Ethics & Professional Responsibility

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When was the last time you evaluated your legal services in terms of client expectations? How about your legal marketing plan? For most, it’s rarely, if ever. Yet, we work in a service industry. While the maxim “the customer is always right” might seem misplaced in the legal profession, it doesn’t diminish the importance of taking a client-centered approach to the delivery of legal services. According to the 2018 Clio Legal Trends Report: “Clients…
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Legal librarianship is constantly in a state of flux, with continual changes in job titles, habitual shifting of responsibilities and the explosion of legal artificial intelligence all playing a part. In January of this year, LAC Group surveyed their internal personnel about the future of law librarianship, based in part by the responses collected from the 2018 American Association of Law Librarians conference. The resulting blog post, Legal librarianship in 2019-2020, showcased three major…
A retired judge on Wednesday cut in half the 100-year sentence he gave a defendant 23 years ago, partially granting a defense motion asking him to reconsider. The defendant, Gerald Jamar Cook, 40, was convicted of second-degree murder and related offenses in 1996 for the shooting death of William Louis Miller the previous year. Cook, who was just shy of his 18th birthday when he committed the murder, has served 23 years of his sentence. Prince…
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Lawyers have a duty to represent their clients. At the same, they have a responsibility to the legal system and the quality of justice administered. These three sets of obligations are laid out in the Preamble to the Rules of Professional Conduct. The Preamble urges lawyers to promote civility and to further the public’s confidence in the rule of law and the justice system. So what does it mean to promote civility and the rule of…
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Many people don’t seek legal assistance because they simply don’t know that they need legal help. They don’t realize they have a legal problem that has a legal solution. This education gap is where the access to justice issue begins, but isn’t where it should end. Can technology help improve access to justice? Increased accessibility and technology that identifies and addresses legal problems are gradually reducing barriers to equal justice under the law for all.…
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Former British prime minister and noted novelist Benjamin Disraeli is often credited with saying, “Change is inevitable. Change is constant.”  I may not care much for his politics, but I always found it an admirable admission from someone so well-known for his staunch conservatism. It is a pragmatic outlook on life that I have come to not only embrace but celebrate myself.  And so, it is with excitement that I share the news of big…
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More than politeness, civility in government is the glue that holds our republic together. Discussion about civility tends to focus on good manners, or how people speak and behave. But that’s only part of being civil. That people speak and what is substantively communicated are also key components. Respectful sharing of differing viewpoints and compromise around policy makes for civility in government. And America is saying we need more of it. Civility in government =…
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Women’s History Month should be a time of celebration, so I’m not going to be a Debbie Downer. However, it’s tempting if you look at statistics on women in the workplace. Over the last four years, the number of women at every level in corporate America has barely moved. This stagnation occurs as more and more companies say they’re committed to gender diversity. The legal profession is no better. Over the last 12 years, the…
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Do junk and spam emails overflow your inbox? What about those emails that appear to be from a friend or colleague, but you’re not quite sure? Or an unsolicited business opportunity that seems too good to be true? Cybercriminals bombard us with new tricks and ploys asking victims to grant access to otherwise protected accounts and data, often through phishing emails. A variation of this scam – spear phishing – takes a more targeted approach…
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If you peruse the LAC Group blog, you’ll see many articles on the growing need for law firm librarians to demonstrate their value. My colleague Ron Friedmann, a highly-respected expert in legal technology and knowledge management, recently presented on how law firm research and intelligence centers can contribute to firm profits. This was at an ARK (Applied Research & Knowledge) Group hosted conference, Best Practices & Management Strategies for Law Firm Library, Research & …