Talking Honestly About Honesty (When You Can't Really Talk About Government Ethics)

Talking Honestly About Honesty (When You Can't Really Talk About Government Ethics)

Stacie Rosenzweig
Current Events, Lawyers Behaving Badly, Rules

Yesterday, I (and several of my nerd friends, as it would turn out) spoke with Benjamin Penn for an article that ran today in Bloomberg Law about outgoing US Attorney Rachel Rollins, who was found by the Department of Justice’s inspector general to have engaged in wide-ranging violations of government ethics rules. I am not an expert in federal government ethics, far from it, so I stuck to the disciplinary implications of the alleged misconduct.

Relevant here, and to my quote that ran with the Bloomberg story, was that Rollins was found to have falsely testified, under oath, during the investigation of her other conduct (including leaking sensitive information to the press, and potential violations of the Hatch Act). I told Mr. Penn that “Bar regulators, in general, they’ll get their hackles up about any sort of dishonest conduct that has any nexus with the practice of law.”

A Belated Update So I Don’t Trigger 8.4(c) By Saying I Blog “Regularly”

A Belated Update So I Don’t Trigger 8.4(c) By Saying I Blog “Regularly”

Stacie Rosenzweig
Attorney Discipline

The problem with telling the whole world that you blog regularly about legal ethics is that you have to actually do it. And when you’ve got an elections practice in an election month, and you teach dentists, and then you take a spring break trip, and then your kid takes up soccer, and then you end up with a nasty cold, and also you have your actual work, “regularly” becomes aspirational, rather than actual.

So, I am bringing an update of a case I first wrote about in July. The update itself is tardy. So it goes.

Is there really that much daylight between a lawyer and client?

Is there really that much daylight between a lawyer and client?

Stacie Rosenzweig
FAQ, Current Events

"After completing his time on the Supreme Court, Daniel Kelly provided legal counsel to several clients, amongst which were the RNC and RPW," [Kelly’s spokesman Jim] Dick said (paywalled, sorry). "It is a maxim in the legal profession that the views of clients are not attributable to their attorneys."

But is it really true? Is there really that much distance or difference of opinion between a client and a lawyer?

When You Solicit An Ethics Nerd, You Best Not Miss

When You Solicit An Ethics Nerd, You Best Not Miss

Stacie Rosenzweig
Best Practices, My Nerd Friends

If you’ve talked to me often or long enough, or sat through any recent presentation of mine involving social media, you’ve heard me complain about the state of the attorney advertising and solicitation rules. I’ve been critical rules for some time (though, perhaps, not as vocal on this blog as I have been in the real world).

Part of my frustration is that the Rules are just that outdated. Sure, they’re post-Bates at least; they recognize that attorneys may need to rely on something other than their father’s reputation and their golf club membership to make a living. And, by and large, they try to prevent what I hope we all can agree shouldn’t happen—advertising shouldn’t be false or misleading, and it shouldn’t be coercive.

To The Passenger In Seat 26C

To The Passenger In Seat 26C

Stacie Rosenzweig
Best Practices

I couldn’t help but notice the passenger one row up and across the aisle from me on my first leg. Her laptop was on and clearly visible. The brightness on the screen was turned up to what seemed like 10000% against the dim nighttime plane lighting. She had papers strewn about her seat area, too.

In a matter of seconds, and without really trying to, I figured out she was a lawyer. Not only that, I learned what specialty she worked in, what her major upcoming deadlines were, her staffing needs for the next few months, and the fact that she was waiting for a particular federal appellate decision to guide her strategy in her case in the lower court. How did I learn this? Bright screen, high contrast, big font.

This Blog Title Was Not Written By AI

This Blog Title Was Not Written By AI

Stacie Rosenzweig
Current Events, My Nerd Friends

Joshua Browder, CEO of a company called “DoNotPay” (which bills itself as “the World’s First Robot Lawyer”*) announced on Twitter that the company would pay any person $1,000,000 (and later, $5,000,000) to cede control of their Supreme Court argument to its OpenAI-based “robot lawyer.” The lawyer or pro se party arguing the case would wear AirPods and “let our robot lawyer argue the case by repeating exactly what it says.”

Happy New Year, Have A Suspension

Happy New Year, Have A Suspension

Stacie Rosenzweig
National, Lawyers Behaving Badly

I’d like to kick off the new year of blogging with an update. Remember Alex Jones’s lawyers? The one who belatedly turned over a bunch of his client’s text messages, but with it dumped some confidential records (including medical records) of some of the the Sandy Hook families?

