The Brian Leiter-Paul Campos feud continues into the New Year. The latest: Campos is threatening to disclose “potentially very embarrassing personal information” about Leiter should the latter disclose the personal identity of “Dybbuk,” the pseudonym of a lawyer/”scamblogger” accused of harassing another law professor in blog posts and comments. Could this constitute blackmail? I’ll leave […]
Archive | Legal Ethics
Judge Behaving Badly
From In re Honorable [sic] Elizabeth E. Coker, a Voluntary Agreement to Resign from Judicial Office in Lieu of Disciplinary Action: WHEREAS in late December 2012 and early January 2013, complaints and media stories were brought to the Commission’s attention alleging that Judge Coker had engaged in improper ex parte text communications with Polk County […]
Dean Sanctioned for Submitting False Admissions Data
Via Legal Ethics Forum comes news that former Villanova Law School Dean Mark Sargent received a three-year suspension from the Massachusetts Bar for knowingly submitting false admissions data. Former Illinois Law DeanAssistant Dean of Admissions Paul Pless was also reprimanded by the Washington State bar. [Note: Errors to this post have been corrected. Most significantly, as […]
Former Prosecutor (Now Judge) Arrested and Charged for Past Prosecutorial Misconduct
I’m told that such arrests and charges are very rare, so I thought this was noteworthy, from the Austin American-Statesman, April 19, 2013 (thanks to Lawrence Goldman [White Collar Crim Prof Blog] for the pointer): Former Williamson County District Attorney Ken Anderson was arrested … after a specially convened court found that he intentionally hid […]
A Cautionary Tale About Driving and Bar Fitness
Law students thinking ahead about not just passing the bar exam, but also the fitness and character requirements might take a lesson from a former student of mine. He contacted me with some alarm a few days ago to tell me that the Virginia bar committee that has to approve fitness and character of applicants […]
From a D.C. Court of Appeals Opinion Last Thursday
Law students and young lawyers take note. (Heck, we old lawyers should, too.) You don’t want a court to say about you what the D.C. Court of Appeals said in Pietrangelo v. Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr, LLP (Apr. 11, 2013): Appellant James E. Pietrangelo, II, a licensed attorney acting pro se, brought an […]