Legal Ethics

Expert Analysis

• Opinion

  Time To Consider Percentage Rental Agreements For Lawyers

  

  It has long been the law that attorneys cannot use percentage rental agreements because doing so would constitute an impermissible sharing of fees with nonlawyers, but such arrangements can help lawyers match expenses with revenues in lean times like now, say Peter Jarvis and Trisha Thompson at Holland & Knight.

• High Court Clarifies CFPB's Future, Complicates CFPB's Past

  

  While the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Seila Law this week leaves the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau standing, the CFPB's director now lacks protection from presidential termination, which brings uncertainty regarding the status of past actions taken by bureau directors who were "unconstitutionally insulated" from termination, says Eric Mogilnicki at Covington.

• Corporate Investigation Lessons From EBay Stalking Scandal

  

  The recent eBay criminal cyberstalking scandal reminds companies and law firms that investigative activities, even if undertaken solely using online research tools, could easily risk criminal or civil legal liability and violations of attorney ethics rules, says Joseph DeMarco at DeVore & DeMarco.

• 'Settle And Sue' Malpractice Cases Have New Clarity In Calif.

  

  A California state appellate court's recent decision in Masellis v. Law Office of Leslie F. Jensen provides a road map for proving causation and damages in settle-and-sue legal malpractice cases — an important issue of long-standing confusion, says Steven Berenson at Klinedinst.

• What You Say In Online Mediation May Be Discoverable

  

  Mediation conducted online with participants in different states makes it harder to determine where communications were made, increasing the risk that courts will apply laws of a state that does not protect mediation confidentiality, say mediators Jeff Kichaven and Teresa Frisbie and law student Tyler Codina.

• Opinion

  Texas Should Cancel Its 2020 Bar Exam

  

  An in-person bar exam in July would pose unacceptable health risks and put applicants at an unfair disadvantage, so the Texas Supreme Court should instead initiate a COVID-19 diploma privilege for this year, say professors Renee Knake and Dave Fagundes at the University of Houston.

• 10 Tips For A Successful Remote Arbitration Hearing

  

  As I learned after completing a recent international arbitration remotely, with advance planning a video hearing can replicate the in-person experience surprisingly well, and may actually be superior in certain respects, says Kate Shih at Quinn Emanuel.

• Opinion

  To Achieve Diversity, Law Firms Must Reinvent Hiring Process

  

  If law firms are truly serious about making meaningful change in terms of diversity, they must adopt a demographically neutral, unbiased hiring equation that looks at personality traits with greater import than grades and class rank, says Thomas Latino at Florida State University College of Law.

• Cybersecurity Steps For Law Firms Amid Heightened Risks

  

  With large swaths of the population indoors and primarily online, cybercriminals will be able to exploit law firms more easily now than ever before, but some basic precautions can help, says Joel Wallenstrom at Wickr.

• Opinion

  It's Time For Law Firms To Support Work-From-Home Culture

  

  Now that law firms are on board with fully remote work environments, they must develop policies that match in-office culture and align partner and associate expectations, says Summer Eberhard at Major Lindsey.

• Opinion

  Republicans Keep Confirming Unqualified Judicial Nominees

  

  What emerges from the group of 200 federal judges confirmed by the Senate under President Donald Trump is a judiciary stacked with young conservative ideologues, many of whom lack basic judicial qualifications, says Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

• Tips For Crafting The Perfect Law Firm Alert

  

  As lawyers have had more time to write in recent weeks, the number of law firm alerts has increased massively, but a lot of them fail to capture readers and deliver new business, says Richard Torrenzano at The Torrenzano Group.

• 5 Takeaways From Capital One Breach Report Dispute

  

  The recent debate over a federal magistrate judge's ordering Capital One to produce a forensic data breach report reveals steps companies can take to make abundantly clear that a report was created in anticipation of litigation in order to protect privilege, say attorneys at Squire Patton.

• Series

  Judging A Book: Elrod Reviews 'Shortlisted'

  

  Renee Knake Jefferson and Hannah Brenner Johnson's new book, "Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court," is a service to an overlooked group of nine women who were considered for the U.S. Supreme Court before Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was confirmed, and offers constructive tips for women looking to break through the glass ceiling, says Fifth Circuit Judge Jennifer Elrod.

• Mandatory State Bars Likely To Remain Intact, For Now

  

  A Texas federal judge’s recent holding in McDonald v. Sorrels that mandatory bar memberships do not violate members' constitutional rights indicates that such requirements survive the U.S. Supreme Court's 2018 decision in Janus, but it may mean that the Supreme Court will address the issue in the not-too-distant future, say Majed Nachawati and Misty Farris at Fears Nachawati.