Legal Ethics Forum

Recent Posts from Legal Ethics Forum

• Zealous advocacy for accused terrorists

  Story here. Criminal defense lawyers for the accused terrorists who will be tried in NYC are saying that their clients will plead not guilty so that they will have more opportunities for criticizing the United…

• Lawyer involved in murders of witnesses?

  WSJ law blog has a surreal story about allegations against a criminal defense lawyer.

• Tony Mauro: "Do Defendants Get Enough Warning About a Guilty Plea's Consequences?"

  Fascinating article here, about the problem of advising criminal defendants of all the adverse consequences of pleading guilty. It looks as if the ABA and other groups will be moving toward more uniform standards.

• Extensive recusals within DOJ related to prior legal work for detainees

  The issue of recusals within the DOJ is being pushed in some quarters as a hot political issue. From reading the editorial at the Washington Times, a recent blog entry, and an older account from…

• Lawyer (and alleged ponzi schemer) targeted people who invested in law suits

  Story here. Key graf: Fort Lauderdale, Fla., law firm leader Scott Rothstein would piggyback on actual lawsuits, including one tawdry case his firm was handling, to solicit investors in an alleged Ponzi scheme, according to…

• Plaintiffs lawyer posts Youtube video about new suit; gets sued for defamation; moves to strike defamation suit under SLAPP law

  Story here. Youtube video here.

• NY news that you'd expect to hear coming out of Baltimore or Chicago

  According to Point of Law, "The ethics counsel to the New York state senate told senators to hand-deliver ethics filings, rather than mailing them, to avoid coverage under the federal mail fraud statute." (Hmm, what's…

• ABA's "Ethics 20/20 Commission" announces Preliminary Issues Outline, seeks feedback.

  Outline here. Commission website here. Get your comments in by December 31, 2009. The three top-level issues in the preliminary list are: Issues that arise because US lawyers are regulated by [US] states but work…

• Update on file filching deputy: Judge gives deputy a chance to apologize, avoid jail

  The court's order is here. But, according to this story, no apology may be forthcoming.

• Conflicts of interest within DOJ for lawyers who formerly represented detainees?ainees now in DOJ?

  This op-ed asks whether there are conflicts of interest within the DOJ for lawyers who formerly worked for detainees. Reading between the lines, it appears that recusals within the DOJ have been made on a…