April 2019 - Legal Ethics Advisor

“What, like it’s hard?” Why Kim Kardashian West has many wondering what it really takes to become a lawyer.

by Ten Stallings in Featured, Professionalism, Rules of Professional Conduct. Posted April 26, 2019

Social media star and entrepreneur, Kim Kardashian West, hopes to follow in the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln and the relatively few others who skip law school and become a lawyer by “reading the law.”

Attorney Competence and Data Storage Through the Prism of Google+

by Isabella Falcon in Technology. Posted April 24, 2019

Jason Tashea’s article in the ABA Journal provides an interesting perspective on a lawyer’s duty of competence in relation to technology. He references the termination of Google+ to pose the question of the impact of both data storage and data destruction on the practice of law. Attorney

Does “Vitriolic” Dissent = Judicial Misconduct?

by Sydney Feldman in judges. Posted April 23, 2019

“Reasonable judges often disagree with one another, sometimes strongly,” writes a Texas civil rights attorney, Jim Harrington, in a Complaint of Judicial Misconduct filed against a Fifth Circuit Judge. This time, though, Harrington alleges that the Judge went too far in the way she references her colleagues in her dissent.

Destruction of Documents at a Client’s Request? New York Opines

by Shawn Wilborne in Attorney Client Relationship, Conflict of Interest. Posted April 19, 2019

In late March, the New York State Bar Association (“NY Bar”) published Ethics Opinion 1164 in response to an attorney’s inquiry regarding liability in the post-representation destruction of client documents.

Lawyer Blaming Sleep Apnea for Inaction Awakens to Suspension.

by akerr in Attorney Suspension, Professionalism, Rules of Professional Conduct. Posted April 18, 2019

The New Hampshire Supreme Court’s Professional Conduct Committee recommended a three-year suspension for a lawyer who claimed sleep apnea caused him to ignore his cases.

Florida Lawyer’s Social Media Attacks Result in an Emergency Suspension of her License

by Dimitrije Canic in Attorney Suspension, Featured, First Amendment, Professionalism, Rules of Professional Conduct, Social Media. Posted April 15, 2019

The Florida Bar recently obtained the emergency suspension of attorney, Ashley Ann Krapacs, for using social media to launch “an attack of massive and continuous proportions” against two Fort Lauderdale attorneys, Russell Williams and Nisha Bacchus. Attacks

Florida’s Third DCA: Bitcoin Qualifies as Currency

by Natalia Jaramillo in bitcoin, Featured, Technology. Posted April 4, 2019

In The State of Florida v. Michell Espinoza, Florida’s Third District Court of Appeals ruled that cryptocurrency constitutes a “payment instrument.” The Third DCA’s ruling is a shift from the 2014 IRS guidance notice 2014-21,which classified cryptocurrency as property. Bitcoin

[…] of a non-binding advisory opinion, as has been the case with other jurisdictions such as, Florida, San Francisco, and Delaware, it is important to note that Ohio went a step further and amended its rule regarding […]

Remote Lawyering: New Jersey and Ohio On Board - Legal Ethics Advisor on Remote Work: San Francisco Bar Association Advice in Ethics Opinion 2021-1
Not all jurisdictions have adopted the Model Rule version of the choice of law rule; seems like there might be a different result in at least some of those states. See, e.g., NY RPC 8.5(b)(2)(i) ("If the lawyer is licensed to practice only in this state, the rules to be applied shall be the rules of this state").

Art Lachman on ABA Opinion 499 Green Lights Lawyers’ Passive Investment in Firms with NonLawyer Ownership

Monthly Archives: April 2019