Legal Ethics Forum

Judicial disqualification sought in divorce of famous poker player

Las Vegas Review-Journal carries the story.

NLJ's "Law School Review" blog symposium winds up

Lots of good posts and comments about the state of legal education at the National Law Journal's Law School Review blog.

"Prosecutor accused of pursuing romances with defendants"

Sign-On (San Diego): According to the story, the prosecutor pursued women defendants only after the prosecution was over. The article quotes David Carr, who sometime comments here.

NIFTEP - Georgia State - Burge Conference on Law and Ethics (11/14/11)

Looks like a great conference. [UPDATE: The full agenda is in the file at the bottom of the post.]

2011 BURGE CONFERENCE ON LAW AND ETHICS

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT HOW BAR DISCIPLINE REALLY WORKS?

WHAT SHOULD LAW SCHOOLS TEACH ABOUT BAR DISCIPLINE?

HOW CAN LAW SCHOOLS AND DISCIPLINARY AUTHORITIES

COLLABORATE IN INNOVATIVE WAYS?

 

Monday, November 14, 2011

10:00 am - 5:00 pm

 

Georgia State University College of Law

Urban Life Building

Room 201

Georgia State University

140 Decatur Street at Piedmont Avenue

Atlanta, Georgia 30303

 

SCHEDULE:

 

10:00 am Welcome from Conference Sponsors:

Dean Steven Kaminshine, GSU College of Law

John Berry, National Organization of Bar Counsel

Dean Dennis Honabach, American Bar Association Standing Committee on Professionalism

 

 

10:10 am Conference Overview

Clark D. Cunningham, W. Lee Burge Professor of Law & Ethics, GSU College of Law

 

10:15 am Keynote Part 1: What Do We Know? An Empirical Study of Bar Discipline in Georgia and Other States

Daisy Floyd, University Professor of Law and Ethical Formation and Former Law Dean, Mercer University

Timothy Floyd, Director, Law & Public Service Program and Professor of Law,

Mercer University

 

10:45 am Panel One: Perspectives From Other Jurisdictions

Aviva Meridian-Kaiser, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin

Wallace Shipp, Bar Counsel, District of Columbia

Maret Vessella, Chief Bar Counsel, State Bar of Arizona

William Weigel, Litigation Counsel, Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation

 

11:15 am Panel Two: More Perspectives From Other Jurisdictions

John Berry, Legal Division Director, Florida Bar

James Grogan, Chief Counsel, Illinois Discipline Commission

Charles Herring, Partner, Herring-Irwin, and Chair, Texas Grievance Oversight Committee

Selene Mize, Faculty of Law, University of Otago, New Zealand

 

11: 45 am Lunch in the West Exhibit Area

 

1:00 pm Panel Three: Reflections from Georgia

Dick Donovan, Paulding County District Attorney and Chair, Committee on Professionalism, State Bar of Georgia

Dean Jim Elliott, Emory Law School and Former President, State Bar of Georgia

John Haubenreich, Partner, Seacrest, Karesh, Tate & Bicknese, and Chair, Georgia Disciplinary Rules Committee

Paula Frederick, General Counsel, State Bar of Georgia

 

1:45 pm Keynote Part 2: What Should We Teach?

Daisy Floyd, University Professor of Law and Ethical Formation and Former Law Dean, Mercer University

            Timothy Floyd, Director, Law & Public Service Program and Professor of Law,

            Mercer University

 

2:15 pm Small Group Discussion of Keynote and Reports Back to the Plenary

2:45 pm Break

 

3:00 pm: Character and Fitness in Law School

Sarah Valentine, Assistant Dean of Students & Admissions, and Law Library Professor, City University of New York

Roy Sobelson, Associate Dean, GSU College of Law

 

3:30 pm Learning From Bar Discipline

Barbara Seymour, Deputy Disciplinary Counsel, Supreme Court of South Carolina

David Caudill, Arthur M. Goldberg Family Chair & Professor of Law, Villanova University School of Law

 

4:15 pm Where Do We Go From Here?

Facilitated by Professor Clark Cunningham

 

Download WorkshopProgram(31Oct11)

Ex-US-Attorney was the leaker in "Fast & Furious" matter ("Almost all leakers are lawyers. That's the bottom line.")

ABA Journal and lots of other sites are reporting that former US-Attorney Dennis Burke has admitted that he leaked a memo about the whistleblowers in the Fast & Furious matter involving guns being sold illegally and transported into Mexico.

I assume that's a violation of 1.6, right? It was information relating to the legal matter on which Burke had been working and there was no express or implied consent to an illegal leak. Can the Arizona state bar prosecute?  Will the DOJ's OPR prosecute? If any of our readers have thoughts on how this might play out, please comment.

That quote -- Almost all leakers are lawyers. That's the bottom line." -- is from Harold Raines, former editor at the New York Times.

 

Heightening condemnation of the accused? The DA's comments about the Penn State football coach accused of child rape.

WSJ looks at the issue, as does White Collar Crime Prof Blog.

"Best Value Law Schools"

Paul Caron, at Tax Prof Blog has the news. It's worth noting that Georgia State, listed as having the best value, takes legal ethics quite seriously. If you teach PR and have a chance to attend NIFTEP, by all means go.

Michael Cassidy (Boston College) wins Zacharias Award

Legal Profession Blog carries the news. As many of our readers know, the late Prof. Fred Zacharias, after whom the award is named, was an extremely productive scholar in our field. Cassidy's bio is here. Cassidy's article and the abstract:

In a criminal justice system where guilty pleas are the norm and trials the rare exception, the issue of how much discovery a defendant is entitled to before allocution has immense significance. This article examines the scope of a prosecutor’s obligation to disclose impeachment information before a guilty plea. This question has polarized the criminal bar and bedeviled the academic community since the Supreme Court’s controversial decision in United States v. Ruiz (2002). A critical feature of the debate has been the enduring schism between a prosecutor’s legal and ethical obligations – a gulf that the American Bar Association recently widened by issuing a controversial opinion interpreting Model Rule of Professional Conduct 3.8(d) to impose obligations on prosecutors well beyond the requirements of the due process clause.

The author addresses the controversial subject of impeachment disclosures from both an institutional and a substantive perspective. A great deal of legal scholarship aims directly at the content of proposed law reform without considering the threshold and pivotal question of what institution is best situated to administer those duties imposed. The author argues that as a matter of institutional competence and legitimacy, the courts are far better equipped to enforce criminal discovery obligations through rules of procedure than bar disciplinary authorities are capable of doing through attorney conduct rules. With regard to the substantive issue - that is, how much impeachment evidence should be turned over by a prosecutor before a guilty plea - the author proposes a categorical approach to impeachment disclosures that will mediate the tension between the defendant’s interest in accurately assessing the strength and weaknesses of the government’s case, and the state’s interest in protecting the privacy and security of potential witnesses.

In-house counsel cleared of criminal conduct, but loses malicious prosecution claim

American Lawyer Media carries the story of McAfee's former General Counsel, Kent Roberts.

Carlos the Jackal is being represented by his wife, whom he married while he was in prison

Guardian has the story.