Legal Ethics

Inside Straight: Knowing That Law Wins

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Someone in the company is going rogue: The person proposes to do something brazenly illegal, or slightly illegal, or perfectly legal but sufficiently immoral that the conduct would turn any reasonable person’s stomach. The rogue is not listening to logic. The person is ignoring everything that your local in-house lawyer is saying.

When the local lawyer calls the headquarters law department for help, these are the words that headquarters must be able to speak: “Local lawyer, you win. This is not a close call; we should not be doing this. In this situation, I guarantee you that you hold the trump card. Who do you need to make a call to solve your problem? The general counsel? The chief financial officer? The CEO? Someone else? We will cause that call to be made in a heartbeat. What do you need?”

Is that what people mean when they talk about “tone at the top”?

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ATL March Madness (2012): The Most Honest Law School FINAL

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We are at the final showdown for our March Madness bracket, and all the private school sissy-boys have been kicked to the curb. Apparently, you can’t buy your way into a moral or ethical principle. Only the state can inculcate you into virtue.

For the first time, I think ever or at least as long as I’ve been here, in an ATL contest of law schools, the final battle is between two state schools. And it happens in our contest about honesty and ethics. I guess there’s a lot of truth that comes out after a long round of flip-cup….

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ATL March Madness (2012): The Most Honest Law School Final Four

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We’re at the final four.

In real life, I am in a pitched battle for second place in my NCAA tournament poll with these guys. I can’t win because the guy in first has the exact same bracket as I do from here on out. But I can still finish second, so long as one of my “friends” who is actually a floppy-headed Kansas fan doesn’t get his JayHicks into the finals.

In more law related news, our Most Honest Law School bracket is chugging along.

But there were some upsets in round 2….

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Quote of the Day: I Pledge Allegiance to the Commies

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I swear to faithfully fulfill the sacred mission of legal workers in socialism with Chinese characteristics. I swear my loyalty to the motherland, to the people, to uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the socialist system, and to protect the dignity of the Constitution and laws.

– A new oath of loyalty Chinese lawyers must swear to the Communist party. The vow is not sitting right with, well, pretty much anyone.

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Poo-Smelling Foulness Pervades MPRE Exam

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Lawyer screwed me.

Today, we have a real law school horror story. One that could have been written by Stephen King:

“Our tipster took her MPRE exam through over two hours of s**t smelling foulness I can’t even imagine. Or maybe I don’t want to imagine.”

Yeah, that’s right, we have a tipster who claims that one location for Saturday’s MPRE exam was beset by “fecal matter.”

Pop quiz: can a lawyer advertise that her law offices aren’t full of s**t?

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Possible Ethics Sanctions for Wisconsin Judge Who Allegedly Choked a Bitch

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When we last checked in with the justices of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, one justice stood accused of allegedly choking a bitch in chambers (no, not the “total bitch” that he had previously threatened to “destroy” — another one). Although the kerfuffle did not result in any criminal charges, it seems that Justice David Prosser isn’t as charismatic as Wayne Brady, because now he’s facing possible ethics sanctions over the two incidents.

What did the outspoken justice have to say about the request for sanctions?

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ATL March Madness (2012): The Most Honest Law School Round 2

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The real March Madness has been batsh*t crazy. Lehigh? Norfolk State? As sometimes ATL contributor Marc Edelman pointed out, schools that have top law schools took a beating with their basketball teams. Harvard, Michigan, UVA, Duke, Georgetown, and Texas were all in the tournament, and now they’re all sitting at home.

But in the Above the Law bracket, top schools survive and thrive. We’re asking readers to pick the most honest law school. We’re asking readers to tell us which law school graduates are the most honorable and ethical in their private practice.

So far, the readers are telling us they’re unable to understand anything beyond what U.S. News tells us….

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Zealous Representation? Attorney’s Misconduct Caught on Candid Camera

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If you took a professional responsibility course in law school, or even studied for the MPRE, then you’re familiar with the the main takeaway on legal ethics for attorneys. You know that you have to zealously represent your clients without doing anything illegal. (And if you do decide to take a walk on the wild side, you know that you should try not to get caught.)

It looks like an attorney from New Mexico — one who had already been disbarred for cocaine possession — missed the memo on that one. Apparently his definition of zealous representation includes kicking down doors and burglarizing homes.

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, we’ve got it on film….

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ATL March Madness (2012): The Most Honest Law School

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Get your brackets ready, March Madness is here! It’s the most wonderful time of the year, at least for those who enjoy illegally gambling with co-workers.

Every year, we here at Above the Law like to put together a little bracket of our own. In the past, we’ve asked you to vote for such things as the coolest law firm or the douchiest law school.

This year, we’ve come up with a question that you don’t hear a lot of people asking when they’re talking about pursing a career in law: Which law school is the most honest?

Don’t start checking you LST transparency index just yet. Sure, being honest to prospective or incoming students can be a factor in a law school’s reputation for honesty. But we want to look at this question in the broadest possible sense….

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New York Says ‘No’ (For Now) to Non-Lawyer Firm Ownership

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Back in May 2011, we informed our readers about a lawsuit brought forward by Jacoby & Meyers, a personal injury and litigation firm made famous by its ridiculous television commercials. In that suit, the PI magnates contested an ethics rule which barred non-lawyers from being able to stake a claim in the ownership of law firms. They want lawyers to be able to run their firms like real businesses, outside investors and all.

After all, that pesky ethics rule no longer exists down under in Australia, and in England, people can now add “legal services” to their grocery lists. But as we noted in Morning Docket, “America’s Most Familiar Law Firm” took a bit of a blow in New York yesterday when one of its lawsuits challenging the ban was dismissed.

Let’s take a look at what happened….

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