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We have a duty to our profession, our clients and the courts to ensure that our legal theories are based on provable facts that support fairness and justice. “May you live in interesting times.” This saying is not really a wish for your entertainment. “Interesting times” are times of struggle, trouble and turmoil. It’s not…
Formal Opinion 512 does an excellent job of analyzing the rules that are implicated by the use of generative AI. Technology is evolving rapidly, and we have had to evolve with it. The days of sitting in a law firm library with a stack of books open to the relevant cases, a stack of Shepard’s…
Last year, a Twitter thread addressed women and asked this question: How would your life change if men had a curfew at 8 p.m.? In other words, what would it be like if women could go out at night without the fear of being harassed or assaulted? How would a woman’s life change if she felt…
Recently, the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania appointed a new Board Chair and Board Vice-Chair. Attorney Jerry Lehocky will serve as Board Chair and attorney Dion Rassias as Vice-Chair, effective April 1, 2022. In 2023, Rassias will replace Lehocky as Board Chair and John C. Rafferty will fill the Vice-Chair vacancy. Additionally,…
I have been writing this professional conduct column for over 10 years, with and without co-authors, discussing topics from the mundane to the philosophical. This month, my co-author is Lynn Nichols, who is beginning a new practice representing respondents before the Disciplinary Board, and whose experience as a former homicide prosecutor in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s…
On March 16, as we were confronting the reality of a pandemic and its potentially devastating effects, I authored a column for this publication titled “Keep Calm and Carry On: Ethics in a Time of Stress.” The article included some practical advice for counter-acting the effects of the pressures and fears that we would certainly…
On August 10th, 2020, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania suspended Philadelphia attorney M.B. for one year, based on a criminal conviction for “harassment by offensive touching or threat,” a petty disorderly persons offense in New Jersey. M.B. is a lawyer with decades of experience who arranged to meet a young female lawyer to his boat…
Blogs start with the best intentions but often move to the back burner and then fall off the stove altogether! Mine is no different. However, the good news is that I have both a renewed commitment to this Blog and a new assistant to help with the labor (more about my new assistant later –…
On June 8, 2020, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court approved adoption of Rule 8.4(g) broadening the definition of misconduct to include the following: g) in the practice of law, by words or conduct, knowingly manifest bias or prejudice, or engage in harassment or discrimination, as those terms are defined in applicable federal, state or local statutes…