The Virginia State Bar’s Standing Committee of Legal Ethics has jumped into the 21st century with a new draft opinion. It’s a Legal Ethics Opinion on one of those small but significant details left over from a firm break-up: What ...

Tagged with: Ethics Law Firms Legal Ethics Opinion Technology Virginia State Bar

“What’s wrong with this man?” wondered Warsaw lawyer James Monroe as he sat in a jailhouse meeting room. Monroe’s court-appointed client did not seem to be paying attention to what Monroe was saying. It was Dec. 12, 2012. The lawyer ...

Tagged with: Criminal Ethics Virginia State Bar

Lawyer defections often come with hurt feelings, a sense of betrayed loyalty and bitter recriminations. They also come with ethical snares that can lead to distracting and costly litigation just when both sides need to get on with business. One ...

Tagged with: Ethics Law Firms Noncompete

The Virginia State Bar has dismissed discipline charges against a lawyer for failing to honor a large lien claimed by a pre-settlement funding company. Hampton attorney Stephen M. Smith argued the lender was “using the Virginia State Bar as a ...

Tagged with: Ethics Lawyer Discipline Virginia State Bar

Meeting with childIf you represent a parent involved in a case of suspected child neglect or abuse, you may not have the option of interviewing the client’s own son or daughter without other lawyers present.

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Ethics Legal Ethics Opinion Virginia State Bar

With Republicans effectively in control of the Virginia governorship and both houses of the General Assembly, lawyers have been leaning to the red side in making political campaign contributions this year. The trend holds even for trial lawyers, often seen ...

Tagged with: Elections Ethics General Assembly Rules of Professional Conduct Virginia Trial Lawyers Association

In Melissa Howell’s employment law practice, she rarely meets with her clients in her Norfolk office space. Instead, her clients prefer to work with her via phone and email or have her come to them, where she can access employment ...

Tagged with: Ethics Law Office Management Rules of Professional Conduct Technology Virginia State Bar

After announcing rule changes that would have barred lawyers from advertising credentials as specialists, then vacating the new rules a day before their effective date last fall, the Supreme Court of Virginia now has published a new set of lawyer ...

Tagged with: Ethics Legal Marketing Supreme Court of Virginia News Virginia State Bar

Brian D. Wassom has never done work on mergers and acquisitions. But someone recently endorsed him for the skill on social networking site LinkedIn. A slip-up like that is part of the reason marketing expert Allison C. Shields, president of ...

Tagged with: Ethics Social Media Technology

Lawyers upset about having to remove board certification credentials from websites and other advertising materials may have prompted the Supreme Court of Virginia to abandon its publicly announced revisions to lawyer advertising rules just two days before they were to ...

Tagged with: Ethics Legal Marketing Supreme Court of Virginia News Virginia State Bar