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~

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 -

Legal Ethics in Pop Culture

Some know her as Hannah Montana, but the courts only know her as Miley Cyrus, teenage pop icon.  And her recent battles in court have been fueled by the latest drama surrounding Honorable Hess, the judge originally presiding over the case.  From an article released by On Point News, “a Los Angeles judge [Superior Court Judge Robert L.  Hess] has stepped down from a case alleging Miley Cyrus discriminated against Asian Pacific Islanders with a facial expression after the plaintiff accused him of racial bias for using the word ‘Oriental’ in a court hearing.”

Honorable Hess is no longer presiding over the case because of the following verbiage declared in open court.  “The people in the photo, he said, included ‘Orientals and non-Orientals’ and Cyrus’s gesture ‘could be construed as mocking or disparaging of persons of Oriental ancestry.”  Kim, the plaintiff in the case against Ms. Cyrus, filed with the court contentions that proposed “Hess’s ‘use of the word ‘Oriental’ is akin to using the word ‘N—er’ or ‘Negro’ when referring to African Americans” and ‘reflects racial bias’ toward Asians.”  And thus, “in refusing to acknowledge that Cyrus’ ‘act of slanting her eyes was a racially offensive gesture,’ Kim argued, Honorable Hess ‘was influenced by [his] own bias against Asians.’ That bias ‘prevent[s] this court from being fair and impartial in this case.” Honorable Hess recused himself last month and the case as of now is assigned to Judge Ronald Sohigian.

Do you agree that Honorable Hess should have recused himself?  What are some of the professional responsibility and ethical considerations surrounding this situation?

-Liz McCurry-