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Sleepless nights are a criminal defense attorney’s lot in life, full of worry about all the things that can and do go wrong in the high-stakes work of protecting individual liberty. But there is one more thing you should be worried about: your office’s compliance with the Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct and Rules of…
Attorneys experience problematic drinking, drug use and mental health distress at a higher rate than other professionals. As the holiday season shifts into high gear, take a moment to check in on your mental and emotional well-being and—while you are at it—check up on your partners and colleagues also. It’s not just a good idea,…
At least once or twice a day, after I press the “send” button, I get a panicky feeling that I’ve made a mistake and there is no going back. Did I send to the right people? Did I attach the right document? Or even worse—did I waive an important privilege? BouSamra v. Excela Health, —A3d No. 5…
On Feb. 8, former Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller was suspended from the practice of law for one year and one day. Miller was found to have committed three separate types of misconduct, all occurring while she was the top law enforcement officer in the county: improper ex parte contact with judges; making…
Let’s start here: the government begins a grand jury investigation of an organization, say a political campaign. Certain campaign employees receive grand jury subpoenas to testify in front of the grand jury. Other employees receive “target letters” from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, informing them that they are targets of a grand jury investigation. Based on…
Conflicts and confidences are the ethical tripwires of our profession. What may seem like a reasonable assumption about the alignment of parties and the necessity of maintaining confidences at the outset of a case can quickly become a quagmire, especially in the context or organizational or joint representations. The Cynthia Baldwin matter demonstrates how difficult…
As lawyers watching the spectacle of the investigations surrounding the Trump administration, we get to sit in the good seats. We understand the rules of the game and we can follow the action. But however entertaining this game may be, as lawyers we know that two things matter: facts based on reliable, admissible evidence and…
Despite appearances, it’s spring and Donald Trump and his attorney Michael Cohen have provided us with a brand new crop of ethics issues. Let’s take a look at the issues that have come up and how they would be treated under the Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct. First, unless you have been on a complete…
If you are interested in ethics, white collar crime, and the way they overlap, Christmas has come early this year. Your gift is the array of ethical issues inherent in the latest twist in the investigation into the Trump campaign’s connections to Russia’s interference with our Presidential election; it provides a fascinating hypo for ethics…
On Oct. 21, there was a news report that President Donald Trump would be personally providing a legal defense fund of several hundred thousand dollars for White House staffers and campaign aides in need of legal representation, see https://tinyurl.com/y9vymxx8. Unless you are living under the proverbial rock in the proverbial cave, you know that these staffers and…