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Mistakes/What NOT To Do

Don’t Tarnish Your Fresh Start With A Rotten Ending

September 11, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

Opening a law firm by choice or by circumstance offers a chance at a fresh start.  However, it’s all too easy to tarnish that bright, shiny new beginning with a nasty ending at your former position.   That is what appears to have happened with Jim Driscoll’s departure from St. Louis law firm Brown & Crouppen, [...]

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Why Does the Trade Press Focus on Biglaw Attorneys Turned Solo Who Don’t Succeed?

August 5, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

Not all lawyers who start their own firm experience wild success.  This month’s American Lawyer focuses on three who did not.  I don’t take issue with the story’s spin because I believe that it’s important to impress the challenges of starting a practice.  Too many of the new crop of opportunist start-a-firm gurus blithely gloss [...]

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Risking a Law License for $125 A Pop

July 21, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

File this story under “What were they thinking?”  That was my first reaction when I read this disciplinary decision, Cincinnati Bar Association v. Mullaney, in which three lawyers were sanctioned  for partnering up with Foreclosure Solutions, a non-lawyer company which referred the lawyers foreclosure cases (yes, that’s right – cases where folks were about to [...]

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The Lessons of Sotomayor and Associates

July 12, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant

Fittingly, it was a solo – Eric Turkewitz – who broke the story of Supreme Court nominee, Sonya_Sotomayor‘s foray into solo practice under the firm name, Sotomayor and Associates -impermissible name under New York ethics rules given that Sotomayor did not have any associates working for her firm.  The issue has created enough of a [...]

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If It Sounds Too Good To Be True….

June 9, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant

For Robyn Glassman-Katz, the gig with lemon law firm,  Kimmel and Silverman must have seemed like nirvana; an opportunity for a lawyer with limited consumer law experience to run a branch office of a nationally known law firm.  Likewise, Kimmel and Silverman must have believed that it hit the jackpot when it found Glassman-Katz, a [...]

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If It Sounds Suspicious, It Is Probably Unethical

May 3, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant

Imagine having your bar licenses suspended for two years over a measly $175.  Sadly, that’s what happened to this unfortunate Ohio attorney (Respondent) who accepted referrals from United Financial Systems Corporation (UFS), a national wealth management company.  As described in this grievance decision by the Supreme Court of Ohio, UFS representatives used non-lawyers to meet [...]

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How NOT to Handle a Mistake

April 27, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

It’s something that all of us practicing lawyers dread: we file a case, and it’s lost or somehow misplaced at the court, resulting in a missed statute of limitations. So if you find yourself in this situation, do you (a) try to appeal the dismissal of the case, arguing that the clerk erred; (b) ‘fess [...]

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How Not To Price

April 3, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

Over at Legal Blogwatch, I posted about a case of outrageous billing by Debra Opri, attorney to Larry Birkhead, who claims to be father to Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter. Exhorbitant charges included thousand dollar dinners where Birkhead wasn’t present, substantial cell phone roaming charges and even expenses for personal laundry. The 112 page invoice totaled [...]

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Not the Way to Win on Rehearing

March 12, 2006 by Carolyn Elefant

David Swanner posts this excerpt from a rehearing petition that’s likely to lose.  Read it and see if you can figure out why: Statement of Issue Presented for Review: The Court of Appeals committed a major error in affirming the dismissal. The Court did not address the facts of the case. The Court has a [...]

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Be the One Who Says Stop

February 19, 2006 by Carolyn Elefant

Did this lawyer really need to accuse a judge of extortion?  Did this young lawyer really need to express sarcasm and disrespect in an email turning down a job offer? And did this hiring attorney need to respond by forwarding her email (apparently without redacting her name) to third parties? Why don’t lawyers realize that [...]

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