ALR Student’s Corner: A Helpful Guide to the ABA/BNA Lawyer’s Manual on Professional Conduct

The ABA/BNA Lawyer’s Manual on Professional Conduct is a useful resource which students and lawyers can access to help with any news or questions they may have on every aspect on attorney conduct and legal ethics.  The website is categorized into four sections: the Practice Guides, the Ethical Rules, Current Reports, and Ethics Opinions.

Practice Guides are located on the left side of the website’s homepage.  They are separated into topics.  Once you click on a topic, you can find information ranging from an introduction on that topic, an analysis of the law, and also information regarding how courts have applied the law in certain situations.  Practice Guides are an easy way to research certain areas of the professional conduct like: Fees, the Lawyer-Client Relationship, and also conduct in Trial.  By clicking on any of the available topics, you can search for rules/guidelines on that topic.  The Practice Guide gives you the corresponding rule, what it states, and the rationale for that rule.

The Ethical Rules, as you may be familiar with, houses the entire Model Rules of Professional Conduct.  This section is on the right side of the home screen.  This section also has valuable links to the various state ethics rules and also an entire section on which rules have been amended and changed slightly by different jurisdictions.  By clicking on the ‘Search Ethics Rules’ link you can easily search for terms or phrases.

Once you click ‘Search Ethics Rules’ the results will return links and documents for you to choose from accordingly.  For example if you search Confidentiality and then click search, the website will list out seven documents.  These results range from: state ethics rules, the actual ABA rules, and also under Judicial Enforcement.

The section on Current Reports houses up to date information on recent decisions, disciplinary actions, and all other relevant news within all jurisdictions in the United States.  The reports are updated twice a week and is a great section in which you can see what is happening in your area.  You can even search within all the reports that have been posted on the ABA website.  By clicking on the Current Reports link from the homepage, you can then choose on the left hand side whether you want the reports to be listed alphabetically or by the date they were issued.  By clicking on the Index archive you may search by alphabetical order and then search within the topic of your choosing simply by clicking on the (+) option next to each section.

The last section of the ABA manual website is also a useful section when you want to research information specific to your state’s jurisdiction.  Located on the top right hand side of the home page this section has the ABA Ethics Opinions and also brief summaries of opinions by both state and local bar associations.

Together all four sections comprise the entire website.  This is a useful tool all around to answer all ethical questions you may have.  This website is great for students in law school to use as a supplementary resource when taking their Professional Responsibility Course.  It is useful for professors who want to teach the course to be able to choose great articles and documents for their students.  The guides will be a great place even for final exam questions! Finally, the website is an excellent resource for any practicing attorney because it holds anything and everything an attorney needs to know when he or she has questions on professional conduct.  We may not understand it now because most of us have taken the Professional Responsibility course, but once we are out in the real world we do not want to feel as though we are lost and have no one to go to when we have questions.  This website will be a great tool for all of us to seek guidance on all aspects of our professional career.

Resources:

To check out the actual website please follow the following steps:

1. Visit the Charlotte School of Law website
2. Click on Law Library
3. Click on Electronic Resources
4. Search the tabs on the home page and click on their ‘A-Z Index of Databases’
5. The ABA/BNA website link should be the first one listed!

To view the Model Rules of Professional Conduct

1. Go to the ABA’s website at: http://www.americanbar.org/aba.html
2. Search for the Model Rules of Professional Conduct

~Ashley Thomas, J.D. Candidate ’12~

Hidden Treasures: Family Law Quarterly

Now that you’ve survived your midterms, the time has come again… to take moment to shine the spotlight on one of the many legal periodicals Charlotte Law has to offer!

Interested in family law?  Family Law Quarterly, circulating to over 10,000 ABA members as the journal of the American Bar Association Section of Family Law, is published four times per year as a service to its members. Family Law Quarterly publishes theme issues on topics of interest to lawyers practicing in the field of family law.

This is a scholarly journal designed to keep practitioners current with an analytical view of existing and emerging family law issues,Family Law Quarterly will keep you informed on the year’s hot topics.  Charlotte Law’s print collection for this title goes back to the volume 19, published in 1985, to the present and full text for all issues but those contained in the latest volume are also available electronically through HeinOnline.

