My Shingle

A Culture of Unethical Conduct

by Carolyn Elefant on January 22, 2006 · View Comments

in Ethics & Malpractice Issues

This article, Did Barnes Firm Lawyer Tell the Whole Truth?, Michael Beebe, 1/22/06 reports on somewhat deceptive advertising by Thomas Goldstein, a lawyer with Cellino and Barnes, who advertised that he was uniquely qualified to handle Vioxx cases in light of his status as a former physician.  Trouble was, the ads didn’t explain why Goldstein no longer practices medicine:  seems his license was revoked for providing misleading information about his medical training. 

Goldstein’s points out that his license wasn’t revoked for incompetence, but for a technicality.  If that’s the case, Goldstein should have simply disclosed in his ads that his license was revoked for administrative reasons.  By hiding this information, he’s only made his situation worse now.  Of course, considering the ethics history of the firm where he works, Goldstein doesn’t really have much in the way of role models.
(see also this earlier post).

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