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Comments Off on Per Diem Lawyers Subject to Sanctions for Missing Court Appearances
By Sarah Diane McShea [Originally published in NYPRR January 2004] A lawyer who fails to appear for a scheduled court appearance faces civil sanctions if the lawyer’s failure to appear is without “good cause.” [22 NYCRR §130-2.1.] Nearly a...
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Comments Off on City Bar Nixes Lawyer Taping
By Sarah Diane McShea [Originally published in NYPRR August 2003] That golden age, when law was practiced gently, with gentility, and by ladies and gentlemen, beckons like a childhood fantasy. Oh, that we might represent our clients in that wonderful...
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Comments Off on Cases of Interest: Lawyers on the Firing Line
By Sarah D. McShea [Originally published in NYPRR June 2003] Lawyers practicing in the ethics and professional liability fields know that courts are increasingly likely to hold lawyers and law firms accountable to their clients, third parties and...
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Comments Off on Non-Refundable Fees: Pitfalls & Safe Harbors
By Sarah Diane McShea [Originally published in NYPRR December 2002] Eight years ago, the New York Court of Appeals affirmed a two-year suspension imposed on a lawyer who charged minimum, non-refundable fees to three clients, and then refused to refund...
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Comments Off on Automatic Disbarment for Felony Convictions: Time to Rethink Old Rule?
By Sarah Diane McShea [Originally published in NYPRR September 2002] For more than a century, New York has adhered to the strict rule that lawyers convicted of felony offenses should not be permitted to continue as members of the bar. A lawyer...
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Comments Off on Public Disciplinary Hearings? Overview of Debate
By Sarah Diane McShea [Originally published in NYPRR February 2002] For many years, the New York State Bar Association has opposed opening attorney disciplinary proceedings to the public. By the time this article is printed, the House of Delegates of...
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Comments Off on ABA: Lawyers May Tape Their Conversations
By Sarah Diane McShea [Originally published in NYPRR November 2001] In a move completely unrelated to the recent terrorist attack on lower Manhattan and Washington, D.C., the American Bar Association’s Committee on Ethics and Professional...
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Comments Off on Advance Fee Retainers: Should We Change Rules?
By Sarah Diane McShea [Originally published in NYPRR July 2001] It has long been the rule in New York that lawyers are not required to place advance fee payments in their escrow accounts but may, instead, deposit them in their general funds. In 1985,...
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Comments Off on Primer on Trust Accounts — Don’t Use Money & Do Keep Records
By Sarah Diane McShea [Originally published in NYPRR April 2001] It may seem surprising that despite nearly two decades of vigorous enforcement of the rules governing escrow accounts, the leading offenses cited in suspension and disbarment cases in New...
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Comments Off on Revisiting Law Firm Discipline — Does It Really Work?
By Sarah Diane McShea [Originally published in NYPRR February 2001] Nearly five years ago, New York became the first state to require law firms — not just individual lawyers — to comply with existing lawyer ethics codes. The May 1996 revisions to...
