By Katie ParkerAssociate Clinical Professor, USD School of Law It was over two decades ago, but I still vividly remember how starting law school felt like drinking from a fire hose. The reading, the...
By Valerie Silverman Massey The California Rules of Professional Conduct (Rules) serve as the ethical backbone of legal practice. These Rules establish the minimum standards required to avoid disciplinary action, but they are not...
By Katie ParkerAssociate Professor, USD School of Law In a scathing order last fall, a federal judge in San Francisco labeled counsel “more than foolish” for making the implausible argument that an expert witness...
By Michael L. Crowley Attorneys are confronted everyday with ethical dilemmas. Some we recognize, some we don’t. But the ones we recognize must be addressed and a good way to deal with it is...
By Katie Parker Associate Professor, USD School of Law “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” For most attorneys, becoming a supervisor is inevitable – one of the many “they...
By Charles Berwanger Those two decisions are: Plantations at Haywood 1, LLC v. Plantations at Haywood, LLC (2025) 108 Cal. App. 5th 803; and Lake v. Gates (9th Cir., 2025) 130 F. 4th 1064. Both culminated in the...
By Stacy Plotkin-Wolff It’s mid-2025, and California’s new civility CLE requirement is now officially in effect. For the first time, all California attorneys must complete at least one hour of continuing legal education addressing...
By: David C. Carr One of the more vexing puzzles in legal ethics is the seemingly straightforward question: How long do I keep the client’s file after the representation ends? There is no bright-line rule....
By Katie Parker A frequent scenario: an attorney meets with a potential client about a matter, but then for any number of reasons they don’t end up forming an attorney-client relationship. Unsurprisingly, that meeting...
By Khodadad “Ko” Sharif For all intents and purposes, an attorney appointed by the court to represent a party is in an attorney-client relationship with the party and bound by the rules of professional...