Lawyer disbarred for recording clients for his own amusement (Oh, and he appropriated clients' funds too)

According to the opinion, Steele had taken virtually all of the funds in the client trust account, making it difficult to return unearned fees. When a client requested the money, Steele told his staff to inflate the client’s legal bills to deplete the retainer. Sometimes, Steele returned fees with retainers paid by new clients.

Steele also recorded conversations of clients and potential clients for his own personal amusement, and shared those recordings with staffers and relatives. He “openly mocked” the recorded individuals in conversations with others and in a meeting with the state disciplinary commission.

Article here (via aba journal). 

Practice tips: don't be afraid to look at a rule book, or read a few cases

Novel thoughts in the practice of law: Number 532 - Know the law.

So it might be a good idea, if you're a practicing lawyer, to know the law from time to time. Or know that, before beginning an argument, you might need to point the judge to the fact that you know it exists.

Here's another way to look at it - knowing the law is a way to win cases and make your clients happy. If you can show the judge "hey, here's the law" and then show the judge "but here's the facts of my case" you have a better chance of winning an argument. Which means more cases, and more clients, since happy clients will refer other people to you.

In other words, cases, laws, and rules are your friends. Here's the thing - cite the law, case, rule, statute, what have you. The judge needs to know that you know it. Besides, you went to law school for a while, then passed the Bar exam to practice, and you are probably proud of that fact. Then argue that -for certain reasons - your case is unique, so the law, case, rule etc. shouldn't apply, or that it applies in the way that you and your client want it to.

Make it easy for the judge to agree with you!

Also - if you have somehow become an attorney who doesn't do this, this small fact gets known. It's easy - and maybe a little lazy - to jump right into arguing, and repeat facts to the judge and ask the judge to rule your way - but if the law's not on your side, or you can't argue that it should be, that is the first thing that opposing counsel will point out to the judge, and the thing that they will point out to their client.

Here's a good place to start - Michigan Rules of Court (MCR). (via Michigan Courts).

Commonly violated legal ethics rules.

According to this article, legal ethics rules that are commonly violated are the duty of competence, diligence, and conflicts of interest.

Article here (via the lawyerist).

Legal advice for lawyers: If you win a massive fee, don't put it in an illegal tax shelter

This all started when a big tobacco company was sued through the office of Nix, Patterson and Roach. In 1998, the attorneys won $600 million in attorneys’ fees, to be paid over a period of time, as well as $68 million in connection with tobacco litigation in other states.
With this money in hand, the partners sought ways to shelter themselves from tax liability, and formed a partnership, NPR Investments, to invest in foreign currency.  . . .

The 5th Circuit found Thursday that the partnership and partners must pay penalties for underpaying the Internal Revenue Service through this investment scheme.
Pursuant to the Supreme Court’s recent decision in U.S. v. Woods, NPR is subject to a 40 percent gross valuation misstatement penalty.

Article here (via Above the Law).