In what seems like lightning speed, one of the lawyers, last week Norman Pattis, was suspended for six months from the practice of law by a Connecticut judge.  (No, this was not the one in Texas who chose to close with a quote from the anti-Nazi pastor Martin Niemöller. There is a lot going on here.)

Selected Thoughts From the Select Committee Summary

Selected Thoughts From the Select Committee Summary

Stacie Rosenzweig
Current Events, National, Lawyers Behaving Badly

Yesterday, the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol held its last hearing and released the introductory report to its findings. The full report will not be released until tomorrow, but the summary material (which is 154 pages in itself) provides a robust roadmap.

I watched some of yesterday’s hearing, and, I’m sure, like any other member of the ethics bar who may have been listening, my ears perked up when Rep. Lofgren outlined efforts by lawyers to influence witnesses and disrupt the investigation.

A Disciplinary Twofer in Maine

A Disciplinary Twofer in Maine

Stacie Rosenzweig

The ABA Journal has reported the curious case of a solo practitioner, Donald Brown, who was suspended for misrepresenting his attendance at Internet-based CLE (and, also, reprimanded him for representing a client in a divorce case after they had been in an intimate relationship, giving rise to a material limitation conflict under its version of Rule 1.7 that was not consented to in writing by the client).

This caught my eye for both the reason for the suspension and the potential impossibility of fulfilling conditions of staying the suspension.

Welcome, Law Students? I'm Sure You've Got Questions

Welcome, Law Students? I'm Sure You've Got Questions

Stacie Rosenzweig
Character and Fitness, Wisconsin, Well Being

Hi, students I may have met or who may have stumbled upon this through other means. I’m happy to answer questions—I respond well to a social media “subpoena” even though I know I don’t have to and probably shouldn’t. Here are 10 of the answers I’ve given over the years when law student and new graduates have asked about what I didn’t know in law school but should have.

There is Padding And Then There Is Whatever this Is

There is Padding And Then There Is Whatever this Is

Stacie Rosenzweig
Attorney Discipline, Quick Hits

Above The Law has reported the case of a now-former Dentons associate in Illinois, who was assigned a document review project. In pop culture, document review has been portrayed as punitive, or potentially simple enough for a high school student to handle (sadly I could not find the clip from “Clueless” where Cher had to highlight telephone conversations occurring on September 3).

Be Careful With That Group Chat, You Don't Know What Company You Keep

Be Careful With That Group Chat, You Don't Know What Company You Keep

Stacie Rosenzweig
Quick Hits, The Author In Extremis

First, greetings from the Covid Penalty Box. The plague finally hit my household last week, and I’m in time out for a bit. I’m feeling okay enough, but I am not 100%. The good(?) news is I was supposed to be on vacation this week so my calendar was already clear. Sigh.

Anyway, I am working a little bit this week (to make up for the work I couldn’t do while actively sick last week) and I have found I have the attention span of a banana, which I suppose is to be expected. Needless to say, I am not the last set of eyes on anything this week (except for my incessant boredom tweeting, and I guess this blog entry, but hey, if I mess this up you all will let me know).

So, when I came across this story in Above The Law, I added “don’t send any work-related group texts” to my mental list of what not to do this week.

The Care and Feeding of a Lawyer Who’s Finally Done With Something

The Care and Feeding of a Lawyer Who’s Finally Done With Something

Stacie Rosenzweig
The Author In Extremis, My weird brain

As I write this, I’ve spent the last two weeks preparing for and then actually in trial, with a two-day interruption for a nerd friend conference. I am finally done, and am using the one functioning brain cell I have that isn’t devoted to keeping me upright to write this, while it’s fresh.*

This post is directed at anyone who needs to deal with a lawyer after a major project is over, so I am going to write directly to those people. They may be people who are married to or partnered with lawyers, who are close friends, or who live with lawyers.

What the heck...I mean you all saw that, right?

What the heck...I mean you all saw that, right?

Stacie Rosenzweig
Current Events, Lawyers Behaving Badly

I’ve been deep in trial prep the last few days (and ahead of seeing my nerd friends at the Chicago conference, but that doesn’t mean my phone hasn’t been utterly lit up, as happens whenever a lawyer does something dumb on television. From my office, with headphones on, I could hear the collective gasps of my friends as they watched Alex Jones and his lawyer Andino Reynal have a meltdown in real time yesterday.

What happened yesterday (some video here) was, alternately (and with apologies to random social media people who made these comments but I can’t find to credit), an EPR class issue-spotting nightmare, an object lesson in FAFO, and/or a Nerd Conference Eve Present for those of us in the ethics bar.

Load More