Failure to pay child support can result in disbarment, says Kentucky Supreme Court

Kentucky Supreme Court says a lawyer can be disbarred for non-payment of child support.

Article here (via aba journal).

Note that the lawyer had faced disciplinary action before for mishandling of client funds, and failure to place funds in an escrow account.

From the article:

James was suspended from law practice for five years in a different ethics case in April 2013. His misconduct included failure to return unearned fees, failing to place client fees in an escrow account, charging unreasonable fees for copying case files, and misappropriating a client’s money, according to the Kentucky Supreme Court opinion. At that time, James said his conduct was because of his discontinuation of medication for a mental health condition and promised to seek treatment through the Kentucky Lawyer Assistance Program.

The Kentucky Supreme Court noted James’ disciplinary history and his failure to respond to the current ethics charges. The court also said failure to pay child support is a breach of attorney duties to follow a court order, to comply with a statutory obligation, and to conduct oneself in a way that is above reproach.

Professional ethics definitions 101: Don't steal from your clients

A Grosse Pointe attorney pleaded guilty Wednesday to embezzling more than $2.5 million from his law firm's clients and laundering the money to hide his crime, according to the U.S. Attorneys office.

Kenneth Flaska, 62, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Paul D. Borman, admitting that between 2004 and 2013, he fraudulently obtained more than $2.5 million belonging to clients of his law firm. Flaska moved the money out of client accounts and into his own bank and investment accounts.

Article here. 

Are Florida's advertising restrictions so overbroad that Abe Lincoln would have violated them?

State Bar associations get to write the rules as to how attorneys can advertise in that state. Some states are more restrictive than others. Florida is known for having a rather strict State Bar. And it's advertising rules are currently the subject of a lawsuit.

Article here. 

The plaintiffs (a law firm)

"complain that for decades the Florida Bar has "stood apart from the rest of the nation in the restrictiveness of its rules governing lawyer advertising," but  that now, well, they've really just gone too far . . .Indeed, Florida’s rules are so broad that they would have subjected Abraham Lincoln to discipline for stating, in an 1852 newspaper advertisement, that his firm handled business with “promptness and fidelity”—two words that are no more “objectively verifiable” than those the Bar concludes violate its ethics rules here.

Does your law practice need updating? Technology concerns?

Do you have a tendency to be slow to change your ways? Have you resisted changing due to technological issues? It's not just a quaint thing, for lawyers to resist change & act in Luddite-like ways: instead, it's possible that a lawyer who fails to change due to technology could be facing ethical violations.

Article here. 

The US Supreme Court doesn't necessarily care if your lawyer is unethical

A case from Michigan about what effective representation of counsel means was heard at the US Supreme Court. It turns out, if your lawyer does unethical things doesn't mean they were ineffective as your legal representative.

Article here. (State Bar of Michigan blog)

and here.(from the Atlantic)

.... from the Atlantic article :

"This is what the right to counsel has come to in America. Your lawyer may have violated ethical rules; he may have failed to timely consult with other attorneys; he may have not adequately investigated your case; he may have given you bad advice that leads you to withdraw a guilty plea. And yet the legal standards imposed by the Supreme Court declare that you still aren't entitled to any meaningful relief by the courts. In law school, they call this "a right without a remedy." In real life, it's called injustice."