It’s time for the first ever “Five For Friday.” Email your answers to michael.kennedy@vermont.gov
I’ll publicly recognize contestants who get at least 4 correct answers. That’s way better than a public reprimand!! Don’t worry – 3 or fewer right and it will remain between you and me. Added bonus – and, selfishly, to encourage people to forward a link to my blog, I’ll recognize the firms, offices, and counties with the highest percentages of responses that get at least 4 correct. Contest closes whenever I make my next blog post, which will most likely be Monday afternoon.
Good luck and happy Love Your Lawyer day!
By the way: for questions 1-4, I don’t care if you use Google, if you phone a friend, or if you go to those weird old things called “green books.” At least it’ll mean you’re reading the rules! But for #5, let’s play it honest. Oh yeah, these are 5 questions for which i’m not available. As a result, and so I can be the first blogging bar counsel in history to open and close a post with links to videos, you can’t call me.
- According to the Rules of Professional Conduct, ” [p]erhaps no professional shortcoming is more widely resented than _________________”
a. dishonesty
b. procrastination
c. a lack of communication
d. a lack of preparation
2. Rule 1.6 prohibits the disclosure of information related to a representation absent client consent. However, the rule makes it clear that there are some situations in which the disclosure of information is mandatory, even absent client consent, and others in which disclosure is permissive, again, with or without client consent. Besides Rule 1.6 and the disclosure of otherwise protected information, there is one other rule that sets out the instances in which a specific act is either mandatory or permissive. What is the act?
(EDIT: I’m NOT looking for Rule 1.13 here. It’s technically correct, but is essentially the same as disclosing otherwise protected information. I’ll give credit to anyone who already answered “1.13.” Poorly phrased question. My fault.)
3. Nationally, an emerging ethics issue involves lawyers who pay others to post fake, positive reviews of the lawyer on various social media platforms. Arguably, such a practice violates the advertising rules and Rule 8.4(c). What is the one word most often used to describe the practice of paying others to post fake, positive reviews? That is, a lawyer who pays others to post fake, positive reviews might be charged with ____________________. (again, it’s ONE word, not the specific disciplinary charge, but the colloquial term for the practice of posting fake reviews).
4. In Vermont, a lawyer’s conflict of interest is imputed to all other lawyers in the firm. There is an exception for attorneys who have moved between private practice and the government. There is also an exception for conflicts that are based upon a __________ ___________ of the lawyer. (two words) What is it?
5. Name the TV show in which a lawyer lost his law license after it was discovered that his degree was not from Columbia Law School, as he had led his employers to believe, but from the country of Colombia.
Ethical Grounds 