Ethics & Malpractice Issues

Reader Frank Kautz forwarded this great article, Small Firm Life:  Friendly Fire (Raymond Dowd New York Lawyer 11/4/05) which begins with this advice to lawyers:  “Quit worrying about your adversary coming after you; it’s your client you need to worry about.”  Sadly, that’s true.  Though there are some pretty bad lawyers (as we’ve just posted…

Apparently, for well-connected law firms in Connecticut, there’s a far more potent tool than pedestrian legal malpractice insurance for addressing legal malpractice claims: personal legislation.  As this opinion piece describes, a Sylvia Kuehl retained a prominent Connecticut law firm to represent her interests in a wrongful death action after her husband was killed in a…

This Press Release (PR Newswire 8/4/05) proudly proclaims that “for the first time in the history of bioethics, a major global law firm, (that would be Milbank, Tweed) makes its legal resources available, pro bono publico, for the analysis of biotechnology and its impact on women.”  The release goes on to describe that Milbank will…

Donna Thompson-Schneider is a solo criminal defense attorney who hasn’t visited her incarcerated clients.  Lest you think that this is another story about an irresponsible attorney giving her clients ground for an ineffective assistance of counsel claim, read on.  The reason that Donna hasn’t visited her clients is because the prison has a practice of …

In the past, we’ve posted some articles on unbundling of legal services because it offers revenue possibilities to solo and small firm lawyers whose clients may not have the resources to fully fund legal services.  Here’s another article on unbundling, Law Firms Find Revenues in Unbundling, National Law Journal,  July 6, 2005, that reports on…

OK, how is this for rational ethics?  As an attorney in Maryland or presumably in any state, I can start an ancillary business (let’s call it AB) like investment management or a lobbying shop or an insurance business which will serve both my firm and other customers.  And presumably, because I own AB, any time…

The Supreme Court just issued a ruling in Rompilla v. Beard (see this link at SCOTUS blog for a good summary and links to the opinions) a case that I blogged about several months ago here. In Rompilla, the Supreme Court reversed a death penalty ruling, finding that the Rompilla’s defense attorneys were ineffective because…

And yet another stupid bar rule, this time out of New Jersey, where the Advertising Panel Lays Down Rules for Law Firm Ads on Wed:  Catchy URLs OK, but not client endorsements (New Jersey Law Journal, 5/31/05).  The article reports: In two opinions published May 23, the committee says law firms are free to adopt…