Year: 2018

Categories : Legal Ethics

Potential and Actual Conflicts: Be Aware of the New Rules

On By sdcountybar

By Andrew Servais

It is no secret that on November 1, 2018, California lawyers will be subject to multiple new Rules of Professional Conduct, which, in most cases will be based on the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct.  A conversion table between the new and old California Rules of Professional Conduct can be found on the State Bar website at:  http://www.calbar.ca.gov/Portals/0/documents/rules/Cross-Reference-Chart-Rules-of-Professional-Conduct.pdf Read More

Categories : Wisdom

Asking Better Questions: Interviewing the Interviewer

On By sdcountybar

By Paula Gluzman

In today’s legal market, most entry-level lawyers switch employers within their first three years of practice, and most will likely change jobs several times during their career. As a result, new professionals will experience more job interviews in their careers, and thus will be provided with more opportunities to master the anticipated end-of-interview question: “Do you have any questions for me?” Read More

Categories : Law+TechTags :

Podcast: How Aggressive Should We Get in Pleadings?

On By alinares

Pleadings can often be overlooked but are an essential part of the trial process. In this report from On The Road at ABA Annual Meeting 2018, host Rocky Dhir talks to Michael Panter, Matthew Moeller, David Pardue, and Michael Weber about the purpose of pleadings and how to craft them successfully. They discuss how pleadings reflects a lawyer’s competency and professionality and why attorneys should aim for clean-cut pleadings. Read More

Categories : Legal Ethics Social Media & Marketing

A Quick Look at Attorney Advertising

On By sdcountybar

By Patrick Kearns 

A friend of mine, a California attorney, recently reached out to me regarding a newspaper advertisement he saw in a Southern California newspaper. My friend practices insurance defense and professional liability, primarily for medical providers and facilities. He was astounded by the advertisement which was a full, two-page fold-out identifying at the top, in large letters, the name of a particular hospital and asking whether “you or someone you love” had been a patient at the facility. Read More

Categories : Law+TechTags :

Windows 10 Helps Keep Your PC Free of Clutter

On By alinares

Running out of disk space is a common curse for any one of us. Cleaning out clutter is essential for removing unnecessary files that can take up valuable storage space. Recently, Microsoft introduced “Storage Sense” in Windows 10 – a built in service that automatically removes unnecessary and temporary files as well items in the recycle bin that are more than a month old. Read More

Categories : Legal Ethics Technology

AI and Real World Ethics

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Ethics and Technology on the Cutting Edge

By Edward McIntyre

Slowly — as though pushing through a parting cloud — some of us only now are beginning to realize that AI (artificial intelligence) is shaping, and likely will dominate, our lives and futures. Well beyond our expectations. Beyond our imaginations, even. Yet this is the precise environment that California Western School of Law’s Second Annual Legal Ethics Symposium sought to tackle — with the added dimension of its ethical implications. Read More

Categories : Law Practice Management

Bartering for Business

On By sdcountybar

From haircuts to paintings, how and what I bartered for my legal services

By Elizabeth Blust

In the opening scene of the movie“To Kill a Mockingbird” — and in a later scene in the book by Harper Lee — client Walter Cunningham brings a bag of hickory nuts to lawyer Atticus Finch as payment for the latter’s help with the former’s entailment. Now that I am a lawyer myself, I understand not only what entailment is (and why, as young Scout Finch commiserates with Mr. Cunningham later, “entailments are bad” and take “a long time sometimes”, Ch. 15), but also the value of accepting barter as a means of payment for legal services. Read More