California Legal Ethics

Malek Media Group v. AXQG Corporation, Second App. Dist., Div. 3, case no. B299743, filed 12/16/20. Plaintiff and defendant formed Foxtail LLC to produce a film. The relationship dissolved in acrimony, including allegations that MMG's principal Malek had sent sexually explicit messages to a prosp...

The American Bar Association (ABA) has issued formal ethics opinion 495 “Lawyers Working Remotely.” A timely topic in the midst of the pandemic and an opinion that will offer some comfort to those who are currently living and practicing in a jurisdiction where they are not licensed. The digest c...

Tolstoy's masterpiece “War and Peace” is 1,225 pages long. Roche v. Hyde (First Appellate Dist, Div. 4, case no. A150459, filed 6/30/20) is only 95 pages long. If you must while away the empty hours of summer reading only one really long story, which one would you choose? Even a Cliff Notes vers...

Taylor v. Traylor, Second App. Dist., Div.8, case no.B296537, filed 6/10/20.  Lawyer represented two plaintiffs on a police shooting case for approximately one month in 2016. When the plaintiffs fired him, they requested their file and Lawyer refused to provide it.  Lawyer later submitted notic...

The Review Department of the State Bar Court has ordered publication of its April 10, 2020, opinion In the Matter of Smart, case no. 17-C-03687.  It upheld the hearing judge's recommendation of disbarment.  Smart plead guilty to felony charges of violating Penal Code section 245(a)(4) (assault w...

Nguyen v. Ford (Sixth App. Dist., case no H046809, filed 4/24/20, published 5/13/20) addresses tolling under the legal malpractice statute of limitations, specifically Code of Civil Procedure section 340.6(a)(2) which provides that  the limitations period is tolled while “the attorney continues...

Recently amended AB 3362 is notable for the fact that it reduces State Bar licensing fees (“dues” no longer) by a munificent $34.00.  But a recent amendment also shines a light on a statutory provision often overlooked, often to a lawyer's sorrow: Business and Professions Code section 6090.5, whi...

A black man is murdered. Two white suspects tell the police that the killing was self-defense. The police do not pursue the investigation.  Later, video is leaked to the news media that appears to show that the murder was not self-defense, that the murdered man was defending himself against one ...

The State Bar of California has filed an action in San Francisco Superior Court alleging that LegalMatch.com is operating as an uncertified legal referral service. This comes after the California Supreme Court's denial of LegalMatch.com's petition for review of the Court of Appeal decision in Jac...

On March 25 ,2020, the California Supreme Court denied a petition for review of a State Bar Court decision in a reinstatement case filed by former attorney Stephen J. Liebb.  That in itself is unremarkable;  the Supreme Court denies most petitions for review of State Bar Court decisions.  Liebb ...

Reeve v. Meleyco, Third App. Dist., case no. C085867, filed 3/24/20.  Client contacts lawyer 1 about a serious traffic accident inuring the client's wife and child.  Client and lawyer 1 meeting with lawyer 2 about the case and discuss a division of fees, 35% to lawyer 1.  Lawyer 2 and client sign...

On March 12, 2020, the Board of Trustees of the State Bar of California voted to shelve consideration of most of the proposals contained in the final report of the State Bar's Task Force on Access Through Innovation of Legal Services (ATILS).  Among the most heralded of those proposals was the ...

It is has been an item of conventional wisdom that conflicts of interests, while presenting many interesting ethical issues, are mostly dealt with through civil remedies, such as disqualification and actions for breach of duty, not discipline.  This is evidenced by a relative paucity of discipli...

Hance v. Super Store Industries, Fifth Appellate Dist, case no. F075852, filed 1/23/20. Lawyers in a class action case agree to divide fees.  They have the class representatives sign fee agreements.   One of the lawyers does not disclose in the fee agreement that he does not have legal malpractic...

The Drexel Bradshaw case was examined in an earlier post on this blog, Reversal of Fortune. Now, fickle Fortune reverses itself again, the California Supreme Court granting a petition from the Office of Chief Trial Counsel by remanding the case back to the Review Department for reconsideration ...

For every wrong, there is a remedy Civil Code section 3523 Maxims of Jurisprudence This is a little more than the average “lawyer does bad thing” story that is a staple of the legal press.  A Culver City lawyer who abused opposing counsel with a number of highly offensive email messages...

A very significant new decision from the First Appellate District, Division 4 has found LegalMatch to be an unauthorized legal referral service (Jackson v. LegalMatch.com, case no. A152442, filed 11/26/19.)  The decision reverses a trial court decision after trial that LegalMatch.com was not enga...

The First District Court of Appeal, Div. 2, issued a Halloween-eve decision that surely qualifies as some lawyers' horror story. The decision Davis v. TWC Dealership Group, Inc., case no. A155030, filed 10/30/19, involved arbitration clauses in employment contracts, but it was published to “also...

A previous post “Reversal of Fortune” discussed the Review Department's unpublished decision in the Bradshaw matter that reversed a Hearing Judge's recommendation of disbarment and dismissed the matter, finding no culpability. Now in a similar case, the Review Department has reversed another Hea...

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A recent unpublished but public opinion from the State Bar Court Review Department tells a story unique in most observer's experience:  a disbarment recommendation from the Hearing Department is completely overturned on appeal and the case is dismissed. The case is In the Matter of Bradshaw, Sta...

On July 11, 2019, the State Bar Board of Trustees voted to put out for public comment the recommendations of the Task Force on Access Through Innovation of Legal Services (ATILS).  ATILS was formed in July 2018 following the Board's consideration of a report from Prof. William Henderson of the U...

A large part of the work of the California discipline system is dealing with attorneys who are convicted of crimes. This part hasn't always gotten a lot of attention, something that may have changed with the highly publicized retroactive fingerprinting of attorneys by the State Bar of California....

The tone of most judicial opinions runs a little cold. Decisions crafted with logic and authority that read as if they might have been written by Mr. Spock or some futuristic AI. A recent decision of the Fourth District Court of Appeal moves against the trend, blending its logic and authority wit...

Ethics Quarterly is a publication of the Legal Ethics Committee of the San Diego County Bar Association.  The latest issue is available here.  Hats off to editors Ed McIntyre and David Majchrzak for another great issue.