Legal Ethics Forum

California bar's "Publication 250" (i.e., its rules and statutes compendium) now available on Kindle

Here. Very cool and just $4.99. Congrats to the State Bar editors: Randy Difuntorum, Lauren McCurdy, and Mimi Lee. It's still available for purchase in hard copy and for free as a pdf file from the bar's website. [Update: As David Cameron Carr says in the comments, "Buy it! Read it!"  Here's Randy Difuntorum's message about the e-version:

For over 65 years, the State Bar has published a paperback book containing the California Rules of Professional Conduct and the State Bar Act to help lawyers comply with their professional responsibility obligations.  The 1949 edition of the book was 30 pages. The 2011 edition is 411 pages. The book has grown beyond the Rules and the State Bar Act to include other related authorities such as selected Rules of Court, selected code sections, the Federal Mortgage Assistance Relief Services Rule, the State Bar Pro Bono Resolution, the Lawyer Referral Services Rules, the MCLE Rules and more.

While it is helpful to have a comprehensive California law resource, the paperback book has become impractical as a portable reference, especially for law students.  To address this, the State Bar has published an e‑Reader version of the rule book. 

The e-Reader book is compatible with the Kindle Reader App, which is a free e-Reader application available for iPads, iPhones, and Blackberry Phones, Android Phones, Macbooks, and PC laptops. Of course, the e-Reader book also works on all versions of Amazon.com’s Kindle e-Reader device.

The e-Reader version of the book has several useful features including: a search function with a results preview pane; bookmarking; highlighting and annotating.  In addition, once downloaded to a smartphone or other compatible device, the book can be accessed at any time, even if there is no Internet or cellular data signal.  With these features, the e-Reader book should be a welcomed enhancement for law students and others who favor paperless legal research tools. The paperback book <http://ethics.calbar.ca.gov/Publications/Pub250.aspx>  remains available, but please consider checking-out the new e‑Reader version <http://www.amazon.com/California-Professional-Conduct-Related-ebook/dp/B005MKCAQU/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1319736976&sr=8-3> .

 

Preview of Bivens argument agasint Rumsfeld (implicating legal advice and possibly affecting the suit against John Yoo)

Lawfare has a preview of tomorrow's oral argument at the Fourth Circuit in Padilla v. Rumsfeld.

LA Times: "L.A.-based law firm gives more than $3.2 million in services to help appeals judge's defense"

LA Times: "U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jay S. Bybee accepted more than $3.2 million in free legal services from a Los Angeles-based firm to fight allegations of ethics violations for providing the Bush administration legal justification to use harsh interrogation tactics that critics called torture, his financial disclosure reports reveal."

That's a huge gift from biglaw to a sitting judge and leaves me a little uneasy. On the other hand, it's amazing to think that it might take a person millions to mount a defense to a federal government investigation.

Interesting Take on Whether we Need Law Schools or the Bar Exam

The op-ed piece is here.  An interesting tid bit:  "In 2009, the state disciplinary agencies that cover the roughly one million lawyers practicing in the United States received more than 125,000 complaints, according to an A.B.A. survey. But only 800 of those complaints — a mere 0.6 percent — resulted in disbarment."

Not sure whether that means law schools and the bar weed out the bad applicants, or whether the system doesn't work, but there you go.

Welcome to Professor Dana Remus!

We're delighted to welcome Professor Dana Remus to our blogging ranks.  Dana is a professor at the University of New Hampshire Law School, where she teaches and writes about ethics and the legal profession.  Among other notable accomplishments, Dana clerked for Justice Alito and practiced Trusts & Estates law at Cravath Swaine & Moore.  She is a graduate of Yale Law School and Harvard College.

Her first post, which concerns a recent ethics-related conference at Yale, is below.  Welcome aboard, Dana!

Intersecting Attorney and Judicial Misconduct

The Yale Law & Policy Review sponsored an excellent conference on judicial politics this weekend, which included a panel on judicial ethics. Larry Fox discussed the disturbing case from Georgia involving a romantic affair between Superior Court Judge Paschal E. English and Public Defender Kimberly Cornwell. During the affair, Cornwell brought at least 225 cases before Judge English, but the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council concluded that there was no need to notify the implicated defendants because of an absence of actual prejudice. The Council determined that doing so would be cumbersome and would likely lead to unwarranted appeals. As Larry noted, this conclusion works a great injustice. Every affected defendant deserves the information and opportunity to seek a new trial.

While clearly the exception to the rule of ethical conduct by both groups, cases of intersecting attorney and judicial misconduct may occur more often than we would like to acknowledge. Other examples include the Luzerne County scandal in Pennsylvania, in which judges and attorneys colluded to send youth defendants to juvenile detention centers owned by the attorneys, and the conviction of Charles Dean Hood in Texas, presided over by a trial judge who was having an affair with the prosecutor. The results are devastating, not only for the individuals directly affected by the misconduct but for the legitimacy of our court systems. Given the high stakes, we should work towards a more systematic understanding of how attorney and judicial misconduct interrelate and how systems of attorney and judicial conduct regulation can and should reinforce each other.

Many thanks to all the panelists on Saturday for their thought-provoking comments. Special thanks and congratulations to the capable editors of the YLPR who organized the conference in celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the journal.

Larry Fox on Prospective Consents to Conflicts

Larry doesn't like 'em, to put it simply. His piece is here.  I honestly am skeptical of both sides of this equation.  By that I mean it seems like some pretty sophisticated companies will sometimes agree to a prospective consent, but then when the consent actually arises, plead ignorance and lack of informed consent; but on the other hand, loyalty must mean more than misuse of confidential information or we should just say so and see how the public likes it.  Larry's view is more sophisticated...

Bad Deposition Behavior to the Exxxtreme

A client takes the Fifth on whether he owns a cell phone, while he is using a cell phone during the deposition?  That and other less nuanced behavior occur during a deposition that rivals any I have seen.  A story is here.  The cost, here, was an adverse judgment!

Law School Ethics

So much is going on with the alleged misrepresentations by law schools of employment data.  This sign expresses one student's frustrations.

Yale Conference Tomorrow: Judicial Politics

Looks pretty interesting.

October 22, 2011 - Yale Law School

Registration

Judicial Politics, a national conference on the occasion of the Yale Law & Policy Review’s 30th Anniversary, will bring together law students, practitioners, academics, and policymakers to explore the interplay of judges and partisan politics in light of scholarship and policy developments related to the national judiciary. The conference will consist of a keynote address and three panels to discuss:
    (1) The Role of the Judge in Redistricting
    (2) The Selection of Judges: Appointment vs. Election
    (3) Judicial Ethics

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.           Registration & Continental Breakfast
10:00 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.         “The Role of the Judge in Redistricting" Panel
11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.            Lunch Break
1:00 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.            “The Selection of Judges: Appointment vs. Election” Panel
2:45 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.             Break
3:00 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.            “Judicial Ethics" Panel
4:45 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.          Break
5:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.             Closing Remarks

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS
"The Role of the Judge in Redistricting" Panel

Professor Heather Gerken, Moderator
The Honorable Patrick Higginbotham
The Honorable Myron Thompson
Professor Nathaniel Persily
Professor Jamin Raskin

"The Selection of Judges: Appointment vs. Election" Panel

Mr. Zachary Kaufman, Moderator
Mr. Adam Skaggs
Mr. David Pozen
Ms. Shira Goodman

"Judicial Ethics" Panel

Professor Dana Remus, Moderator
The Honorable Barry Schaller
Professor Lawrence Fox
Mr. Mark Harrison

Closing Remarks

Professor Pam Karlan