As lawyers, we help clients solve problems, get results, but also advise them on risk.  Clients rely on their lawyers for their expertise in the area—as well as their advice that is generally devoid of emotions.  But who advises lawyers and law firms on their risks?  Following the same thought process, and the adage of a lawyer being a fool as their own client, analyzing risk is not always appropriate as an internal process.  However, a foundational element of any risk management program is a set of appropriate procedures. In fact, the USPTO Rules of Professional Conduct re ..read more

These days, it’s good to be a trusts and estates lawyer. While the rest of legal field is scrambling to figure out how to survive the next few weeks and months with little new business coming in and much existing business on hold, attorneys who represent the elderly and infirm report a boom in business. Everyone, it seems, is feeling vulnerable and thinking about their own mortality. How could you not? If it is not the media and its 24/7 reporting of all things COVID-related, it is the visual aids everywhere you go–from masks to gloves to “elbow bumps.” Death, or thoughts of death, surround us ..read more

by Charles Lundberg, Esq. Reprinted with permission. Published March 30, 2020 in Minnesota Lawyer. In a span of less than two weeks, the coronavirus outbreak has caused unprecedented disruption in law firms and created a host of new issues for firm general counsel and ethics partners. Here is a sampling of new ethics and risk management issues that have arisen almost overnight: A new paradigm for civility and reasonableness? Last week, a statement by the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Professional Responsibility and Ethics Committee (here) called for a new emphasis on lawyer civility: “I ..read more

On February 25, 2020, Michael E. McCabe, Jr. was quoted in Law360 (including the lead story in IP360 and Legal Ethics360), in an article entitled “$32M Dentons Verdict Could Put Vereins in the Crosshairs“ by Aebra Coe. The Law360 article addresses the ethical risks of the Swiss verein structure as it relates to conflicts of interest. The case involved a claim that Dentons committed legal malpractice arising from an alleged conflict of interest in an ITC proceeding, in which the firm was disqualified. Subsequently Dentons was sued for legal malpractice predicated on its conflict of interest. De ..read more

From the now-I’ve-heard-everything category, there is this: A plaintiff in a federal action claims that during the course of a mediation of her employment discrimination case, counsel for the defense–a partner with a major international law firm– allegedly “shook his butt” at plaintiff’s counsel while uttering profanity. Plaintiff demands sanctions of $7,000 for the alleged, er, exposure. For its part, the defendant denies that its (now former) counsel engaged in any such lascivious gyrating of the lower fleshy extremities. The defense just wants the booty-shaking issue to go away; they recent ..read more

For decades, regulators and courts have ruled that sex with a client during the course of the professional relationship is unethical. Nonetheless, lawyers continue to flout precedent and are frequently disciplined for engaging in sexual relations with their clients. Some cases of impermissible attorney-client sex are no brainers–such as the attorney who insists on a “legal services-for-sexual services” fee arrangement. Still, many attorneys believe that as long as the relationship is consensual, what happens between two consenting adults is none of bar counsel’s business. That kind of thinking ..read more

A federal court in Alabama yesterday disqualified a law firm from representing a new client in a patent infringement case against a current firm client. In Southern Visions, LLP v. Red Diamond, Inc. (N.D. Ala. Feb. 26, 2019), the court held that Bradley Arant Boult Cummings (“Bradley”) was ethically barred from representing one client (Southern Visions) against another client (Red Diamond).  The court found that disqualification was required because the law firm had a present client relationship with Red Diamond and the firm’s withdrawal from representing Red Diamond so that it could then ..read more

On February 6, 2019, the Colorado Supreme Court shuttered a Colorado business, which once billed itself as an “expert patent law” firm, and its owner, for engaging in the unauthorized practice of law. According to the Court’s order (here), Intelligent Patent Services, LLC (IPS) and its non-lawyer owner, Dak Steiert, are enjoined from engaging in the unauthorized practice of law in the State of Colorado. The Colorado court also ordered IPS and Steiert to pay restitution to their victim as well as fines and costs. We previously reported on this matter in our posts here, here and here. The Colora ..read more

What does the Chinese government’s decision to pay its citizens to apply for and register trademarks with the USPTO have to do with IP attorney ethics?   Plenty, as it turns out. As recently reported by the American Bar Association, see article doctored-trademark-specimen, the USPTO is experiencing “a plague of fake, doctored and digitally altered specimens” filed with new Section 1(a) “use based” trademark applications.  Many of these applications originate from international applicants, particularly those located in China, which is paying a “subsidy” to its citizens who succee ..read more

On Friday, August 30, 2018, the California Supreme Court ruled that a blanket advanced conflict waiver signed by two current clients, which purported to authorize lawyers from Sheppard Mullin to accept an unrelated representation of one client adverse to another, was void against public policy because the firm failed to obtain informed consent.  Even though the engagement agreement was legally unenforceable, the Court stated that the firm may still be entitled to recovery some of its fees, reversing the lower court’s decision which had barred Sheppard Mullin from any recovery due to its e ..read more