Competence

Black Friday Comes Early: $4.95 Flat-Rate Legal Service Raises Ethical Concerns

Leave a Comment / Competence, Conflicts of Interest, Malpractice, Patent Ethics / By

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, […]

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“Your Honor, You Are Stupid, You Suck, Please Decide for Me”

Leave a Comment / ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Civility/Professionalism, Competence / By

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

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Get Out Of Town: The Ethical Perils Of Outsourcing IP Services

3 Comments / Competence, Confidentiality, IP Ethics, Outsourcing, Patent Ethics / By

Many IP lawyers engage other lawyers or nonlawyers as independent contractors, directly or through intermediaries, to provide various legal and nonlegal support services. The outsourcing market, often referred to as the “legal process outsourcing” market or “professional employer organization” market, is a multi-billion dollar industry. While there is nothing per se unethical about a lawyer outsourcing

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What They Didn’t Teach In Law School: The Ethical Duty Of “Technical Competence”

Leave a Comment / ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Competence, Confidentiality, Continuing Legal Education / By

“True wisdom is knowing what you don’t know.” — Confucius One of my former partners, a brilliant patent lawyer who was (and is) widely respected in the patent bar, used his desktop computer for one purpose and one purpose only—as a convenient surface on which to attach yellow sticky post-it notes to himself. To my

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The Ethics of Independence

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“Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom” – Albert Einstein As we prepare to celebrate the birthday of our country’s independence, I am reminded that we, as lawyers, owe a significant ethical duty to exercise independence in the representation of our clients.  As an attorney,

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IP Counsel Who Blindly Follow Client “Instructions” Risk Loss Of Law License

Leave a Comment / ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Competence, Office of Enrollment and Discipline, Patent Attorney Disciplinary Matters, Supreme Court Ethics, Unauthorized Practice of Law / By

Intellectual Property law firms often receive substantive documents, including original applications and amendments, with “instructions” from their client to file the paper in the USPTO, essentially as is. And just as often, IP counsel dutifully follow their clients’ orders and simply have a non-lawyer “clean up” the document so it “looks” right and, without any substantive

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SCOTUS Threatens Sanctions Against Patent Attorney: Is USPTO Ethical Discipline Next?

2 Comments / Competence, Discipline, Supreme Court Ethics / By

Last week, the United States Supreme Court turned more than a few heads when it issued an attorney discipline order against Howard Shipley – a partner at Foley & Lardner, LLC – for his conduct relating to a (denied) petition for writ of certiorari.  The Supreme Court is demanding that, within 40 days, Shipley show cause “why

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USPTO Suspends Ethically-Challenged Patent Attorney

Leave a Comment / Client Funds, Communications, Competence, USPTO Director Decisions / By

On August 19, 2014, the USPTO Director issued a final order suspending a patent attorney for 20-months based on three separate suspensions issued by the Supreme Court of California. The USPTO added an additional six-month period to the suspension—for a total suspension of 26 months—based on the attorney’s failure to cooperate with the OED’s disciplinary

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