2005

Many attorneys who practice criminal law believe that their malpractice exposure is minimal.  After all, it’s hard to show that it’s more likely than not that a client would have avoided conviction but for the attorney’s negligence – it only because it’s so hard to predict what juries might do.  But after reading this article,…

Here’s another outrageous story of judicial heavyhandedness.  This story,  Attorneys Sanctioned for Representing Client’s Challenges of Judicial Ethics (Empire Journal 2/14/05).  According to the article, the New York Appellate Division, First Department sanctioned two New York attorneys (to the tune of $2000 and $250 respectively) for “frivolous conduct” when they argued that a judge who…

I’m finding that it takes a strong stomach to blog about lawyers’ ethics transgressions.  Even though I’m careful and try to do the right thing with every action I take, I often feel as if I’m just a breathe away from tipping over to the other side.  Maybe it would start with a small act…

Next time you find yourself thinking about letting the retainer agreement requirement slide (“I trust the client,” or “There’s no time,” are some excuses that might run through your mind), think again.  Lack of a retainer agreement one can cost you your entire fee.  That’s what happened in the case desribed in this New York…

You’ll want to go over to David Giacalone’s f/k/a and read this post about presumably solo attorney Brad Margolis’ (no other attorneys are listed at his website) marketing stunt giving away a free divorce for Valentine’s Day.   The news story that David links contains some discussion over whether the contest is tasteless.  David, however, takes…

One of our readers writes:
I graduated law school last year and am finishing
up another graduate degree…and am
taking the bar this summer.  For law students with
little “real world” legal training (some law
clerking), any advice on going solo out of law school?
I read on your site about attorneys getting $40/hr
court…

As many of my readers know, I often find that the sanctions meted out by bar disciplinary committees to be either redundant or heavy-handed, such as punishing an attorney where he’s already been ordered to pay monetary sanctions by the court or sactioning an attorney for failing to apologize for an overly harsh criticism of…