– Below are ethicalEsq-f/k/a postings and annotated web resources on this topic. Find our full list of annotated ethics links by clicking the Client Rights & Legal Ethics link on the Navigation Bar
- “do you take too many cases?” (September 3, 2008)
- “making frivolous lawyers pay” (July 23, 2008)
- more lawyers should “think like lawyers” (September 30, 2007)
- contingency fees and the clueless fiduciary Sept.4, 2007
- not quite ready for Love Lawyers Day Sept. 2, 2007
- broadening the billable hour debate: consider yourself, your client, your ethics Aug. 18, 2007
- after Cahill v. Alexander: where does NYSBA stand on lawyer advertising? Aug. 13, 2007
- presumed ignorant: Scott Turow on the Billable Hour July 26, 2007
- the bar’s self-importance is undignified March 31, 2007
- Lawyers & Sutton’s No A$$hole Rule Feb. 19, 2007
- lawyer ads: the tension between ethics and self-interest March 27, 2006
- Missouri newsflash: legal consumers are really stupid (Sept. 26, 2005)
- seminal cases can shape a lawyer’s psyche (June 25, 2005)
- towards a better law day (May 2, 2005)
- mba, ambrogi and mean old me (April 28, 2005)
- bar & guild (April 26, 2005)
- Law Day, Not Lawyers Day (April 24, 2005)
- sol linowitz on saving our “betrayed profession” (March 19, 2005)
- e-shaming and lawyer conduct (March 7, 2005)
- Posting 04-22-04 More on the Silent Associate
- Posting 04/21/04 Encore: Learned Hand on Liberty
- Posting 04/21/04 Special Rules for Solos?
- Posting 04/20/04 why prof. yabut can’t . . . retire
- Posting 04/19/04 Some Inspiration (on courts, fairness, liberty)
- Posting 04/16/04 A Deadly Argument for Diligence?
- Posting 04/14/04 Selling the Appearance of Expertise
- Posting 04/14/04 Carolyn Won’t Like This (stealing; solos)
- Posting 04-11-04 Another Lap Around Law Firm Branding
- Posting 04-03-04 PR or Parody? (NYSBA ad campaign)
- Posting 03/23/04 “The Simpsons” and the Lawyers
- Posting 03/18/04 Teaching/Learning What a Lawyer Should Know
- Posting 03-17-04 The Hardest Thing About the Watchdog Role
- Posting 03/04/04 Brand LEX
- Posting 03/03/04 Is Legal Marketing [non]Spoofable?
- Posting 08-03-03 sexual relations rule is overbroad
- Posting 03/01/04 Starbuck GC Shines
- Posting 03/01/04 Sanction This (Firm)!
- Posting 02/26/04 UK Dads Protest Divorce Lawyers
- Posting 02/26/04 Boxley & Jones: Giving Lawyers a Bad Name
- Posting 02/24/04 A Large Incentive to Proofreaad Pleadings
- Posting 02/24/04 Bench & Bar Warn Youth About Credit Debt
- Posting 02/24/04 Law As Daily Passion, Not Default Profession
- Posting 02/23/04 Tenn. Loosens Its Discipline Gag Rule
- Posting 02/15/04 Bankruptcy and Bar Admission – A Proposal
- Posting 02/12/04 A Lincolnesque Law Practice?
- Posting 02/10/04 Bankruptcy and the Law Graduate
- Posting 02/05/04 Take This Bar (Exam) and Shove It
- Posting 02/03/04 Poet Lawreates Indeed and in Print
- Posting 02/03/04 Becoming a Partner-Rainmaker-Supervisor in D.C.
- Posting 02/03/04 Too Many Assigned Counsel Just Don’t Give a Damn
- Posting 02/01/04 Could This Happen in the Legal Profession?
- Posting 01/25/04 What’s the Future (Virtual or Actual) of the Legal Profession?
- Posting 01/22/04 Should Substance Abuse Affect Bar Admission?
