By Valerie Silverman Massey Imagine this scenario: Attorney is retained by Financier to represent Party. Attorney’s client is Party, but Attorney also has a financial relationship with Financier (who may be funding the representation...
Ethical Considerations and Fee Arbitration Nearly all new engagements for legal services should include a written agreement which spells out the terms and scope of the engagement, the fees to be charged and their...
By Carole J. Buckner, Senior Counsel, Klinedinst PC When one party’s counsel in litigation had knowledge of, access to, and possession and use of privileged communications of the opposing party and her husband, disqualification...
More, More, More: The Future of Lawyer Regulation in California By David C. Carr As flowers follow spring rain, scandal involving government regulation (or a lack of regulation) inevitably creates more regulation. So it is...
By Irean Z. Swan The idea of zealous advocacy is not a foreign concept to an attorney. In fact, the preamble to the Model Rules provides that “[a]s advocate, a lawyer zealously asserts the...
By Mallory H. Chase Currently out for public comment are two alternative versions of a proposed new California Rule of Professional Conduct, rule 8.3, which would address a lawyer’s duty to report the misconduct...
By Michael L. Crowley As most practitioners know by now, there was a major revision of the Rules of Professional Conduct in 2018 that govern us all. One controversial change was to Rule 4.2...
By Mitchell L. Lathrop Professional ethics require that at the outset of the attorney-client relationship, the client is made aware of the nature and scope of the attorney’s responsibilities, usually through an engagement letter....
By David C. Carr It is a truism that lawyers are often better at protecting their clients than protecting themselves. One area that illustrates this is what are colloquially referred to as “conflict waivers.”...
By Anne Rudolph Some attorneys advertise their services by purchasing ads in the newspaper, a trade magazine, and in other more traditional ways that are easily understood to be marketing and advertising. All such marketing...