Here’s a selection of articles published in the latest issue, Potpourri of Family Law Topics: Relocation Trends, Pet Custody, and Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Orders

• The Need for Reality Testing in Relocation Cases
  Patrick Parkinson, Judy Cashmore & Judi Single

This article reports on an interesting study of Australian relocation cases. Relocation disputes are a growing international trend in part because of the increase in international mobility and changing dating patterns resulting from use of the Internet as a social networking tool. The authors look at seventy-one cases and report that in forty-seven of them courts allowed the applicant to move with children. The proportion of cases going to trial in Australia over the issue of relocation is very much greater than in family law disputes generally. Thus, the study demonstrates that relocation disputes are very difficult to settle and disproportionately take up judicial resources. For many relocating parents, victories can be Pyrrhic due to the high costs of litigating the disputes and maintaining contact with the other parent after the move. Travel can be burdensome for parents and also children. Thus, if parents are not able to negotiate their own resolutions, changes in shared parenting arrangements may result from breaches of orders, rather than their variation.

• Pet Custody: Distorting Language and the Law
  John DeWitt Gregory

The author shows that pets that are the subject of disputes between divorcing spouses or separating unmarried couples should continue to be characterized as property under a rational legal system. Proposals in the law review literature and halting, early attempts by some courts to place pets in some category other than property, which flirted with a standard derived from the prevailing best-interest-of-the-child doctrine in conventional child custody and visitation cases, are, at best, vanity. Such proposals do violence to both the language of the law of child custody, create uncertainty in a well-established area of divorce law, and offer no discernible prospect of improving the welfare of companion animals. 

• The Hague’s Online Child Abduction Materials: A Trap for the Unwary
  Carol S. Bruch & Margaret M. Durkin

The authors, a law professor and a law librarian, describe two efforts by the Hague Conference on Private International Law to support its 1980 Child Abduction Convention— intergovernmental meetings for States Parties and a website database of Convention cases. They identify important omissions and inaccuracies in the Conference’s online materials, and then detail how researchers can best find the information they need. The authors also suggest improvements that would enhance the accuracy and utility of the Conference’s online resources and the work products of the Conference’s legal staff. Examples are drawn from research problems that became evident in Abbott v. Abbott, 2010 WL 1946730 (U.S. May 17, 2010), a Convention case that was decided while this article was in press.

• French Supreme Court Restates Rules on Jurisdiction, Recognition, and Enforcement of Foreign Decisions in Matrimonial Matters: A New Chance for Old Cases
  Alain Cornec & Julie Losson

United States lawyers and their clients dealing with French cases have been infuriated for ages by the so-called “national jurisdiction privilege,” which thwarted enforcement in France of foreign judgments. This two centuries old line of French cases has disappeared (II) and the result is good for American matrimonial lawyers. The French Cour de Casation strongly limited the traditional judge-made interpretation of the law, upon which a French citizen always has a right to sue a foreign national and be sued by a foreign national in France solely on the basis of French nationality. This rule blocked enforcement of most foreign judgments. The new rule, which is retroactive, is leading to a complex and evolving case law concerning recognition of judgments, lis pendens, and forum non conveniens(III), and may lead American practitioners to consider reviving former “hopeless” cases.

2009 Schwab Essay Winners
The Schwab Essay Contest for law students is sponsored by the ABA Section of Family Law.

• Inappropriate Injury: The Case for Barring Consideration of a Parent’s Homosexuality in Custody Actions
  Andrea “Drew” Lehman

This article examines what happens when courts address the rights of homosexuals to parent. It chronicles three prevailing approaches courts use in addressing how the sexual orientation of a parent affects the “best interests” analysis. The article then explores the framework of the theory of injury and the types of harm that courts presume correspond with being raised by a homosexual parent. The article concludes that when the injury to the child is properly framed, it compels a conclusion that consideration of a parent’s homosexuality must be barred completely. Finally, the author argues that the current standards assessing the fitness of a gay or lesbian parent are both illegal under the U.S. Constitution and do not truly address what is in the best interest of the children at the center of these disputes. Each test fails because each operates as a vehicle for imparting the same underlying questions of injury that cannot be a subject of inquiry because of their unconstitutional or unconscionable nature.

• In Support of a Gender-Neutral Framework for Resolving Selective Reduction Disputes
  Kathleen Lee

This article examines selective reduction disputes and argues that a man’s right to choose should be given legal protection equal to that of a woman’s. After providing background information on the process of, and need for, selective reduction, this article argues that current abortion laws, which limit legal decision-making rights to women, should not apply in the selective reduction context. It then examines the judicial reasoning behind granting men’s preferences additional consideration in frozen embryo disputes, and concludes that this reasoning should be applied to disputes between couples over whether to undergo selective reduction.

