2021 - Page 2 of 4 - Legal Ethics Advisor

Judicial Misconduct or First Amendment Expression?

by Lauren Maier in First Amendment, judicial canons, judicial misconduct, Social Media. Posted September 2, 2021

Georgia Judge Asserting First Amendment Rights in Defending Allegation of Ethics Violations After Controversial Facebook Post A judge in Cherokee County, Georgia, has been charged with ethics violations after posting support for the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson who made controversial comments about Robert Aaron Long, the man accused of killing eight people at three ...

woman standing near the kitchen counter with her laptop open on table

Delaware Green Lights Remote Work in Formal Opinion 2021-1

by Lauren Maier in ABA Opinion, Advisory Opinion, Attorney Client Relationship, Remote Work. Posted August 24, 2021

Delaware Lawyers: Remote Work Okay If State of Residence Agrees Last month, the Delaware State Bar Association Committee on Professional Ethics released Formal Opinion 2021-1, addressing whether Delaware attorneys may practice Delaware law while working remotely from another jurisdiction. The Committee held that Delaware licensed lawyers are permitted to practice Delaware law outside the state, ...

Clients Illegal Activity: Colorado Bar Admonishes “Willful Blindness” But Departs from ABA Op. 491 “Should Know” Standard

by Lauren Maier in Advisory Opinion, Attorney Client Relationship, Ethics Opinion. Posted August 17, 2021

Counseling Clients and Illegal Activity Under Rule 1.2 On July 10, 2021, the Colorado Bar Association Ethics Committee released a new opinion regarding Colorado Rule of Professional Conduct 1.2(d), analyzing a lawyer’s duty to inquire about a client’s illegal activity. Under 1.2(d), which sets a similar standard to Model Rule 1.2(d), lawyers “shall not ...

Care to Comment? California Issues Interim Formal Opinion 20-0004 on Remote Work

by Jan Jacobowitz in Advisory Opinion, Remote Work, Rules of Professional Conduct, Technology. Posted August 13, 2021

California Formal Opinion Interim No. 20-0004 on Remote Work Yesterday, the the State Bar of California Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct posted Formal Opinion No. 20-0004 on remote work for comment. The opinion acknowledges the increase of attorneys remotely working driven both by technology and external circumstances that include Covid-19 and natural disasters ...

Cannabis Advice for Lawyers: New York and Georgia on Different Ends of the Spectrum

by Lauren Maier in Advisory Opinion, Cannabis. Posted August 10, 2021

The legal landscape of medical and recreational marijuana remains fast-changing across the United States–cannabis remains illegal under federal law—and there are inconsistencies among various states’ legal ethics advice regarding whether lawyers may represent clients involved in the cannabis industry. On June 21, 2021, the Supreme Court of Georgia denied a motion to amend Rule 1.2 ...

A Series of Unfortunate Events: Giuliani’s New York Law License Suspension

by Jan Jacobowitz in Attorney Suspension. Posted July 16, 2021

Giuliani Interim Suspension I did not rush out of the gate to discuss the extremely well publicized (See, for example, NPR, CNN, NYT, and Forbes) interim suspension of Rudy Giuliani’s New York law license or the reciprocal interim suspension imposed the District of Columbia. There has been so much coverage that I found it interesting ...

Florida Legal Ethics Update: From Questioning Diversity Quotas to Proposals for a Regulatory Sandbox and More

by Jan Jacobowitz in Access to Justice, Attorney Advertising, CLE requirements, legal ethics, Legal Services, negative online reviews, regulatory sandbox, Rule 5.4 Professional Independence of a Lawyer, Technology, UPL. Posted July 12, 2021

Florida CLE Diversity Controversy The Florida Supreme Court attracted national attention when it recently sua sponte changed the CLE programming requirements such that The Florida Bar cannot approve CLE programming and Florida lawyers cannot receive CLE credits for attendance at any program for which there was a diversity requirement or quota pertaining to the selection ...

Profanity is Costly: Lawyer Sanctioned for Conduct Unbecoming and F*** You

by Jan Jacobowitz in Professionalism. Posted June 19, 2021

Florida Federal Court Imposes Sanctions for Profanity and Unprofessionalism Three depositions, two lawyers, and one court reporter…what could go “wrong?” Apparently, conduct by all three that included one lawyer telling the other lawyer to, “Shut the f*** up.” The dispute seems to have exploded after one lawyer, Mr. “K” objected to the use of the ...

HawkLaw Attorney Advertising Being Preyed Upon By South Carolina Bar Authorities?

by Jan Jacobowitz in Advertising Rules, Attorney Advertising, First Amendment, lawyer advertising. Posted June 9, 2021

First Amendment v Attorney Advertising Regulation The internet’s low cost and ease of advertising has increased the focus on the tension between the state regulation of attorney advertising and attorneys’ First Amendment right to commercial speech that was established by the US Supreme Court in Bates v Arizona in 1977. The latest episode is taking ...

[…] 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

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Yearly Archives: 2021 ( Page 2 )