Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers

The American Bar Association recognized the University of Miami School of LawProfessional Responsibility and Ethics Program, which is under the direction of APRL member, Prof. Jan L. Jacobowitz, as a recipient of this year’s E. Smythe Gambrell Professionalism Award. The E. Smythe Gambrell Professionalism Awards are the leading national awards recognizing programs and projects contributing to the understanding and advancement of professionalism among lawyers. Dennis R. Honabach, Chair of the ABA’s Standing Committee on Professionalism, stated: “The Committee was particularly impressed with the program’s unique amalgam of an extraordinary ‘real-world’ experience for their student instructors and valuable legal-learning benefits for the recipient local legal organization and firms. Your program offers a model for law schools in communities with a concentration of legal organizations to partner with such a program.”
Read about the program >

APRL member David Atkins was quoted in an article in the Connecticut Law Tribune concerning a proposed change to Connecticut’s Rules of Professional Conduct that would permit lawyers and law firms to take advantage of Internet services to attract clients. David had represented several Connecticut lawyers who were charged but not sanctioned under the current rule.
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Elizabeth (Beth) Alston has been repeatedly quoted in the ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct during the First Amendment fight over Louisiana’s restrictive new lawyer advertising rules.

Beth was interviewed by Joan C. Rogers of ABA/BNA and quoted in the following articles:

“Fifth Circuit Overturns Some Louisiana Rules, Upholds Others, Governing Lawyer Advertising,” ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct, Vol. 27, p. 68. February 1, 2011:

“For the first time, a balanced analysis has been applied to Louisiana advertising rules by an independent court,” Alston told BNA.

APRL member Mike Downey says in the January 5, 2011 issue of Southeast Missourian “romantic relationships of publicly elected prosecutors is a murky issue.”

The case arose from a so-called private message made which was made public on YouTube which put Cape Girardeau County’s prosecuting attorney Morley Swingle on the defense, raising questions about whether a romantic relationship caused to recuse himself from a case he worked on for 11 months.

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APRL member William J. Wernz recently impleted Minnesota Legal Ethics, a comprehensive guide to legal ethics in Minnesota. It is a free e-book available from the Minnesota State Bar Association
To request a free copy of the e-book, please click here.

APRL member Allison Rhodes has, together with Robert W. Hillman, a law professor at UC Davis, have had an article published in scholarly journals entitled “Client Files and Digital Law Practices: Rethinking Old Concepts in an Era of Lawyer Mobility,” 43 Suffolk University Law Review 897 (2010), UC Davis Legal Studies Research Paper No. 236, and http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1681677.

The SSRN Abstract of the article states: “The lawyer or law firm that controls client files has distinct advantages in any competition for clients. Not surprisingly, disputes over control and possession of client files have long occupied the attention of courts and ethics committees, which over the years have developed a significant body of case law and ethics opinions addressing myriad issues relating to client files. Existing guidance, however, largely is directed to a world of ‘hard copy’ files where pieces of paper neatly assembled within file folders invite a property-based analysis whenever disagreements over possession or access arise.

This article discusses the effects of digitizing client files and firm information in light of lawyer mobility and evaluates the existing framework of law and ethics developed largely in a world of hard copies. The article also offers some practical suggestions for firms seeking to assert greater control over client information and firm intellectual property.”

“Louisiana’s Lawyer Advertising Rules Mostly Survive Review, Except Rules on Internet Ads,” ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct, Vol. 25, p. 435, August 19, 2009:

According to Alston, “many Louisiana lawyers are ‘dumbstruck’ at the decision upholding the disputed advertising rules.”

“Louisiana Amends Lawyer Advertising Rules, but Opponents Still Pursue Legal Challenges,” ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct, Vol. 25, No. 14, pp. 367 – 369, July 8, 2009:

Alston said she sees the new Louisiana advertising rules and the recent amendments developed by the state bar association as “more motivated by protectionism than by a concern for the public and lawyers’ clients. In pushing the new advertising rules, the state bar is acting as a trade union rather than as a legitimate government entity,” she contended.