Categories : Law Practice Management Legal Ethics
COVID-19: Here to Stay? Post-Pandemic Practice
If remote practice becomes a norm, management and supervision obligations may present difficult ethical issues.
Categories : Legal Ethics
Ethical Duties to Protect Electronically Stored Confidential Client Information From Disclosure to Third Parties
The American Bar Association reported in October 2019 that 26% of law firms had experienced security breaches.
Categories : Legal Ethics
Even If You Screw Up, All’s Not Lost
Some lawyers face State Bar discipline because of deliberate misconduct; others, because stupid misconduct put them there.
Categories : Legal Ethics
Ethics in a World Upside Down: Pandemic Changes Everything
"The pandemic forced many of us to do telemedicine for reasons other than emergency care. We also have patient privacy and confidentiality obligations. We have to be just as cautious."
Categories : Legal Ethics
ABA Issues Opinion on Conflicts Providing Guidance as to “Materially Adverse Interests” Regarding Duties to Former Clients
Rules 1.9(a) and 1.18(c) address conflicts involving representing a current client with interests that are 'materially adverse' to the interests of a former client or prospective client on the same or a substantially related matter.
Categories : Legal Ethics
Family Ties That Bind
In this edition of the Ethics Column from San Diego Lawyer, attorney Macbeth guides us through the lawyer-witness rule.
Categories : Legal Ethics1 Comment
Your Client Doesn’t Decide Whether You Should Be Courteous
Next time a colleague asks you for a courtesy extension of some deadline, remember, the decision is most likely yours, not your client’s.
Categories : For New Attorneys Legal Ethics1 Comment
When is a Lawsuit Frivolous?
Every lawyer knows it is unethical to file a frivolous lawsuit. However, the answer to the question of whether a lawsuit – or a defense to one – is frivolous, is not always easy or obvious.
Categories : Legal Ethics
Can’t I Tell Them?
The attorney-client privilege deals with communication. By contrast, our confidentiality obligation covers all information acquired in relation to the representation. From whatever source. Even if it’s public.
Categories : Legal Ethics
An Alternative to State Bar Discipline: A Program to Salvage Careers
Lawyers commit misconduct—an obvious fact evidenced by the discipline cases the Office of Chief Trial Counsel reports annually and decisions of the State Bar Court and California Supreme Court. But misconduct does not always mean severe discipline: suspension or disbarment even.