[Free CLE] Good Lawyers, Bad Mistakes: Ethics in Everyday Practice

Oooooh, someone’s in troubbbbbble…

None of us, hopefully, thank goodness. No, we are the ones talking about the little snafus that can get lawyers in trouble, and in doing so we are helping ourselves and our colleagues avoid the negative consequences of attorney discipline. Most ethics complaints don’t actually start with intentional misconduct; rather, they start with everyday oversights, misunderstandings, and the momentary lapse of judgment. A friend and colleague of mine was a hearing judge at the Illinois ARDC for almost a decade, and when he came in, he revamped the ARDC’s existing procedures for screening and triaging attorney ethics complaint letters. “There are only two types of lawyers in the legitimate complaint letters,” he once told me. “The ones who were really bad, and the ones who were just being dummies.” Those were the lawyers who were before the ARDC for things like a missed conflict check, an ill-advised email, a trust account error, or were neglecting client communications. 

Even skilled, well-intentioned attorneys can find themselves before a disciplinary board or dealing with malpractice claims, damaged client relationships, and/or reputational harm as a result of routine practice mistakes. 

This free 1-hour CLE is led by our own Jordan Turk, who you may remember from such UN Peace Prize winning CLEs as “Where Did the Retainer Go? A Mystery in Several Acts” and “The Statute of Limitations Passed While I Was Getting Around To It.” She’s back again to examine the ethical pitfalls that put good lawyers at risk every day. Through real-world examples and cautionary tales, she’ll explore how seemingly minor decisions can snowball into serious professional consequences (and what you can do to protect yourself, your clients, and your practice.

Afterwards, join us on Community to share some of the wildest ethics complaint stories you’ve been privy to or have read about; after all, one way of learning is through salacious (but verified) gossip.

From this 1-hour CLE, you will be able to:

👺   Identify the most common everyday mistakes that lead to ethics complaints, disciplinary investigations, and malpractice exposure

👺   Recognize hidden ethical risks in client communications, technology use, billing practices, conflicts of interest, and firm operations

👺   Implement practical safeguards and risk management strategies to help prevent costly mistakes and protect your license reputation, and clients

Please join us as we talk about good lawyers and bad mistakes, and then pop into the Community forum and look for a pinned Disorderly Conduct post where we will be sharing the craziest and most why-would-you-do-that attorney discipline stories we’ve seen or read about. We hope to see you there!