Current Issue Highlights

Volume 28 Issue 3
February 1, 2012

The ABA/BNA Lawyers' Manual on Professional Conduct consists of:
• a regularly updated manual and
• a biweekly Current Reports notification service.

For more information about this publication, click here.

Here are highlights from the latest issue of Current Reports:

HIGHLIGHTS

SPECIAL REPORT: Practice Managers Must Oversee Colleagues' Conduct

Ethics standards require partners and managers in all types of law practices to take affirmative measures to prevent and detect unethical conduct by lawyers in their firm, office, or agency. They also specify when subordinate lawyers are—and are not—allowed to follow a supervisor's instructions that may cross the line of professional conduct. A Special Report in this issue investigates the contours of these two key directives and how they have been interpreted and applied by courts and ethics committees. Page 71

Firm Must Use Disclaimer to Escape Client's Debt to Services Provider

A law firm is liable for payment of its clients' debts to litigation-services providers unless it disclaims this responsibility when it contracts with the provider on the client's behalf, the Nebraska Supreme Court rules. Page 56

Attorney Must Forfeit Fees for Ignoring Conflicts Among Joint Clients

A lawyer breached his fiduciary duty to a client twice over by representing three parties with conflicting interests in the same matter, and must disgorge even more of his fees than the district court ordered, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit decides. Page 50

Prosecutor Should Not Let Crime Victim Call Shots in Plea Negotiations

A prosecutor in a check fraud case engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice by giving the crime victim total veto power during plea bargaining with the defendant, according to the Indiana Supreme Court. Page 62

Georgia Uses Selective Approach in Updating Its Disciplinary Rules

Georgia amends nearly half of its lawyer conduct standards in a comprehensive revision of the state's rules of professional conduct. Some of the changes track updates the ABA has made to the Model Rules, but in many instances Georgia opts to use different language, or omits the ABA standard entirely. Page 66

Lawyer Needs Client's Consent to Alert IRS That Opponent Is Tax Cheat

An attorney who learns during a deposition that a litigation opponent is not paying taxes may not alert tax authorities unless the client gives informed consent to the disclosure, the South Carolina bar's ethics committee concludes. Page 61

Charging Lien Trumps Hospital Lien When Recovery Amount Is Modest

A common law attorneys' charging lien on a personal injury client's settlement has automatic priority over the statutory lien asserted by the hospital that treated the client's wounds, the Delaware Supreme Court decides. Page 54

NOTICE

SUBMITTING ARTICLES:

The ABA/BNA Lawyers' Manual on Professional Conduct invites readers to submit for publication articles of interest to attorneys by contacting the managing editor at kswanson@bna.com.

ALSO IN THE NEWS

UNAUTHORIZED PRACTICE: New Jersey enacts legislation designed to strengthen criminal laws against the unauthorized practice of law and to create a civil cause of action for those who are victimized by it. But the governor rejects a separate bill that would have criminalized lawyers' written solicitation of accident victims within 30 days of the incident. Page 65

MALPRACTICE: Common law dictates that a former client's malpractice claim does not survive her death, the Idaho Supreme Court decides. Page 51

TRIAL CONDUCT: The burden is on sanctioned parties and their counsel to establish that liability for the sanctions should be apportioned rather than imposed jointly and severally, the Virginia Supreme Court holds. If client and counsel disagree on how much each was at fault, the court states, the attorney should withdraw before contesting the degree of responsibility for the sanctioned conduct. Page 55