This past week, Lent began. When I was a child, somebody shared with me their perception that it was basically a second opportunity at a New Year’s resolution, except that it covered only 40 days, rather than 365. As my friend noted, giving up things that are generally not good for you may be more an act of self-care than a manifestation of religious devotion.
By Heidi Weaver
“Scenic Route.” Do you ever see those signs on the side of the highway and think to yourself, “I wonder where that road goes? I wish I had time to take the off ramp and find out. How fun and exciting would that be?” Time being the ultimate luxury, I can count on very few fingers the times in my life when I have spontaneously changed course and taken the scenic route. Recently though I have discovered that it only takes a couple of minutes to incorporate “scenic routes” into my day and in so doing to add a lot of sensory enjoyment to my workaday life.
By Deborah Wolfe
Lawyers have always had a duty to be honest and truthful pursuant to general ethical principles, as well as the State Bar Act. The newest version of the Rules of Professional Conduct, effective November 1, 2018, provides more specific guidance to lawyers relative to this duty. Rules 1.2.1, 1.6, 3.4, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3,7.1 through 7.5, and 8.4 are all implicated in this duty, as well as Business & Professions Code (“B&P”) sections 6068(d), 6106, and 6128, among others. This discussion will focus on the B&P Code sections, violations of which constitute cause for disbarment or other State Bar sanction, including but not limited to suspension, fines, and re-taking the Professional Responsibility examination.
In The Lost Lawyer, a book first published in 1993, Anthony Kronman described an idealized figure, the lawyer statesman. Such an individual is “possessed of great practical wisdom and exceptional persuasive powers, devoted to the public good but keenly aware of the limitations of human beings and their political arrangements.” That is, the lawyer-statesman is distinguished from other lawyers by “extraordinary devotion” to the public good, and “wisdom in deliberating about it.” Although Kronman bemoaned that such an ideal had become increasingly rare, there were and are people who exemplify it.
In Hamilton, King George asks in song, “What Comes Next?” It is a question that leaders interested in the continuity and longevity of their organizations address. In our profession, the answer to that question will be shaped, at least in part, by who is entering it.
By Timothy Casey
This issue of Ethics in Brief covers an attorney’s duty of confidentiality and a commonly held misconception regarding a “public records” exception to the duty of confidentiality. The misconception may stem from a conflation of the ethical duty of confidentiality with the evidentiary rule about the attorney-client privilege. In sum, there is no public records exception to the duty of confidentiality, although information revealed in a public record may not be privileged.
Happy Valentine’s Day. Today is a holiday when people traditionally express their love through greetings, gifts, and, importantly, sharing their time together. When periodically thinking about that concept in terms of our legal community, several different things have come to mind. But one consistently pops up: Tom Homann dinners.
This article was originally published in the January/February 2022 issue of San Diego Lawyer Magazine.
This article was originally published in the January/February 2022 issue of San Diego Lawyer Magazine.
As we approach Super Bowl weekend, I am slowly coming to grips with the fact that this is another year when the Bills will not be the league champs. Growing up in Buffalo, I was around a lot of sports fans who had something akin to Charlie Brown’s “I got a rock” approach to their teams. Like San Diego, Buffalo has never won a championship in Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Hockey League, or the National Basketball Association. Perhaps fittingly, Buffalo’s NBA team left the city in 1978 to come to San Diego, before ultimately departing for Los Angeles. In fact, no city has gone more seasons without a championship than Buffalo. But that made me admire all the more the athletes that competed in my city. They had resilience.
