Client Protection

103 ABA Journal Client Protection articles.

Preventive Law: Helping your clients before push comes to shove

Rare is the client who looks to litigators, alternative dispute resolution specialists or even corporate counsel as the “go to” persons for providing services that will prevent disputes. Most attorneys serve their clients by representing them in disputes that are already or soon to be underway, with a focus on billable negotiation, mediation, arbitration or litigation representation. When it comes to employee and manager education, skills training and systemic dispute prevention, business leaders look not to their attorney advocates but to a potpourri of human relations consultants, trainers and behavioral science experts.

Mar 21, 2023 10:14 AM CDT

Arrests without formal charges or convictions no longer have to be disclosed by would-be lawyers in New York

The New York Supreme Court’s appellate division is whittling down the types of justice system involvement that would-be lawyers have to disclose when applying for bar admission. The changes are intended “to better promote equity and fairness in the character and fitness interview process.”

Mar 20, 2023 9:35 AM CDT

State bar finds ‘shocking past culture of unethical and unacceptable behavior’ in its handling of Girardi complaints

Disbarred trial lawyer Tom Girardi’s efforts to buy relationships and exercise influence at the State Bar of California likely caused some ethics complaints against him to be improperly closed, according to an outside review released Friday.

Mar 13, 2023 9:33 AM CDT

Choice-of-law questions for state ethics rules examined in new ABA opinion

Lawyers admitted to multiple jurisdictions may be subject to different ethical requirements in the different states in which they are licensed to practice law, according to a new ABA ethics opinion.

Mar 1, 2023 12:31 PM CST

Family law gave this lawyer some ideas about what clients really want

Jessica Bednarz has spent much of her career representing people, researching access-to-justice issues and using that knowledge to try to find better ways to deliver legal services. That includes using what’s known as “design thinking” for developing client service programs.

Feb 27, 2023 8:39 AM CST

Ex-judge is suspended after secret recording by possible rival candidate revealed threat

A former judge in Missouri has been suspended for at least two years after he was recorded threatening to reveal the affairs of a rival’s husband if she ran against him in the judicial election.

Feb 7, 2023 10:21 AM CST

Attorney-client privilege case dismissed by Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court has dismissed an attorney-client privilege case two weeks after hearing oral arguments.

Jan 23, 2023 11:22 AM CST

Judge won’t sanction Texas lawyer for missteps after mistaken disclosure of info about Sandy Hook families

Updated: A Connecticut judge has declined to sanction a Texas lawyer representing Infowars host Alex Jones for failing to take proper action after his paralegal mistakenly released confidential documents to the opposing counsel.

Jan 19, 2023 9:41 AM CST

Law firm’s more protective test for attorney-client privilege ‘is a big ask,’ Kagan says

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan told a lawyer representing a tax law firm Monday that his proposed expansive test for protecting documents under attorney-client privilege “is a big ask,” according to coverage of the oral arguments.

Jan 10, 2023 8:29 AM CST

Hulu’s ‘Reasonable Doubt’ and keeping an appropriate distance from your clients

“‘Reasonable Doubt,’ a relatively new series that first aired in the fall on Hulu, is the next offering with high hopes of capitalizing on the public’s love for legal procedurals with a criminal focus,” writes lawyer and ABA Journal columnist Adam Banner.

Jan 9, 2023 12:28 PM CST

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