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Thompson Hine LLP, a full-service business law firm with approximately 400 lawyers in 11 offices, was ranked number 1 in the category “Most innovative North American law firms: New working models” by The Financial Times and was 1 of 7 firms shortlisted for The American Lawyer’s inaugural Legal Services Innovation Award. The firm has been recognized by the National Law Journal as a Legal Technology Trailblazer and featured by Bloomberg for its innovative service delivery models, which drive accuracy and predictability. The firm’s commitment to innovation is embodied in Thompson Hine SmartPaTHTM – a smarter way to work – predictable, efficient and aligned with client goals. For more information, please visit ThompsonHine.com and ThompsonHine.com/SmartPaTH.

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<img style="max-width: 100%;height: auto;max-width: 100%;height: auto" loading="lazy" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-4770" src="https://www.thelawforlawyerstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/754/2020/01/2020.2-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200">As 2020 kicks off, let&rsquo;s take a look back at&nbsp;situations that got&nbsp;lawyers into ethical hot water last year.&nbsp; They each&nbsp;point to some ways you can stay out of trouble this year.
1.&nbsp; Talk nicely
As widely reported, <a href="https://abovethelaw.com/2019/12/small-firm-lawyer-tells-biglaw-team-to-eat-bowl-of-dicks-during-settlement-negotiations/">calling your opposing counsel a &ldquo;bowl of d- &ndash; ks</a>,&rdquo; among other&nbsp;epithets is a sure-fire way to&nbsp;serve up some&nbsp; <a href="http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/this-profession-doesnt-need-you-judge-tells-lawyer-who-sent-bowl-of-dicks-emails">ethics woes</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;Other examples of&nbsp;lawyers misusing their power of speech in various ways, included:
<ul>
<li>the lawyer who <a href="http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/lawyer-who-reacted-to-judges-question-with-incredulity-is-tossed-from-2nd-circuit-courtroom">sarcastically replied to a question from the bench</a> during a federal district court oral argument with &ldquo;Are you serious judge?&rdquo; and was ejected from the courtroom;</li>
<li>the lawyer who <a href="https://www.thelawforlawyerstoday.com/2019/07/4478/">impugned the integrity of state appellate judges</a> in court filings, receiving a (stayed) suspension; and</li>
<li>the lawyer who was suspended for <a href="https://www.thelawforlawyerstoday.com/2019/05/4362/">threatening to arrest a tenant</a> of his landlord client and telling him he should commit suicide.</li>
</ul>
As the <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/model_rules_of_professional_conduct_preamble_scope/">Model Rules say</a>,&nbsp;being members of the legal profession means that we are representatives of clients, officers of the legal system, and public citizens with special responsibility for the quality of justice.&nbsp; Calling a fellow member of the bar a &ldquo;f- -ktard&rdquo; just doesn&rsquo;t square with those roles.
2.&nbsp; Bill carefully
Billing was big news at the end of last year, with reports about the lawyer who <a href="https://www.thelawforlawyerstoday.com/2019/12/4739/">failed to keep contemporaneous time records</a> and&nbsp;was suspended&nbsp;for overcharging clients based on her reconstructions of the work.&nbsp; In addition, there was&nbsp;the federal suit filed&nbsp;&nbsp;early in the year, with the allegation that a firm&rsquo;s &ldquo;<a href="https://www.thelawforlawyerstoday.com/2019/02/law-firms-block-billing-helped-obscure-overcharges-plaintiffs-allege-in-tx-federal-suit/">block billing&rdquo; obscured overcharges</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;(The&nbsp;plaintiff&nbsp;voluntarily dismissed the case two weeks after filing it.)&nbsp; There are&nbsp;lots of ethics issues relating to legal fees in general &mdash; dividing them with other lawyers; whether you must deposit them in an IOLTA or IOTA; what to do in case of a fee dispute with a client &mdash; but everything depends on the core notions of <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_1_5_fees/">charging a reasonable fee</a>, <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_1_4_communications/">communicating the basis of that fee</a> to the client, and <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_1_4_communications/">keeping the client informed about the bill</a> as you go.
3.&nbsp; Watch for conflicts
Getting disqualified is never a good thing, but conflicts of interest led to just that result in a couple&nbsp;cases&nbsp;providing some important&nbsp;take-aways.&nbsp; For instance, in the government context, the <a href="https://www.thelawforlawyerstoday.com/2019/03/4310/">DQ of an entire prosecutor&rsquo;s office</a> based on the chief prosecutor&rsquo;s previous&nbsp;representation of&nbsp;the defendant while in private practice underscored the role that imputation plays under <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_1_10_imputation_of_conflicts_of_interest_general_rule/">Model Rule 1.10</a> and <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_1_11_special_conflicts_of_interest_for_former_current_government_officers_employees/">1.11</a> in spreading the &ldquo;taint&rdquo; of&nbsp;a disqualifying conflict.&nbsp; And a <a href="https://www.thelawforlawyerstoday.com/2019/11/massage-parlor-sale-results-in-dq-for-lawyer-and-lessons-on-former-clients/">lawyer who represented a massage parlor</a> in the sale of the business was DQ&rsquo;d in a suit over the deal because his previous representation of the buyer was &ldquo;substantially related&rdquo; to his work for the seller under the state&rsquo;s version of <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_1_9_duties_of_former_clients/">Model Rule 1.9</a>.
4.&nbsp; Keep it confidential
Technology played a role in two situations last year that spotlighted confidentiality concerns.&nbsp; In January, lawyers for President Trump&rsquo;s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thelawforlawyerstoday.com/2019/01/redaction-can-be-tech-challenge-and-legal-ethics-risk-too/">failed to redact a document properly</a>, leading to disclosure of the hidden contents when it was filed with the court.&nbsp; And a lawyer&rsquo;s Facebook posts that disclosed enough&nbsp;information about a client that she recognized herself resulted in a <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_1_11_special_conflicts_of_interest_for_former_current_government_officers_employees/">public reprimand</a> for violating the <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_1_6_confidentiality_of_information/">duty of confidentiality</a>.&nbsp; The place where&nbsp;social media, technology and our confidentiality obligations intersect&nbsp;is a&nbsp;place to be cautious.
5.&nbsp; Patrol the border
Finally, beware of possible pitfalls related to multi-jurisdictional practice and the unauthorized practice of law.&nbsp; Last year a lawyer not licensed in Ohio was <a href="https://www.thelawforlawyerstoday.com/2019/09/practicing-without-a-license-is-a-license-to-lose-your-practice-says-ohio-court/">hit with an injunction and a stiff fine</a> for UPL for providing legal services&nbsp;to six Ohio residents.&nbsp; And if you are&nbsp;in-house counsel, and&nbsp;the jurisdiction where you are working&nbsp;has registration requirements (many now do), this is a good time&nbsp;to check&nbsp;and make sure you are&nbsp;in compliance.&nbsp; (<a href="https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/professional_responsibility/in_house_rules.pdf">Here</a> is a chart with links to state requirements posted&nbsp;by the ABA&rsquo;s Center for Professional Responsibility and updated as of November 2019.)
Happy 2020 from all of us at The Law for Lawyers Today&nbsp;&mdash; make it a year of ethical practice!

core/freeform

Ethics

Legal Ethics, Professional Responsibility and the Business of Law

Five ways to stay out of ethics trouble in 2020