The Ethical Quandary

"A legal ethics and litigation blog."

Author: David Sorensen and Mike Downey are partners at Hinshaw & Culbertson in Chicago; David Elkanich is a partner and Dayna Underhill is senior counsel in Portland, Ore.

Blawg Related Categories: Legal Ethics • Trials & Litigation • Partner

Recent Posts from The Ethical Quandary

Practicing Law in the “Cloud”
A few months ago, I wrote a post on cloud computing. The post provides some general issues to consider when deciding whether to engage in cloud computing, namely whether to usethird party vendors to store…
Disbarred Lawyer Locked Out of His Office to Stop Unauthorized Practice
Some people just do not understand the message. For five years the Office of Disciplinary Counsel in Pennsylvania issued suspensions, and eventually a disbarment last August, to Allen Feingold. However he he continued to practice…
New York Allows Attorney Unsolicited Informational Messages Under Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)
Attorney May Send Unsolicited Informational Messages Under TCPA Another in our ongoing series of Hinshaw Lawyers for the Profession® Alerts Stern v. Bluestone, ___N.E.2d___, 12 N.Y.3d 873, (N.Y. 2009) Brief Summary An attorney’s unsolicited faxes containing…
State of Oregon v. Kanuch: Ordering Defendants to Pay Court-Appointed Attorneys Fee Based on Ability to Pay
Consider this: a criminal defendant is charged with aggravated murder with a firearm, among other charges. The defendant pleads guilty to aggravated murder, and receives a 30-year minimum prison term. Just when the lawyer doesn’t…
Example 4,323 of the Risks of Blogging and Facebook-ing
The ABA Online Journal has an interesting article discussing when lawyers become respondents in bar matters or defendants in civil cases. This blog regularly discusses the risks inherent in using social networking cites, and cautions…
Is Technology Creating Reduced Expectations of Privacy?
Over the past few weeks, a couple experiences have me thinking about how technology may be affecting our collective expectations of privacy. First, I was recently one of the lawyer participants at an Oregon law…
EQ Blogger on NPR’s Talk of the Nation
Yesterday I was interviewed on NPR’s Talk of the Nation (TOTN). The program was “Social Media Crashes the Courtroom,” and dealt with problems courts and lawyers are facing now that lawyers, jurors, parties and others…
Are disciplinary authorities ready for fixed fees?
News reports are that law firms large and small should or are moving from time-based (hourly) billing to fixed fees. See, e.g., http://www.abajournal.com/weekly/mayer_brown_and_reed_smith_to_roll_out_fixed-fee_plan. Such a change in billing methods will require a change in how…
Blogger Downey helps celebrate “Swindle Your Firm” Month
On September 17, EQ blogger Mike Downey will moderate a telephone seminar for the ABA Law Practice Management Section titled Preventing and Responding to Employee Embezzlement at Law Firms. Sign-up information is available at http://www.abanet.org/cle/programs/t09prp1.html.…
Early-Week EQs
Some interesting bits from around the web. Some new, some older (and waiting to get a post): I’m not entirely convinced this is a matter of legal ethics, but it’s so interesting (from a gadget…