Some interesting (if you are me) news came out of Arizona this week: Its Supreme Court approved a rule change limiting the ability of people not directly involved in, or who do not have first-hand knowledge of, a particular matter to pursue ethics complaints.
Under the revision to Arizona Supreme Court Rule 53, clients of the lawyer, judges who learned of the conduct through their judicial role, and others with “direct and specific first-hand knowledge of the conduct
Continue Reading Should strangers get to file grievances? Arizona says ‘maybe, but’
Latest from Ethicking
This Thing Is On, I Promise
So the thing about having an elections practice in a swing state is that one day you’re writing about bad news that can’t wait and the next day it’s November and everything has waited. I’m still not quite up for air, but I am getting there.
I hope to get back to posting more regularly now that we’re in an “off year” (whatever that means), but in the meantime, this blog turned five on October 24. I hope it
Continue Reading This Thing Is On, I Promise
If My Blog Actually Got Comments, This Would Be A Cautionary Tale
As reported by Above the Law and the Legal Profession Blog, a Colorado lawyer received a 60-day suspension, stayed if he successfully completes a two-year probationary period, for posing as a judge and a former deputy district attorney in blog comments submitted to a moderator.
The stipulated decision (and I suppose I should include a warning that there is uncensored profanity in the decision) was brief, and notes a violation of Colorado Rule 8.4(c), which, like its
Continue Reading If My Blog Actually Got Comments, This Would Be A Cautionary Tale
When Bad News Can’t Wait
I’ve spent the last day-plus at another engaging Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers (APRL) conference, and just like last year at this same conference, and just like when I was on vacation last year, I got some big news from the courts.
Some of this exciting and completely ill-timed news has been good. And some of it, well, not so much. I was on a Washington, DC metro bus last year and decided to use the downtime
Continue Reading When Bad News Can’t Wait
Georgia On My Mind
Hi, everyone. At long last, some original (if not exactly breaking) content. But I’ve gotten enough questions to pivot from my other busyness and try to answer (even though the answer keeps changing as I write this)—what the hell is going on in Atlanta?
(No, not this Atlanta matter.)
Earlier this week, Brian Steel, a defense lawyer for rapper Young Thug (who has been on trial for more than a year on racketeering and gang charges, see this
Continue Reading Georgia On My Mind
That Time I Turned An Earworm Into A Column
At risk of this blog turning into a Wisconsin Lawyer repository (as original-to-the-bog content has been…well, mostly missing), I present for your consideration “Ethics Song ‘89,” my latest contribution to the State Bar journal.
Continue Reading That Time I Turned An Earworm Into A Column
When “Revocation” isn’t Revocation
Hi, everyone. It’s been a minute. It may be another minute, or several, before I write again, or it could be tomorrow. (Remember when I launched this blog in 2019 and I thought I would be writing weekly or more and then a few months later everything went sideways? Good times.)
I write to revisit a topic I wrote about a couple of years ago—the fact that Wisconsin does not have true, lifetime “disbarment.” My position hasn’t changed since
Continue Reading When “Revocation” isn’t Revocation
You Can Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate Your Old Stuff All You Want
My latest column, “The Story of Stuff,” is out in the latest Wisconsin Lawyer magazine. It’s a little less snarky than usual, but I still got to reference George Carlin, mainframe punch cards, and the entropy-in-action that is my desk. (My own office rarely gets to the level of the free stock photo illustrating this blog entry, and we can be thankful for small favors.)
Continue Reading You Can Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate Your Old Stuff All You Want
“@MindYour8Point4CsandQs” is Available, But Should I Use It?
Last week, CNN reported that Wisconsin native and fake elector lawyer Ken Chesebro not only had an anonymous Twitter/X account, “@BadgerPundit,” but denied its existence to Michigan investigators. The account was actually created back when then-Governor Scott Walker dropped the Act 10 bomb, incidentally right around the same time I created my own, very much not anonymous Twitter account (it’s @EthickingStacie now, naturally, but was something else then). We may have interacted at some point, but we were never
Continue Reading “@MindYour8Point4CsandQs” is Available, But Should I Use It?
