One of essentially the most deceptive emotions for a younger lawyer is the thought that they’re carried out with legislation lessons now that they’ve earned their JD. If solely! Even when you — or your agency — shell out the hundreds of {dollars} for a aggressive bar prep course, you’ll should don your pondering cap each once in a while for CLEs.
Seems widespread information, however the you in that sentence refers to you, not certainly one of your representatives. A Maine lawyer didn’t catch that half, tried to get his assistant to sit down in his CLEs, and obtained suspended for a 12 months. He fought the choice as much as the best courtroom he may and it went nearly the way you’d anticipate. From ABA Journal:
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has affirmed a one-year suspension of an lawyer who requested his assistant to take his persevering with authorized schooling lessons.
Solo practitioner Donald F. Brown of Brewer, Maine, had appealed the October 2022 order of Justice Thomas R. McKeon of the Maine Superior Court, who discovered that Brown violated the Maine Rules of Professional Conduct and the Maine Bar Rules.
According to McKeon’s findings, Brown turned conscious in late February 2020 that he needed to full 12 hours of CLE. Brown signed up for 4 reside seminars that require members to acknowledge their presence when prompted. But Brown realized that he had scheduling conflicts, so he requested his assistant to signal on to the net lessons in his place.
In case that wasn’t sufficient, the Court additionally dinged Brown for representing a consumer in a divorce case after that they had a sexual relationship. I do know its Maine and all, however there’s no means the courting pool is that small. For anybody else whose confused, taking note of your consumer’s private issues is part of the job. Getting “personal” with them just isn’t.
I feel that one of the simplest ways to categorise Brown’s actions, legally talking, is silly. There’s little question that being a solo practitioner is tough; everytime you get the prospect to delegate one thing you must typically take it. But that is a type of instances while you’re alleged to do issues by yourself. Not to say one of many instances when it might be actually dumb to depart a paper path: a few of the strongest proof towards him got here from the textual content messages he despatched to his assistant. What? Did the man hold up his personal shingle with out watching “Better Call Saul“? Traceability is how they get ya!
Maine’s Top Court Affirms Suspension Of Lawyer Who Asked Staffer To Take His CLE Classes [ABA Journal]
Chris Williams turned a social media supervisor and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to becoming a member of the employees, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ within the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri lengthy sufficient to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who can’t swim, a printed creator on important race concept, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for biking that often annoys his friends. You can attain him by e-mail at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForHire.
