You may have received a copy of the ARDC’s Annual Report in your inbox recently, or perhaps you saw the summary that the ARDC also published. Both highlighted several aspects of the ARDC’s operation, including statistical information about the number and kind of investigations and prosecutions the agency has initiated. What can we learn from the raw numbers about what […]
Taking information-security-related steps consistent with Rule 1.6(b)(7) might also help in complying with new Rule 1.16(e), which provides that “A lawyer shall make reasonable efforts to prevent the inadvertent or unauthorized disclosure of, or unauthorized access to, information relating to the representation of a client.” This may sound alarming: can a lawyer be disciplined for […]
A brief note about Rule 1.4 before we swing into the much-more-substantively-amended Rule 1.6: Comment 4 to Rule 1.4 has been amended to state not that “[c]lient telephone calls should be promptly returned or acknowledged,” but that “a lawyer should promptly respond to or acknowledge client communications.” So, yes, you have to answer emails and […]
As new Comment 10 to Rule 1.2(d) explains, new Rule 1.2(d)(3) was adopted “to address the dilemma facing a lawyer in Illinois after the passage of the Illinois Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act.” The new rule provides that a lawyer may “counsel or assist a client in conduct expressly permitted by Illinois […]
In October of last year, the Illinois Supreme Court entered an order amending several of the Rules of Professional Conduct, effective as of January 1, 2016. This post and several following posts will examine the changes to the Rules, and will offer thoughts about how lawyers can best understand the changes and incorporate them into […]
One scenario that’s come up many times on both the prosecution and the defense sides of the ethics fence is the attorney-client make-up. The lawyer and client don’t communicate at all, or effectively, for a while; the client has a misimpression of the status of a matter; there is a noticeable, but harmless, period of […]
5.27.15 The Supreme Court’s recent decision in McVey v. M.L.K. Enterprises (2015 IL 118143) lets Illinois lawyers know the order of things when it comes to disbursing settlement funds in injury cases, and the lesson is: we may call medical lienholders “third parties,” but they’re not third in line. In McVey, the plaintiff settled her […]
Illinois lawyers should be aware that the Supreme Court recently amended Rule 1.15 to address the problem of what to do with unidentifiable funds residing in an IOLTA. There has long been an answer to the question of what to do with unclaimed funds: follow the procedures outlined in the Uniform Disposition of Unclaimed Property […]
Prof. Ronald D. Rotunda recently wrote concerning lawyers’ duty to be truthful in negotiations: its essence and its limits. As Prof. Rotunda wrote, Rule 4.1 of the Model Rules imposes a duty on lawyers to make no false statements of material fact or law, and Illinois Rule 4.1 tracks the Model Rule. Prof. Rotunda cites […]
The Illinois Supreme Court recently amended several Supreme Court Rules relating to the disciplinary system. One such change was to Rules 780 and 759, relating to the administration of the ARDC’s Client Protection Program. Most Illinois lawyers have not encountered these rules in their careers; the Client Protection Program (established under Rule 780) had previously […]
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