Link to our catalog record at http://70.150.94.196/record=b436070 to see detailed holdings information and to access back issues and abstracts online, and feel free to wander through our periodicals collection if you’re interesting in the old fashioned print versions.  And as always, happy reading!!!

- Ashley Moye -

A Cautionary Tale

On October 13, 2010, the ABA Journal featured a cautionary tale for all law students to take heed.  A lawyer from Kansas City, Carlos Romious, was disbarred for “for charging a soldier a fee of $3,500 an hour, shouting profanities at court clerks, brawling with court security officers and suggesting that a judge is pedophile,” according to the ABA Journal article, the National Law Journal and the Legal Profession Blog.  According to the National Law Journal, “Romious had originally agreed to represent the soldier for a flat $3,500 fee, but later claimed the amount was his hourly charge,” and in a different instance, according to the full-text of the Supreme Court the opinion (PDF), “the court says, Romious asked a judge whether he was a pedophile and said, ‘You’re going to sit up there with the audacity and the smugness of your holiness.’”  In addition to Romious’ “abusive and bizarre behavior,” as cited by the court, the court points to Romious’ interactions with courtroom personnel, including security officers and clerks.  Specifically, the court cited where “Romious brawled with security officers after he set off a magnetometer,  he called a court clerk a ‘f—ing b—-,’ said he wanted to ‘ ‘f—ing’ file his papers, and declared that he was smarter than anyone in the clerk’s office.”  As a result the court said Romious’ behavior had resulted in two criminal convictions, an active sentence in jail and a contempt citation. The court opinion outlines all of  Romious’ behavior, including outrageous statements against opposing counsel, demands upon the prosecution, attempts to file incomplete or otherwise improper documents, failures to appear for hearings and court proceedings, and numerous other strange interactions.

Are you curious about the professional rules of conduct for your state? If so, most states publish the rules of professional conduct on the web (either the state bar website or a website designated for court rules and procedure) for easy searching ability.  For example, based on the situation presented above, the hearing panel stated Romious violated “KRPC 1.1 (2009 Kan. Ct. R. Annot. 410) (competence);  1.5(a) (2009 Kan. Ct. R. Annot. 460) (fees); 3.4(c) (2009 Kan. Ct. R. Annot. 552) (fairness to opposing party and counsel); 3.5(d) (2009 Kan. Ct. R. Annot. 558) (engaging in undignified or discourteous conduct degrading to a tribunal); 4.4(a) (2009 Kan. Ct. R. Annot. 572) (respect for rights of third persons); 8.4(b) (2009 Kan. Ct. R. Annot. 602) (commission of a criminal act reflecting adversely on the lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer); 8.4(c) (engaging in conduct involving misrepresentation); 8.4(d) (engaging in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice); 8.4(g) (engaging in conduct adversely reflecting on lawyer’s fitness to practice law); and Kansas Supreme Court Rule 211(b) (2009 Kan. Ct. R. Annot. 321) (failure to file answer in disciplinary proceeding). If you’re looking for the ABA model rules or other ethics materials, check out the ABA/BNA Lawyer’s Manual on Professional Conduct, which provides access to practice guides, indexes, highlights, ethics opinions, and ethics rules.  If you have a second, take a quick tour of the database!

What the ABA/BNA Lawyer’s Manual on Professional Conduct is:

Well known among the nation’s lawyers as the most authoritative source for news and guidance on virtually every aspect of attorney conduct and legal ethics, trust the ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct to help you practice ethically.

What it helps you do:

Protect yourself and your clients by consulting this service as soon as a question arises, and avoid malpractice suits and disciplinary actions.

Each topical Practice Guide in the Manual includes an overview, detailed background information and analysis of the law, and descriptions of how courts and ethics committees have applied the law in particular fact situations.

Stay ahead with Current Reports on recent court decisions, ethics opinions, disciplinary actions, and other news, all fully indexed.

Refer to American Bar Association standards and ethics opinions in full text, materials on state ethics rules, and synopses of opinions by state and local bar associations.

Stay ahead with Current Reports on recent court decisions, ethics opinions, disciplinary actions, and other news

- Liz McCurry -

Engage with the ABA

Students are invited to come and eat lunch with the ABA Site Team on Friday, October 8th.

