The Professional Lawyer Volume 25, Number 1

      July 2018

    Model Rules of Professional Conduct

    The Established Continuing Duty

    By David M. Siegel & Tigran W. Eldred

    In their article, Professors David M. Siegel and Tigran W. Eldred discuss the continuing duty of criminal defense counsel to former clients, including confidentiality and disclosure obligations to their former clients’ new lawyer. They also explain how this continuing duty applies to prosecutors. The authors provide a brief background of the continuing duty and then bring us into present day treatment of this duty by state and federal courts and in ethics opinions and policy statements, scholarship and commentary.

    Features

    Cybersecurity

    Who Bears the Risk of Loss When a Hacker Targets a Settlement?

    Steven M. Puiszis

    Author Steven Puiszis is a partner in the Chicago office of Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP. He serves as the Firm's General Counsel on Privacy, Security & Compliance. This timely article discusses Bile v. RREMC, LLC, a 2015 district court case which concluded that an attorney owes a duty to notify opposing counsel when the lawyer becomes aware that a hacker is targeting a settlement involved in one of the lawyer's cases. In addition to examining the district court’s ruling, Puiszis discusses risk management issues for lawyers and law firms, as well as social engineering and phishing risk management considerations. To conclude he provides a sample law firm policy that addresses these issues.

    Professional Development

    Legal Ethics Education: From Academic Foundation through Professional Practice

    By Arthur Gross-Schaefer, J.D., CPA (Inactive), MAHL, Rabbi & Lawrence P. Kalbers, Ph.D., CPA

    This article by Arthur Gross-Schaefer, J.D., CPA and Rabbi & Lawrence P. Kalbers, Ph.D., CPA considers ethics education in undergraduate programs, law schools, and continuing professional development for practicing professionals. It reviews and evaluates the legal profession, and particularly Continuing Legal Education (CLE) ethics courses, as an example of the need for a broader, principles-based approach to ethics education in academic programs and continuing education for professionals. Recommendations are presented on how tools, such as listing core values, creation of a personal mission statement, and the utilization of a comprehensive ethical decision model, can be incorporated into CLE ethics courses for attorneys as well as in ethics education in business law courses and law programs. Results are presented from a survey about ethical dilemmas that was developed and distributed to a sample of lawyers taking CLE ethics courses. Finally, this paper demonstrates how the recommended tools can be employed to enhance business law courses, law school courses, and CLE ethics courses for discussing and solving ethical dilemmas, particularly those that cannot be satisfactorily resolved using a rules-based approach.

    About the Professional Lawyer

    The Professional Lawyer is a periodical covering current issues, trends and controversies in the fields of legal and judicial ethics and professionalism.

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