Legal Ethics Forum: Legal ethics (August 26, 2010)

August 26, 2010

From Medical News Today: "Kentucky attorney Amelia Adams could face six months in jail for contempt of court after refusing to reveal the name of a 17-year-old client who sought judicial permission to have an abortion without her parents' consent, the Lousiville Courier-Journal reports."
From AllAfrica.com: UK-based firm Eversheds has created an empowerment trust to retain black professionals in South Africa, to combat the historical barriers to entry in the legal profession there.
In New Zealand, Justice Minster Simon Power has "fired a shot at the legal profession," warning it to put victims first by adopting some more inquisitorial approaches to handling cases where there are child victims. (h/t: Stuff)
Jean Galbraith, a Sharswood Fellow, has been awarded the 2010 American Inns of Court Warren Burger Prize for her essay, "The Ethic of High Expectations." Galbraith says, “I argue that, under certain circumstances, lawyers can best serve both their clients and the broader good by practicing what I call the ethic of high expectations. A lawyer acting from the ethic of high expectations gives advice that will be fully effective only if both the lawyer’s client and the other party voluntarily and independently relinquish legal rights in order to further the broader good. The lawyer succeeds by shifting the conversation from being about legal rights to being about right outcomes."

Former Attorney General William Saxbe died. He was nominated for the post following the Saturday Night Massacre and had pledge to permit no further interference with the special prosecutor looking into Watergate. A brief bio is here.
News of a new study: public defenders are as effective as private counsel.
At Best Practices for Legal Education, Margaret Moore Jackson asks about the goals of law school orientation: "When faculties examine their orientation programs, we may start by asking what the purposes of orientation are. Welcoming students to the institution, or into the legal profession? Infusing them with a sense of higher purpose? Instilling professionalism? Or even just laying the logistical groundwork for the semester?"
Eric Goldman (Technology & Marketing Law) and Carolyn Elefant (My Shingle) suggest that lawyers shouldn't be using canned content, ghost-written blog posts and newsletters, because, among other things they will be treated as regulated advertising. And, if you fax them, you might be liable under the Junk Fax Law. (Do any lawyers really still blast-fax content like that?)

Posted by John Steele at 04:00 AM | Permalink

From Medical News Today: "Kentucky attorney Amelia Adams could face six months in jail for contempt of court after refusing to reveal the name of a 17-year-old client who sought judicial permission to have an abortion without her parents' consent, the Lousiville Courier-Journal reports."
From AllAfrica.com: UK-based firm Eversheds has created an empowerment trust to retain black professionals in South Africa, to combat the historical barriers to entry in the legal profession there.
In New Zealand, Justice Minster Simon Power has "fired a shot at the legal profession," warning it to put victims first by adopting some more inquisitorial approaches to handling cases where there are child victims. (h/t: Stuff)
Jean Galbraith, a Sharswood Fellow, has been awarded the 2010 American Inns of Court Warren Burger Prize for her essay, "The Ethic of High Expectations." Galbraith says, “I argue that, under certain circumstances, lawyers can best serve both their clients and the broader good by practicing what I call the ethic of high expectations. A lawyer acting from the ethic of high expectations gives advice that will be fully effective only if both the lawyer’s client and the other party voluntarily and independently relinquish legal rights in order to further the broader good. The lawyer succeeds by shifting the conversation from being about legal rights to being about right outcomes."

Former Attorney General William Saxbe died. He was nominated for the post following the Saturday Night Massacre and had pledge to permit no further interference with the special prosecutor looking into Watergate. A brief bio is here.
News of a new study: public defenders are as effective as private counsel.
At Best Practices for Legal Education, Margaret Moore Jackson asks about the goals of law school orientation: "When faculties examine their orientation programs, we may start by asking what the purposes of orientation are. Welcoming students to the institution, or into the legal profession? Infusing them with a sense of higher purpose? Instilling professionalism? Or even just laying the logistical groundwork for the semester?"
Eric Goldman (Technology & Marketing Law) and Carolyn Elefant (My Shingle) suggest that lawyers shouldn't be using canned content, ghost-written blog posts and newsletters, because, among other things they will be treated as regulated advertising. And, if you fax them, you might be liable under the Junk Fax Law. (Do any lawyers really still blast-fax content like that?)

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