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‘Of Counsel’ Lawyers & Conflicts of Interest

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By Roy Simon [Originally published in NYPRR July 2005]   The Second Circuit decided a case, Hempstead Video, Inc. v. Incorporated Village of Valley Stream, 2005 WL 1274244 (2d Cir. May 31, 2005), that turns conventional wisdom upside down. If this article were in Newsweek’s weekly feature about “conventional wisdom” (CW), it would say: Old...

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Lawyer May Not Talk to Insurance Adjuster

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By Lazar Emanuel [Originally published in NYPRR July 2005]   In Formal Opinion 2005-04 (April 2005), the Association of the Bar of the City of New York considered whether a plaintiff’s lawyer may properly communicate with a non-lawyer claims adjuster...

Court Denies Self-Incrimination Privilege to Lawyer in Law Firm

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By Lazar Emanuel [Originally published in NYPRR July 2005]   May the individual partners of a law firm (especially, a small law firm) invoke the privilege against compelled self incrimination in response to a grand jury subpoena duces tecum served upon...

Litigation Finance Agreements — Champerty, Usury, or OK?

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By Lazar Emanuel [Originally published in NYPRR June 2005]   In a 2005 opinion, Judge Ira B. Warshawsky, Supreme Court, Nassau County, held that an advance made to a personal injury plaintiff by a litigation finance company called LawCash was not...

Is ‘Catalyst Theory’ of Attorney Fees Still Alive?

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By Roy Simon [Originally published in NYPRR June 2005]   My high school chemistry teacher, Mr. Carmichael, used to post a “mehcmaxe” on the board every day. (“Mehcmaxe” is “chem exam” spelled backwards.) One day the mehcmaxe was, “What is a...

New York’s Amended Pro Bono Guidelines

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By Roy Simon [Originally published in NYPRR May 2005]   What is a New York lawyer’s obligation to perform pro bono legal services? The answer to that question changed on April 2, 2005, when, for the first time since 1990, the New York State Bar...

Disaggregating the Aggregate Settlement Rule

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By Steven C. Krane [Originally published in NYPRR May 2005]   Lawyers often represent multiple clients with similar claims against the same defendant. Particularly in the mass tort context, these claims are frequently settled by agreements between the...

Counsel May Notify Judge of Expected Client Perjury

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By Lazar Emanuel [Originally published in NYPRR May 2005]   In People v. DePallo, 96 NY2d 437 (2001), the Court of Appeals defined the responsibility of criminal defense counsel who suspects that his client will offer perjured testimony in a jury trial....

No Legal Fees Without Letter of Engagement

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By Lazar Emanuel [Originally published in NYPRR April 2005]   The importance of providing the client with a written letter of engagement at the outset of a matter was emphasized recently by Bronx County Supreme Court Justice Yvonne Gonzalez in Klein...

Fighting Abuse of Confidentiality Orders

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By Roy Simon [Originally published in NYPRR April 2005]   If you litigate in areas like product liability, employment discrimination, or breach of employment contracts, odds are that at least some of your cases are covered by confidentiality orders....