIGENCE - On 23 February 2022, the European Commission (EC) adopted a proposal for a directive on corporate sustainability due diligence...more
The #FreeBritney movement catapulted the ethical challenges of conservatorships into the public eye. Pop icon Britney Spears, whose father was appointed as her conservator in 2008, stands at the center of this cultural...more
American Bar Association Model Rule 2.1 and its state law equivalents recognize that in advising a client, a lawyer may take into account and refer to "moral, economic, social and political factors that may be relevant to the...more
The task of conducting due diligence in the selection of technology vendors is a critical component of the lawyer’s ethical obligation to maintain reasonable security over client confidential information. However, for several...more