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- Updates | Blog
Publications
Minnesota Legal Ethics
Updates | Blog
Released as a free ebook by the Minnesota State Bar Association, Minnesota Legal Ethics is a comprehensive guide to legal ethics in Minnesota, written by well-known ethics attorney William J. Wernz.
Updates that will be incorporated into future editions, as well as commentary on topics of particular interest to ethics in Minnesota are posted here.
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January 2016 - “Appearances can be Deceiving” – ABA Formal Opinion 472
Jan 06, 2016
This month’s blog discusses the recent ABA Formal Opinion 472 offering guidance on dealing with unrepresented persons who appear to be receiving assistance from counsel.View Details -
December 2015: Handling Admonition Appeals
Dec 18, 2015
December 2015: Continuing the discussion dealing with and defending ethics complaints and charges, this month’s topic is handling appeals of admonitions. . . . The most common subjects of admonitions by far are failures of diligence and of reasonable communication.View Details -
November 2015: Going On The Offensive
Nov 04, 2015
Third in a series on dealing with and defending ethics complaints against lawyers, this post discusses a few situations in which the respondent attorney may benefit from going on the offensive. The “offensive” means taking initiative, not—except in unusual circumstances—attacking.View Details -
October 2015: Iowa Ethics Opinion 15-03–Restricting a Lawyer’s Right of Self-Defense
Oct 01, 2015
This blog concentrates on Minnesota ethics developments. However, many Minnesota lawyers are licensed in neighboring states. Other Minnesota lawyers appear in these states for occasional transactions or litigation matters. When they do so, the neighboring state’s ethics rules normally apply. In this month’s blog, I discuss an Iowa opinion because it appears to take an unprecedented position, and creates a trap for the unwary.View Details -
September 2015: Evaluating and Responding to Complaints
Sep 08, 2015
Second in a series on defending ethics complaints and contested charges, dealing with evaluating and responding to complaints.View Details -
July 2015: Ethics Complaints-How to Respond and Defend
Jul 07, 2015
First in a series of posts that provide guidelines for responding to and defending ethics complaints.View Details -
June 2015: Ethics Q & A and More Qs –“The Old Dissenter”
Jun 17, 2015
Dissents have been more frequent in Minnesota Supreme Court discipline cases. Even so, in most cases the misconduct is clear and convincing. This column considers a CLE program’s Q & A for frequent ethics issues. The result is nearly 90% agreement, with three dissents on important and common issues.View Details -
April 2015: New Case on The Tort Theory of Creation of Attorney-Client Relationship – In re Severson
Apr 06, 2015
Foundational for legal ethics, for attorney discipline, and for legal malpractice, the attorney-client relationship is a predicate for the great majority of the Rules of Professional Conduct and for almost all liability claims against lawyers that are based on professional services. In re Severson, 2015 WL 672413 (Minn. Feb. 8, 2015) finds a duty for lawyers to communicate clearly with putative clients the existence of the attorney-client relationship, or lack thereof. Severson makes plain the civil and disciplinary consequences that can follow when a lawyer does business with someone who could reasonably regard herself as a client. Lawyers must clarify whether borderline situations involve an attorney-client relationship.View Details -
Selma, Voting Rights Act, Memories
Mar 03, 2015
From time to time, this blog departs from legal ethics and discusses broader subjects. This month I am writing about my experiences in the civil rights movement, including the march from Selma to Montgomery. It’s been fifty years! In addition, there are two announcements: regarding revisions to the fourth edition and tentative date for publication of the fifth edition.View Details -
February 2015: Disciplines for False Statements to Tribunals—Overview
Feb 02, 2015
This blog will focus on one, unusually frequent discipline in 2014—nine cases involving lawyers who made false statements to courts. In obtaining materials and insights for these cases, I appreciate the assistance of Martin Cole and Eric Cooperstein. Disciplinary petitions, stipulations, etc. that are not published in N.W.2d can be found (with the exception of some memoranda) at the Lawyers Board website, lprb.mncourts.gov/Pages/Default.aspx, under “Lawyer Search.”View Details
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Minnesota Legal Ethics
Future Posts
Rule 25 Challenges and Other Confrontations Between Respondent Attorneys and OLPR.Contesting Complaints and Charges. Contested matters, in which a respondent attorney believes that the DEC or OLPR has mistakenly concluded there are ethics violations, or OLPR has over-estimated the seriousness of a violation.
Personal Guide and Collection. This series of posts will draw on my experiences, both as OLPR director and assist