- Posting 01/20 /04 Trying Too Hard to Get Paid
- Posting 01/19/04 Ethics for the Web? Lean Don’t Lie
- Posting 01/17/04 NY’s Disappointing Pro Bono Report
- Posting 01/05/04 What’s All This Fuss Over Anti-Bias CLE in Minn.?
- Posting 01/04/04 No Bull, Lawyers Need CLE
- Posting 01/03/04 Genderization Won’t Improve the Legal Profession
- Posting 12/21/03 Should Web Lawyers Use Content-Targeted Ads?
- Posting 12/14/03 Finding and Practicing Your Own Values as a Lawyer
- Posting 10/11/03 exitedEsq: Going Dormant (gonna miss ya)
- Posting 10/08/03 First Thing . . . Let’s Quell All the Liars
- Posting 09/27/03 Schiltz’s “Sermon” Should Be Required Reading . . .
- Posting 09/19/03 Come Join Our Chat on Lawyer Snobbery
- Posting 09/15/03 New NJ Rules Allow Less Competence Than the Model Rules
- Posting 09/11/03 Car Phoning Should Be Unbillable, Unacceptable
- Posting 07/21/03 An Obligation to Use Computer Research?
- Posting 07/19/03 Unzealous Weekend Advocacy
- Posting 07/19/03 “Diligent Defender” Standards Should Apply to All Firms
- Posting 07/07/03 From “Zealous” to “Honorable”
- Posting 07/06/03 New Model Rules Support Offering No-Frills Services
- Posting 06/16/03 Sorry, It’s Not Just a Few Bad Apples [diligence needed]
On Being a Happy, Healthy, and Ethical Member of an Unhappy, Unhealthy, and Unethical Profession, 52 Vand. L. Rev. 871 (81 pp pdf., [condensed here]), by Professor Patrick J. Schiltz, is a “must read” for anyone who truly cares about the well-being of individual lawyers and about the future of the legal profession. [Click for a useful condensed version from the Washington State Bar Association Bar News (Jan. 2000), and see excerpts and a summary in our 2003 post.]
legal sanity The purpose of this weblog by lawyer Arnie Herz “is to raise public consciousness and facilitate discussion about our distressed legal profession and the ground-breaking work that’s being done to move it in a saner direction” Arnie hopes “to revitalize the law as a noble calling through which lawyers can gain a sense of fulfillment without sacrificing savvy client representation or financial gain.” Good goals and a good site for your RSS feed.
Shakespeare and Lawyers Your Editor reflects on the profession’s reaction to the famous quote about killing all the lawyers.
Restrict Lawyers’ Licenses Authored by attorney Ralph Warner, this Nolo.com Soap Box Column states that “A license to practice law is no guarantee of legal knowledge, skill or experience. Incompetent lawyers regularly mislead and defraud clients who rely on the promise of expertise that the lawyer label brings.” Warner concludes:
“When it comes to lawyers who sell personal legal services, a lawyer’s license should be limited to specific subject areas — for example, family law, criminal law, tax or probate. A separate exam should be given for each specialty. That way, an exam could test the skills and knowledge needed by a lawyer who wants to represent clients in a particular legal subject area.”
Protecting lawyers, not clients In this article by George C. Leef (for the Cato Institute), the author argues that “The best means of delivering affordable legal services to the public with minimal risk of harm is through a competitive marketplace, backed up with remedies for fraud and incompetence. Professionals want to do competent work for their clients. Fear of failure and financial loss is a stronger deterrent to incompetent work than any licensing scheme” and concludes that “Competition works as well in legal services as in other markets. But we’ll have to get rid of the UPL statutes to enjoy the benefits.”
Thinking Like A Lawyer: Second Thoughts [47 Mercer L. Rev. 511], by James R. Elkins
Uneasy Burden: What it Really Means to Learn to Think like a Lawyer [47 Mercer L. Rev. 543], by Peter R. Teachout.