Law firm managers have long known they can’t require attorneys to sign noncompete agreements when they join a firm. Even so, there have still been instances where firms have made it challenging for a lawyer trying to make a lateral move. But a recent opinion from the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility makes it clear that any provision of an employment agreement that interferes with a client’s autonomy is never acceptable.
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Testimony in the attorney discipline action against Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill continues Tuesday after emotional remarks Monday from the women who have accused him of sexual misconduct.
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Leslie Henderzahs says Indiana State Bar Association members often realize the value of the association when they least expect it. The incoming ISBA president cited as an example a recent proposal that Indiana lawyers provide their cellphone numbers with their Roll of Attorneys registrations. Few proposals have prompted such an outcry from attorneys, and Henderzahs said the state bar acted promptly.
Read MoreOne of the saddest parts of my job is when a victim of an unscrupulous lawyer calls, asking in exasperation, “Is there anything that can be done about this?” The very saddest part is the realization that, deep down, the caller already knows the answer is no, or next to no. The legal profession has no contingency when one of its own who swore an oath goes rogue and steals from vulnerable clients. This must change.
The hearing officer presiding over the attorney discipline case against Attorney General Curtis Hill is recommending a 60-day suspension of Hill’s law license, without automatic reinstatement. But how that recommendation might affect Hill’s status as AG or his re-election campaign remains to be seen.
A Noblesville attorney has been suspended from the practice of law with two years of probation monitored by the Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program after failing to inform and refund several clients, among other things.
The hearing officer presiding over Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill’s discipline case has recommended that the state’s highest-ranking attorney serve a two-month suspension without automatic reinstatement for violations of two professional conduct rules related to sexual misconduct allegations against him.
Thousands of fetal remains discovered on property owned by the late former Indiana abortion doctor Ulrich Klopfer will be memorialized at a graveside service in South Bend on Wednesday.
The elected prosecutor of Knox County in southwestern Indiana faces an attorney discipline case related to his conduct stemming from a local police investigation into his former chief deputy prosecutor’s relationship with a woman who was serving time on drug charges. An attorney for the prosecutor, however, is contesting the discipline case and says the prosecutor is the victim of a vendetta born of the small-town rumor mill.
A former Knox County chief deputy prosecutor has been suspended from the practice of law for abusing his prosecutorial authority as part of a retaliation campaign against a detective who discovered his sexual relationship with a criminal defendant. The elected Knox County prosecutor also faces a related disciplinary case, according to the Indiana Supreme Court.
Two of the lawyers on President Donald Trump’s impeachment defense team have shared another client: Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr both helped the late hedge fund manager and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein win a lenient sentence for abusing underaged girls.
The Indiana Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges are now exempted sources of reimbursement under Code of Judicial Conduct Rules 3.14 and 3.15, the Indiana Supreme Court announced.
Indiana State Department of Revenue Commissioner Adam Krupp announced Monday he will challenge incumbent Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill for the Republican Party nomination, saying he will promote “leadership, integrity and results.” Krupp joins a crowded field seeking to topple the embattled AG.
Monetary sanctions and default judgment have been entered against state defendants and their attorney in a prisoner case that the presiding federal judge said “shattered” her trust in the defendants’ litigation practices. The judge also imposed new requirements on lawyers in the Indiana Attorney General’s office who defend the Department of Correction in prisoner civil-rights cases.
The Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission is calling for the suspension of a prominent Indianapolis employment attorney it accused of possessing child pornography in the fallout of a teacher-student sex scandal at Park Tudor High School. His defense team counters that no sanction is warranted.
The Indiana Supreme Court has further amended newly created rules dealing with the licensing of pro bono publico attorneys on the eve of their effective date.
Prosecutors say high-profile California attorney Michael Avenatti was over $15 million in debt when he tried to extort up to $25 million from Nike, while Avenatti’s lawyers say the money he legally requested to conduct an internal probe of the sportswear giant was a bargain. Both sides made the assertions in court papers filed late Tuesday in advance of a Jan. 22 criminal trial in Manhattan.
Competing filings in the disciplinary case against Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill call for the Republican AG to face a sanction as severe as a two-year suspension or as little as nothing at all.
A Fort Wayne attorney facing multiple disciplinary actions has had his suspension in one of those actions terminated, though he remains ineligible to practice law in Indiana.
A Richmond attorney is no longer practicing law in the Hoosier state now that the Indiana Supreme Court has accepted his resignation.
Indiana Supreme Court justices indefinitely suspended an Indianapolis attorney who was twice suspended earlier this year for his noncooperation with the disciplinary commission’s investigations of grievances against him.
Find out which Indiana lawyers recently have been placed on probation, suspended and cleared in disciplinary cases.
A southern Indiana lawyer who for a decade mismanaged his firm’s trust accounts has agreed to a probationary period of at least three years, staying a nearly six-month suspension, under terms of an attorney discipline agreement approved Wednesday by the Indiana Supreme Court. The attorney also agreed to pay more than $15,000 in costs to the disciplinary commission and court.