ethics

The California Supreme Court recently ordered the approval of new Rule of Professional Conduct 8.3 (Reporting Professional Misconduct), sometimes referred to (perhaps derogatorily) as the “snitch rule,” which went into effect on August 1, 2023. In addition, the California Legislature recently passed, and Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law, state Senate Bill No. 40 (the annual State Bar licensing fee bill), which (among other things) added new Section 6090.8 to the California Business and Professions Code, effective January 1, 2024. Read more

An attorney I met recently lamented that he spends most of his workdays reacting to emails. He starts each day with a long to-do list and feels lucky to finish one or two things under the incessant email barrage. I can relate. Those of us who are on email listservs have no doubt received an email flurry sparked by an interesting (or not so interesting) question or important (or not so important) piece of news and have seen the frantic emails from attorneys begging to be removed from the listserv and pleading with others to not "Reply All."  Read more

On August 1, 2023, new rule 8.3, derisively referred to as “the lawyer rat rule,” became effective in California, requiring lawyers to report other lawyers’ serious misconduct.  Read more

Sometimes, I feel that the expression “less is more” is overused. Usually, I find that less is less and more is more. Circumstances rarely justify a juxtaposition of those words’ meanings. But perhaps we are in one of those unusual times, at least as it concerns the regulation of our profession. Read more

This Ethics Spotlight highlights changes in the California Rules of Professional Conduct during 2022, as well as ethics advisory opinions that were issued during 2022 by the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility (“ABA”), the Orange County Bar Association’s Professionalism and Ethics Committee (“OCBA”), and the California Supreme Court’s Committee on Judicial Ethics Opinions. Read more

In the context of the No-Contact rule, an attorney sending an email or text which includes her client to another attorney may provide implied consent to the receiving attorney to hit the "Reply All" button, thereby permitting the receiving attorney to communicate directly with the represented client on the email chain. Read more

A well-worn adage, variously attributed to Abraham Lincoln or Benjamin Franklin, holds that any person – including a lawyer – who represents himself has a fool for a client. And if those two luminaries were alive today in an age where many legislative frameworks as well as contract clauses provide for attorney fee awards to a prevailing party, they might have further observed that this same fool attorney would not get paid. That is because there is a well-settled rule that a lawyer who is appearing on his or her own behalf and is the prevailing party in a lawsuit may not be awarded attorney fees. Read more

The California Rules of Professional Conduct require informed written consent from an affected client under a number of different circumstances involving conflicts of interest. For example, Rule 1.7 requires informed written consent from each client if a lawyer were to represent a client in a matter directly adverse to another current client or whenever there is a significant risk that the lawyer’s representation would be materially limited by the lawyer’s responsibilities or relationships to others or the lawyer’s own interests. Read more

You’ve heard all the stereotypes about New Jersey? Well, some are true, and some not so much. But you might be surprised by how the myths, realities, and Hollywood fictions about the Garden State teach valuable ethics lessons to lawyers. Read more

If you are planning a summer vacation, you undoubtedly are looking forward to some rest, relaxation, or time off from working. Far too many professionals these days are able to stay plugged in to the office during their vacations with the same tools that allowed them to work from home through the pandemic. However, if you are looking to unplug while on vacation, it’s important to plan ahead so that you can continue to fulfill your ethical obligations. Read more