Categories : Wellness
Harnessing Neutral Accountability to Improve Your Well-being
By Megan M. Moore, Attorney Career and Business Coach
Categories : Legal Ethics
Legal Ethics and Artificial Intelligence
By Timothy Casey
Modern artificial intelligence tools offer the promise of quick and efficient solutions to complex questions. General applications such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Bing A.I., Google’s Bard and law specific applications such as CaseText’s CoCounsel are based on advanced, deep-learning, language-based artificial intelligence. These applications use generative artificial intelligence that analyzes massive data sets to provide natural language responses to questions submitted by human users. While these tools may offer advantages over existing computer assisted research tools such as Lexis and Westlaw, there are unseen dangers as well.
Categories : Legal Ethics
The New “Snitch Rule” in California
By Irean Z. Swan
A couple of weeks ago, on June 22, 2023, the Supreme Court of California unanimously approved the new Rules of Professional Conduct rule 8.3, or better known as the “snitch rule.” Before June 22, 2023, California was the only state that did not adopt the “snitch rule” in the ABA Model Rule 8.3, or a version of this rule. The Court’s decision was based on one of two alternatives (they picked Alternative Two), which my colleague on the Legal Ethics Committee, Mallory H. Chase, discussed in this article.
Categories : Wellness
Fuel for Thought: How Energy Management Affects Your Engagement and Enjoyment
By Marta Manus
Now more than ever, our attention is pulled in a thousand different directions throughout the day, and it’s easy to mindlessly move through each day. We all have a finite level of energy. Think of your energy as a magnetic field that informs your perspective in every aspect of your life. It is the lens through which you view the world and your perspective and attitude. Understanding how your energy affects your engagement in life and how you show up is key to being more productive, increasing your overall wellbeing, and being more effective and engaged in your personal and professional life. You may not be in control of the external things that are going on in your life, but you can change the energy, or perspective, with which you experience these things. This is where your power lies. Your power lies in your ability to change the lens through which you experience life.
Categories : Legal Ethics
Useful Guidance from the ABA on Non-Lawyer Assistants
By David C. Carr
The Simpsons lawyer Lionel Hutz wisely observed that “the law books not only make the office look good, they are chock full of useful legal tidbits.”[1]
Categories : Legal Ethics
Not Enough Money
By Mitchell L. Lathrop
Howard Horror (“Howard”)1 was busily representing four very important clients in a lawsuit, Evers et al. v. Jones Company. The Evers case arose because Jones Company had the audacity to fire Howard’s clients for excessive talking while on the job and the unauthorized accessing of sensitive communications between the Jones Company CEO and its lead outside counsel, Josephine Smith. Howard’s clients had learned that Jones Company was in financial difficulty, but Howard was not worried because Jones Company had employment practices liability (EPL) insurance. Even his clients’ signing of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with Jones Company wasn’t cause for concern. After all, the information they gave Howard was extremely valuable for use in the Evers case.
Categories : Wellness
Imposter Syndrome or Systemic Racism at Work?
I am fascinated by the concept of imposter syndrome. I frequently do meditations on combating imposter syndrome and took an Insight Timer course on overcoming it. This concept was introduced in 1978 in an article titled “The Imposter Phenomenon in High Achieving Women: Dynamics and Therapeutic Intervention” by Pauline R. Clance and Suzanne A. Imes. Imposter syndrome refers to people who doubt their achievements, despite being accomplished. There is a real fear that they will be found out as a fraud and their achievements were based on luck and not hard work and skill.
Categories : Legal Ethics
Potential Pitfalls of Third-Party Financing Your Engagement
By Valerie Silverman Massey
Imagine this scenario: Attorney is retained by Financier to represent Party. Attorney’s client is Party, but Attorney also has a financial relationship with Financier (who may be funding the representation and/or also funding any settlement or judgment).
Categories : Wellness
STOP
By Heidi Weaver
Usually when I read an article or attend an event in the Wellness space, I come away with a to-do list of helpful action items that I have every intention of trying to implement in my busy life to improve my wellbeing. But we all know that adding stuff to your to-do list can be overwhelming, which can of course have a deleterious effect on your health and wellness.
Categories : Legal Ethics
Use of Purloined Privileged Documents Leads to Disqualification of Counsel
By Carole J. Buckner, Senior Counsel, Klinedinst PC