Legal Ethics Items (October 15, 2010)

• ALM: Freezing the laterals.  A firm has a 90 day notice provision for withdrawing from the partnership.  I'd hate to see that game be played sharper and sharper.  Sometimes the firm wants to instruct the departing lawyers to stay at home and do nothing for weeks or even months -- which hardly seems like something that public policy should support.  Thirty days seems reasonable for the firm and rarely impinges on the client's needs -- especially if the firm promptly sends out "double signature" letters to the departing lawyer's clients, asking which lawyer the client prefers.  But once you start stretching that, it's for the benefit of the firm and to the detriment of the clients and the departing lawyers.
• Can a lawyer draft a will making him/herself a beneficiary from an uncle by marriage?  According to ElderLawAnswers, the new case of Cooner vs. Alabama State Bar says, essentially, you may.
• Ted Seto at Money Law looks at which law schools generate the partners at the big firms.  (Being a "Hoya Lawya," I was pleased to see us place in second.)
• Shawnee Dispatch (Kansas): 'The Kansas Supreme Court has disbarred an attorney for a string of verbally abusive and disruptive behavior – including profanity-laden confrontations at Shawnee municipal court.'
• Daily Observer (Gambia): Gambian lawyer bags solicitor of the year in the UK.
• UK news: no privilege for accountant tax advisers.
• Guardian (UK): Here's a news account on that conference at the University of Westminster on diversity in the UK legal profession.  More at John Flood's blog.