Going Once, Going Twice: Legal Services Donations to Charity Auctions and Raffles
My high school alumni association’s social media page alerted me to an online auction and raffle supporting “under-resourced students and families n our community.” I decided to check out the auction items—most of them are the usual restaurant and attraction gift certificates. The raffle included a prime parking spot for a rising senior and several Stanley tumblers. Shockingly, nothing appeared to involve multilevel marketing. (Where I live now and where I grew up are very different places, apparently.)
Anyway,
Continue Reading Going Once, Going Twice: Legal Services Donations to Charity Auctions and Raffles
When Dumb Scams Happen To Smart People
There was much buzz today about an article in the Cut (a lifestyle website from Vox Media/New York Magazine) – “The Day I Put $50,000 in a Shoe Box and Handed It To A Stranger.” Charlotte Cowles, the Cut’s financial advice columnist, discussed in embarrassing detail how she fell victim to what she termed a “cruel and violating [scam] but one painfully obvious in retrospect.” Cowles did not believe she could ever be a victim—she did not fit any
Continue Reading When Dumb Scams Happen To Smart People
When You’re a Hammer, Everything is a Nail; When You’re an Ethics Nerd Everything is a Material Limitation Conflict
Hi, folks,
It’s been awhile, hasn’t it?
Sorry to say, it’s going to be awhile yet, as things are busy here.
In the meantime, my January column for the Wisconsin Lawyer is out; this time, I discuss all those little conflicts life deals.
Continue Reading When You’re a Hammer, Everything is a Nail; When You’re an Ethics Nerd Everything is a Material Limitation Conflict
And, Cohen Both Takes The Fall And Passes The Buck
A quick update on New York’s Second AI Hallucination case, which I originally covered a couple of weeks ago—today we learned that Michael Cohen, the client, and not David Schwartz, the lawyer, used artificial intelligence (this time, Google Bard) to generate cases that did not exist. In a declaration he submitted to the court (available starting on page 9 of this packet from the CourtListener docket), Cohen stated that (having been disbarred several years ago) he had not kept
Continue Reading And, Cohen Both Takes The Fall And Passes The Buck
If They Can Screw Up There, They’ll Screw Up Anywhere
It’s an ethics twofer out of New York, New York (specifically the Southern District of New York) this week.
First, Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s lawyer David M. Schwartz filed a motion to end his client’s supervised release early. In the motion paperwork, Schwartz cited three District Court decisions. Routine, right?
Regular readers of this blog and/or people who understand human nature know where this is going. These cases don’t exist at all, the court couldn’t find them, successor
Continue Reading If They Can Screw Up There, They’ll Screw Up Anywhere
Well, This Is One Way To Blow Up An NDA
I’ve told this story before but it makes for a good setup here: Years ago, I represented a client in a reinstatement matter. The Office of Lawyer Regulation retained outside counsel for the referee hearing. Outside counsel sent me an email, and copied his contact within the OLR (also a lawyer). I “replied all.” The retained lawyer half-jokingly admonished me for emailing his client, a represented party, in violation of SCR 20:4.2.
Wisconsin does not have a formal opinion
Continue Reading Well, This Is One Way To Blow Up An NDA
The First Rule Of Messing-Stuff-Up Club: Don’t Blame the Intern
Another day, another misuse of ChatGPT. A Colorado attorney was fired from his job after using, and suspended last month for one year and one day (with all but 90 days stayed, subject to probation) because he used, ChatGPT to prepare a motion. As with other lawyers who’ve gotten into trouble for misusing AI, Zachariah Crabill filed the motion without verifying that case citations were accurate. Lo and behold, they were not.
According to the Colorado Supreme Court decision
Continue Reading The First Rule Of Messing-Stuff-Up Club: Don’t Blame the Intern