Free Newsletter
Recent Articles from William J. Wernz
Quandaries & Quagmires: Duty to ‘inquire into and assess’ client representations?
Model Rule 1.16(a) determinations on whether to continue a representation that were adopted by the ABA House of Delegates are most closely related to two rules.
Quandaries & Quagmires: Dealing with lawyers’ mistakes – some examples
The fact that ethics authorities have been unable to provide a clear and comprehensive guide does not mean there are no guidelines.
Quandaries & Quagmires: A duty to disclose what’s already known?
Under the Rules of Professional Conduct lawyers have duties to disclose certain matters and duties not to disclose confidential information.
Quandaries & Quagmires: Repeating errors, attributing sources
To recognize OLPR’s intrepretation errors, it is important to understand what Rule 4.3(d) does and does not require.
Quandaries & Quagmires: Professional competence as an ethics obligation
Lawyers should understand that Rule 1.1 is becoming an important ethics subject in several ways they might not expect.
Quandaries and Quagmires: Do Minnesota prosecutors ‘get away’ with misconduct?
There is no authoritative answer, but several factors must be considered to begin formulating an answer.
Quandaries & Quagmires: Diminishing the public’s role in professional oversight
For more than 50 years, the Minnesota Supreme Court has succeeded in maintaining an excellent professional responsibility system. Public participation and accountability have been essential system components.
Quandaries & Quagmires: Attorney as witness: 3 erroneous court orders
The Office of Lawyers Responsibility (OLPR), the Minnesota Supreme Court, and the Hennepin County District Court have recently given four answers to questions about a trial lawyer acting as a witness, three of which are wrong.
Quandaries and Quagmires: When personal relationships create conflicts
The ABA has recently issued two formal opinions on when the personal relationships of judges and lawyers raise ethics issues that may require disclosure, consent, or disqualification. The opinions are in many ways instructive and in some ways flawed.
Quandaries and Quagmires: Law firms must have ethics policies and training
Questions about whether your law firm has ethics policies and training are timely, and indeed urgent, because of two recent discipline cases and increasing enforcement by the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility (OLPR).
Quandaries and Quagmires: Champerty? No. Third-party litigation finance? Yes.
Abolition of champerty may well increase the frequency of litigation financing. Minnesota lawyers will have to be alert to several ethics issues.
Quandaries and Quagmires: To err is human … what comes next?
A familiar legal ethics maxim is, “We all make mistakes. What matters is what we do next.”
Top News
- Target faces ‘non-drowsy’ meds suit
- Melodie Rose named president at Fredrikson
- Supreme Court lawyers have rituals of their own
- Minnesota artists consider what’s next in AI copyrights
- Defining ‘and’ in sentencing statute falls to Supreme Court
- Hashtag rates higher libel protection
- Court: Performance issues, not bias, prompted union to fire organizer
- Robot milker case yields $122M
Expert Testimony
- Briefly: A chat with Supreme Court Commissioner Tim Droske
- Perspectives: Oral arguments at high court stir lively debates
- Quandaries & Quagmires: Advance waivers: Lessons from Paul Hastings vs. Coca Cola
- Perspectives: Recent cellphone ruling recalls high court cases