There will be 2 lunches served in Room 106.  Minority students are invited to attend the lunch from 12:30-1:15 and all students are invited to attend the lunch served from 1:30-2:15.

If you are interested in attending, please email Maria Caino as soon as possible (so she can order the appropriate amount of fun).

We, in the library, encourage you to attend!

Hidden Treasures – Business Law Today

It’s that time again – let’s take a moment to shine the spotlight on yet another of the many legal periodicals Charlotte Law has to offer!

The high concentration of financial institutions and resources available in Charlotte mark us as a leading business center in North America.  So if business is your bag, be sure to check out Business Law Today – the ABA Business Law Section’s news magazine for business lawyers.  It’s published bimonthly and serves as a quick update for busy professionals.  Translated: color graphics, no footnotes and a generous helping of the latest in business law.  It also gives occasional updates on Section committees as well as Section meetings to come.

Charlotte Law’s print collection for this title goes all the way back to the very first volume, and full-text electronic access is available through HeinOnline.  Additionally, abstracts of all articles can be accessed through the ABA website and a subject index of all articles published since the journals inception in 1992 is available here: http://www.abanet.org/buslaw/blt/cumulativeindex92-09.pdf.

The current issue features a variety of articles, including:

• Disability and diversity – Changing your law firm culture
• The U.N. Disability Convention – Creating opportunities for participation
• The ADA and extended-stay hotels – Uncertainty in the law
• Obtaining disability-owned business enterprise certification – A lawyer’s guide to supplier diversity
• Negotiating private equity fund terms – The shifting balance of power
• Government incentives for businesses – Permanent federal credit and loan guarantee programs
• Drafting buy-sell provisions in shareholder agreements – Can we “insure” compliance?

Link to our catalog record at http://70.150.94.196/record=b382146 to see detailed holdings information and to access back issues and abstracts online.  Keep an eye on our popular journals area, where the most current issue of Business Law Today is always on display.  And as always, happy reading!!!

-Ashley Moye-

Marketing your Career on Day 1

Ok, let’s be honest, when I get something from the Bar Association or the ABA and it isn’t in a sealed envelope, most of the time it goes directly into the trash.  CLE-this, Newsletter-that.  However, I started getting a new mailing, The Young Lawyer, the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Divison Newsletter.  Rather than merely chucking this right into the 2 foot trash can next to my desk, something caught my eye.  One of the cover stories directly targets young associates and dives right into the essential role that legal marketing has taken within a law firm.  This article categorized different marketing strategies by year to help new (or fairly new) attorneys gather a game plan early on for firm growth and revenue building.  Here’s a snip-it:

First-Year Associates: “Volunteer for assignments and ask your firm’s ‘rainmakers’ for assignments”… “Scrub your Facebook page to eliminate anything that you don’t want a client or a managing partner to find”… “Send out holiday cards to those on your mailing list.”

Second-Year Associates: “Find a mentor” … “Ask your clients what meetings they go to, and join them” … “Read articles about marketing and business development.”

Third-Year, Fourth-Year, and Fifth-Year Associates: “Declare your major. Visualize the kind of person you’d most like to have as client.  Than reflect on the legal work you most enjoy.  Your goal is find these ideal clients and solve their problems with legal services”… “Develop a 30-second commercial.  Develop a concise description of yourself in terms of (1) what you do (e.g. ‘I’m a deal maker’, or ‘I settle disputes’); (2) what kind of clients you work for; and (3) what kind of problems you solve.

That was just a taste, now go see the full-text of the Definitive Associate Marketing Checklist and reflect on what you can do as a law student looking for those summer internships or as a new attorney wanting to razzle and dazzle the partner at the firm.  Here are a few other good reads I would recommend for the young lawyers out there:

• The lawyer’s guide to marketing your practice / James A. Durham, Deborah McMurray, editors. Available at KF316.5 .L38 2004.
• The lawyer’s guide to strategic planning : defining, setting, and achieving your firm’s goals / Thomas C. Grella, Michael L. Hudkins. Available at KF318 .G74 2004
• The lawyer’s guide to creating a business plan [electronic resource] : a step-by-step software package / Linda Pinson. Available at AV KF315 .Z9
• The lawyer’s guide to effective yellow pages advertising / Kerry Randall, Andru J. Johnson. Available at KF310.A3 R36 2005
• The lawyer’s guide to increasing revenue : unlocking the profit potential in your firm / Arthur G. Greene. Available at KF316.5 .G74 2005

-Liz McCurry-