Mark H. Allenbaugh, a former award-winning Adjunct Professor on Ethics in Business and the Professions at the George Washington University, was suspended for two years from practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The suspension came as a result of a reciprocal disciplinary proceeding commenced by the Office of Enrollment and Discipline after the
USPTO Suspends Former GWU Ethics Professor For Two Years Read More »
Attention all shoppers. Legal fees now at deeply discounted prices. The ABA and a cloud-based computing service have launched a new fixed-price program to provide on-demand legal advice for small businesses. The price? A flat rate of $4.95. That is not a typo. In a Thursday press release, the ABA and Rocket Lawyer announced that they have begun testing ABA Law Connect in Illinois,
Black Friday Comes Early: $4.95 Flat-Rate Legal Service Raises Ethical Concerns Read More »
Two Chicago criminal defense lawyers charged with perjury and obstruction of justice were recently acquitted as reported in the Chicago Tribune. The lawyers had been indicted for allegedly coaching defense witnesses to lie under oath. The prosecution pointed to the existence of question and answer scripts seized in a raid of the lawyers’ offices. The
Liar Liar: What May Ethical Counsel Do When Faced With False Evidence Read More »
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. This past year featured several high profile cases of domestic violence. Who can forget the grainy footage of former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice cold-cocking his wife in a casino elevator? Or charges that football star Adrian Peterson had physically abused his own child—which is even more bizarre
How Disciplinary Authorities Treat Attorneys Convicted Of Domestic Violence Read More »
It pays to be nice. That is the message from two recent Circuit Courts of Appeal decisions that criticized parties for lack of civility because counsel characterized their opponent’s arguments as “frivolous.” In the first case, Bennett v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 731 F.3d 584, 585 (6th Cir. 2013), the Sixth Circuit reversed a judgment
Circuit Courts Warn: The New “F-Bomb” In Litigation Is “Frivolous” Read More »
Law schools are failing miserably to teach up and coming lawyers the most fundamental aspects of the business of law. The absence of such training is particularly troublesome in today’s legal climate, where new law school grads far out number available entry level jobs. This economic reality can drive many newly-minted Esquires to make some
When It Comes To Teaching About Money, Law Schools Fail Miserably Read More »
With last week’s post on patent attorney Andrew Schroeder, who ran amok in his filings with the USPTO (click), fresh on my mind, I had to chuckle at the blog posted recently in Wordrake (click here), entitled: “Your Honor, You Are Stupid, You Suck, Please Decide For Me.” The post cites several examples of what
“Your Honor, You Are Stupid, You Suck, Please Decide for Me” Read More »
It is one of the most iconic lines in the history of American cinema. Spoken by “The Captain”–the sadistic prison warden portrayed in the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke—the “failure to communicate” passage near the top of the American Film Institute’s list of top 100 movie quotations, nestled between “I love the smell of napalm
