Categories : Legal Ethics
How Not to Get Your Name “In Lights”
Briganti v. Chow was an otherwise unremarkable—indeed mundane—appeal of a trial court’s granting in part and overruling in part an anti-SLAPP motion in a defamation case.
Categories : Legal Ethics
Ethical Considerations Affecting Indemnity Provisions in Settlement Agreements
This article is intended to provide guidance to litigation counsel concerning the payment by a lawyer of costs or expenses incurred by or on behalf of a client that relates to the attorney’s representation of the client.
Categories : Legal Ethics
Some Discovery Sanctions are Now Reportable to the State Bar
The safe harbor from having to report to the State Bar any discovery sanction is now partially potentially gone.
Categories : Legal Ethics
Straightforward Works Best — in Several Respects
“Tell them the truth. You practice according to the Rules of Professional Conduct — because you have to. And because it’s good for the client, too, in the long run."
Categories : Legal Ethics
The Ethics of Flat Fee Agreements
How should a lawyer calculate the amount of the unearned fee due to the client where the fee agreement provides for a flat fee paid in advance and the lawyer does not complete all services required under the flat fee agreement?
Categories : Legal Ethics
Lawyers, Linedrawers and Gatekeepers
There are many fraught areas of legal ethics, but few that match the tension that is reflected in California Rule of Professional Conduct 1.2.1
Categories : Legal Ethics
Three Issues Raised by Opinion No. COPRAC 2019-200
What are a lawyer’s duties when the lawyer suspects, but does not know, a client’s witness who is expected to testify at a civil trial has testified falsely at deposition in the case, albeit favorably, for the lawyer’s client?
Categories : Legal Ethics
Duties Owed to Non-Client Insurance Carriers
Much has been written about the potential conflict of interest that attends an insurance carrier’s retention of an attorney to represent an insured.
Categories : Legal Ethics
Fee Sharing and Insurance Disclosure
In Hance v. Super Store Industries, 2020 WL 373070, (Jan. 23, 2020), the Court of Appeal for the Fifth District addressed two important ethics rules involving fee sharing and disclosure to the client regarding whether an attorney has legal malpractice insurance.
Categories : Legal Ethics
Profiles on Third-Party Websites
What are a lawyer’s ethical obligations regarding the lawyer’s profile on a professional third-party directory website?