Law Practice Management - Page 4 of 5

Category: Law Practice Management

February 9, 2016 • Law Practice Management, Professional Liability Matters, Sanctions

Lawyer Sanctioned for Employee’s Misconduct

An attorney can’t be held accountable for her client’s breach of the Rules of Professional Conduct, right? Wrong. Model Rule of Professional Conduct 1.15 provides that a lawyer cannot commingle a client’s property (i.e. money) with the lawyer’s. Seems simple enough: don’t mix personal with business. However, what happens when the lawyer complies with this standard but her employee doesn’t? According to a Texas state court, the lawyer is still responsible.

December 18, 2015 • Employment Practices Liability, Law Practice Management, Professional Liability Matters

Professional Liability for Employee Misconduct

Professionals are often entrusted with access to personal and financial information from their clients. Professionals take great care to ensure that they protect this information from disclosure and that they comply with ethical guidelines regarding proper use of client funds. However, even when professionals fully comply with the rules, there may be occasions where employees or other individuals who have access to the information through their professional employer use it for an improper purpose. While professionals cannot always prevent employee misconduct, the actions they take to remedy any misdeed can often mean the difference in assessing personal liability.

September 1, 2015 • Ethics, Law Practice Management, Professional Liability Matters

Initial Consult Fee ≠ A/C Relationship

We recently addressed the ethical implications of the initial, would-be client interview. As we discussed, the lawyer owes certain duties to a potential client and those duties vary from those owed to former and current clients. Whether an attorney-client relationship is actually formed can dictate whether a lawyer has a conflict of interest down the road when representing a new client. A recent decision out of the North Dakota Supreme court illustrates this concept.

August 20, 2015 • Ethics, Law Practice Management, Professional Liability Matters

The Ethics of Professional Crowdfunding

Starting up a successful professional practice requires ingenuity, business acumen, and a passion for the profession, but it also requires cash. In order to overcome financial barriers, some entrepreneurial professionals have looked to crowdfunding as an alternative method for raising capital. By utilizing social media and dedicated crowdfunding websites, professionals are now in a stronger position than ever to pitch their brand and solicit donations from large numbers of individuals in the general public. Crowdfunding offers the promise of a quick source of revenue, but may also implicate possible ethics concerns that could prove costly to professionals in the long term.

August 19, 2015 • Ethics, Law Practice Management, Legal Malpractice, Professional Liability Matters

Fired but Still on the Hook

Most attorneys don’t end their careers in the same place they started. Rather, many attorneys make a move or two which may require the transfer of files and clients. When an attorney transfers a file to a new firm, the prior firm must maintain certain ethical obligations. Model RPC 1.16 provides that a lawyer must provide notice when terminating a representation and take steps to the extent reasonably practicable to protect a client’s interests. Therefore, professional obligations are not always terminated as soon as the client ends the relationship. The following example demonstrates how failure to timely withdraw from a case after the attorney-client relationship ended resulted in a claim of malpractice.

August 18, 2015 • Ethics, Law Practice Management, Professional Liability Matters

Conflict Check for Would-be Clients?

Attorneys put food on the table by converting would-be clients into actual clients. However, the astute attorney knows which engagements are not worth pursuing and when to decline representation. The careful attorney knows that even the initial client interview will trigger ethical obligations. To be clear, an attorney’s ethical responsibilities kick even before there is an attorney-client relationship. While most attorneys probably are aware of this general principle, it’s less likely that most engage in best practices during the client intake process.

August 6, 2015 • Ethics, Law Practice Management, Professional Liability Matters

Client Communication: What’s Enough/Too Much?

The duty to communicate is essential to every aspect of the fiduciary duty a lawyer owes to the client. Proper communication ensures that we are identifying and serving our clients’ interests. It’s possible today to be technically “available” to clients 24-7. But how much availability is required, and where is the line? That’s the subject of a recent ethics case against a Texas attorney, resulting in sanctions for unreasonably ignoring a client.

August 5, 2015 • Law Practice Management, Legal Malpractice, Professional Liability Matters

Liability for Delegated Tasks

We’ve previously touched on the risks of delegation. Although most of the LPL cases we discuss involve an attorney’s own, direct negligence, an attorney may be responsible for delegating tasks to others. Can the delegating attorney avoid liability because the alleged negligence was committed by someone else? According to a recent South Carolina opinion, the answer is no.

April 14, 2015 • Law Practice Management, Professional Liability Matters

Less is More: Lengthy Pleadings Draw Judicial Ire

Federal rules require plaintiffs in a civil action to submit a short and plain statement of the claim showing that she is entitled to relief. Nevertheless, attorneys often feel compelled to develop their arguments through protracted complaints, and to support their claims with copious exhibits. In complex cases, thorough pleadings may be necessary to sustain a claim. However, in the majority of cases, such extensive pleading may produce irrelevant and redundant content that violates court rules and ultimately detracts from the issues at hand.