ethics

Lawyers must ensure their nonlawyer staff acts consistently with the lawyer’s professional obligations. This starts with hiring and avoiding conflicts of interest and continues throughout employment. This program will elaborate on lawyers’ obligations in hiring and training nonlawyer staff appropriately, with a focus on confidentiality, conflicts, and marketing.   Read more

Attorney marketing through social media is expected as attorneys work to build relationships and value.  Commenting on “hot topics” in the law through Linked in, X, Facebook can help enhance an Attorney’s brand and reputation.  But there are ethical issues related to client confidentiality, candor to the court, contact with the court and jurors, trial publicity, communication about attorney’s services, advertising and soliciting potential clients that need to be considered.   Read more

California lawyers generally are familiar with the conflict of interest rules and the sometimes harsh consequences of those rules.  Those consequences can include disqualification of a lawyer or an entire law firm.  They also can include a sometimes insurmountable hurdle to a lawyer moving to a new law firm.  But those rules, and those consequences, are not limited to lawyers in private practice on their own or at a law firm.  They apply equally to lawyers working as in-house counsel for a company.   Read more

As we become a more multilingual and multicultural society, more lawyers are likely to serve clients who do not speak the same language as the lawyer. This barrier to communication leads to several issues that lawyers will have to address to effectively and ethically serve their clients. The primary areas which this barrier impacts are competence (rule 1.1)[1] and communication (rule 1.4). Among other rules affected are confidentiality (rule 1.6) and responsibilities regarding nonlawyer assistants. [2] Read more

There are ways to behave on an airplane, and there are ways not to behave on an airplane. It’s the same thing in the practice of law. Join the CLE Performer, Stuart Teicher, as he makes comparisons between air travel and lawyering.  Read more

Stuart Teicher has always loved the Beatles, so it was just a matter of time until he made a pilgrimage to England. In this travel-journal style program, Stuart visits historical sites in Liverpool, London, and Paris, and talks about the Beatles and attorney ethics. Oh, and you don’t have to know anything about the Beatles (or Paris) to enjoy and learn from this program. Read more

The ethics rules are all about deterring bad conduct…and who has conducted themselves badder than the worst thieves in history? Join the CLE Performer, Stuart Teicher, Esq., as he unearths the stories of some of the worst crooks in history and reveals the ethics lessons that lie beneath.  Read more

The speakers will cover the basics of understanding and analyzing potential conflicts of interest, including in the contexts of current and former clients, joint representations, subpoenas, and business dealings with clients, among others.   They also will address vicarious disqualification and ethical screens. Read more

California Rules of Professional Conduct Rule 4.4, which was added to the most recent rules effective November 1, 2018, provides: Read more

A sound mind is one of the most important tools an attorney has, which is required to properly advocate for clients, manage large workloads, and handle multiple deadlines.  Read more