Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers

APRL member, Heather L. Rosing, was recently elected to serve as the first President of the California Lawyers Association (CLA). As the nation’s second-largest professional association for attorneys, CLA is the new home of the Sections of the State Bar of California, as well as the California Young Lawyers Association (CYLA), effective January 1, 2018. In October of 2017, Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 36 into law, effectively separating some of the professional promotion activities of the State Bar of California into CLA, a private non-profit entity. The organization’s mission to promote professional advancement of attorneys practicing in California. Ms. Rosing is Chief Financial Officer and Shareholder of Klinedinst PC, a business law firm with five offices across the West Coast. She currently serves as the President of the California Bar Foundation, California’s largest scholarship resource for diverse law students and is highly active in the legal community. Having served as Vice President of the State Bar of California, she provides a unique perspective in the makeup of the state’s legal community.

The ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility has issued its proposed changes to the Model Rules on Advertising, click here to view.  In the years leading up to this, APRL requested that changes be made and issued two lengthy reports showing why and how the rules should change. APRL recently issued comments on the current ABA proposal and suggested further changes, click here to view. A public hearing will be held in Vancouver, in conjunction with the ABA midyear meeting from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m., to obtain comments on the SCEPR proposals. SCEPR will accept written comments through March 1, 2018.

Registration is open for the Vancouver BC mid-year meeting, February 1st – 3rd at the Coastal Coal Hotel.  Come join us in the winter wonderland for a great meeting in a jaw-droppingly beautiful part of the world.

A big Thank You to APRL’s Public Statements Committee for its hard work on the NAAMP v. Howell and NAAMP v. Lynch amicus briefs.

APRL’s photos taken at the Annual Meeting in New York in August are now available to view in the Photo Gallery. You must be logged in to your member profile to view the photos.

APRL joined with NOBC, CoLAP, the ABA Center, and others to create a National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being, which issued a lengthy report with recommendations for advancing lawyer wellness. APRL members on the Task Force were Lynda Shely, Jayne Reardon, Don Campbell, and Charles Gruber.

Both the Conference of Chief Justices and the ABA President Hilarie Bass are backing the initiative to have all stakeholders in the legal profession recognize and support the importance of lawyer wellness as part of being a competent lawyer.

Lawyer Well-Being Report_Final

A new book from the American Bar Association, “Legal Ethics and Social Media: A Practitioner’s Handbook,” written by APRL member Jan Jacobowitz and John G. Browning, will assist lawyers in understanding and navigating the often slippery slope of digital communications, such as Twitter, Facebook and You Tube.  For more information, click here.

On June 23, 2017, APRL member Lynda Shely testified before the House of Representatives, Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, regarding lawyer advertising related to pharmaceuticals. You can view Ms. Shely’s testimony statement below.

Shely Testimony House SC Constitution Civil Justice June 23 2017.

Over 60 photos from the Miami Mid-Year Meeting are now available in the Gallery in the Members Section of the website. Click here to view the Miami photo album, after signing in.

The 2017 edition of the treatise Ohio Legal Ethics Law Under the Rules of Professional Conduct, by Arthur Greenbaum and Marc Swartzbaugh, is now available on Lexis and The Ohio State University Knowledge Bank. The new edition adds a discussion of the significant cases and ethics opinions affecting the law of lawyering in Ohio during 2016.