Minnesota Lawyer

A new ethics guide begins with the basics: the who, what, how and why of the professional responsibility system.

Board Opinion 24 advises that a lawyer may not disclose client information to defend against the client’s accusation of wrongful conduct.

OLPR conflicted on representation adverse to former client

The main thrust of new Lawyers Board Op. 24 is to tell lawyers that when a former client posts a few ordinary criticisms online, Rule ...

A fifth-degree assault conviction for punching out opposing counsel will get you a public reprimand. But punch someone on the basketball court, and get the ...

It comes as no surprise that exact wording matters in lawyer discipline, as in the practice of law. Recent public disciplines illustrate this truism. Really ...

Minnesota Lawyer this week introduces a new monthly ethics column, “Professional Quandaries and Quagmires.”

How should an in-house lawyer’s employment rights and duties be balanced with the ethics and fiduciary obligations of confidentiality? In Kidwell v. Sybaritic (Minn. June 24, 2010) the plurality opinion provides the civil law answer to this question, leaving the ethics debate to the concurrence and dissent. This question is also addressed in Nordling v. Northern States Power, Co., 478 N.W.2d 498 (Minn. 1991) and in the 2005 amendments to Rules 1.6, 1.13, and 3.3, Minn. R. Prof. Conduct.

Editor’s note: In the first installment of this article published last week, we ran five out of 10 questions and answers on important confidentiality issues. ...

Part I of II Confidentiality usually is a trump suit, because it embodies one of the leading values of legal ethics. The duty of confidentiality ...