Legal Ethics / Social Media & Marketing

A Quick Look at Attorney Advertising

By Patrick Kearns 

A friend of mine, a California attorney, recently reached out to me regarding a newspaper advertisement he saw in a Southern California newspaper. My friend practices insurance defense and professional liability, primarily for medical providers and facilities. He was astounded by the advertisement which was a full, two-page fold-out identifying at the top, in large letters, the name of a particular hospital and asking whether “you or someone you love” had been a patient at the facility. Read More

Legal Ethics / Technology

AI and Real World Ethics

Ethics and Technology on the Cutting Edge

By Edward McIntyre

Slowly — as though pushing through a parting cloud — some of us only now are beginning to realize that AI (artificial intelligence) is shaping, and likely will dominate, our lives and futures. Well beyond our expectations. Beyond our imaginations, even. Yet this is the precise environment that California Western School of Law’s Second Annual Legal Ethics Symposium sought to tackle — with the added dimension of its ethical implications. Read More

Law Practice Management

Bartering for Business

From haircuts to paintings, how and what I bartered for my legal services

By Elizabeth Blust

In the opening scene of the movie“To Kill a Mockingbird” — and in a later scene in the book by Harper Lee — client Walter Cunningham brings a bag of hickory nuts to lawyer Atticus Finch as payment for the latter’s help with the former’s entailment. Now that I am a lawyer myself, I understand not only what entailment is (and why, as young Scout Finch commiserates with Mr. Cunningham later, “entailments are bad” and take “a long time sometimes”, Ch. 15), but also the value of accepting barter as a means of payment for legal services. Read More

Current Topics

What Attorneys Need to Know About the Drager 5000

By Eric Ganci

Police have a new addition to try and fight the war on impaired driving: the Drager 5000. This device swabs the person’s mouth/cheek area to screen saliva for non-alcoholic intoxicating substances, including amphetamines, cocaine, marijuana and prescription drugs. This test is given before arrest, and acts as a field sobriety test. For attorneys who may provide guidance on this new device, there are a few important things to note, both scientifically and legally: Read More

Legal Ethics

Simple Competence: Surprisingly Complex

By David Carr 

One of most fundamental ethical rules is that lawyers must be competent in the provision of legal services.  It is the very first substantive rule in the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct (Model Rules) and the very first rule in the new California Rules of Professional Conduct (Rule 1.1) that become effective on November 1, 2018. Read More