This program is a video replay of the live
webcast Ethics Update for Virginia Lawyers
2010 held in June 2010.
TOPIC AGENDA
Part 1: Review of the Most Significant Disciplinary Cases from
the Past Year, Plus Rule and Procedural Changes
• From April 1, 2009, to April 1, 2010, 82 lawyers were publically
disciplined and 41 were privately disciplined in Virginia (up from
the prior year). Which public cases are significant and why?
• Lawyer impairment — how the disciplinary system handles this
• Trends concerning escrow accounts
• Trust account examinations
• Payee notification statute
• Conflicts when moving from private to public employment
• Proposal to amend Rule 4.2 prohibiting a lawyer from communicating
with a represented party
• New administrative fees are now levied against rule violators
Part 2: New Developments in the Law of Ethics
• Mining for metadata
• Referral services, lead sharing
• Business adversity
• Multiple-jurisdictional practice issues
• Sex with clients — Rule 8.4, Rule 1.7
• New Legal Ethics Opinions on: sex with clients; passing credit
card transaction fees to clients; lead-sharing referral from private
associations; marketing and advertising
• How the VSB is monitoring and enforcing lawyer advertising rules in
light of the sunsetting of the Standing Committee on Lawyer Advertising
and Solicitation
• Rule 1.6 — possible amendment to permit lawyers to reveal confidential
information when necessary to avoid reasonably certain bodily injury or
death, or to prevent the conviction or incarceration or execution of an
innocent person accused of a crime to which the lawyer’s client has
confessed
Part 3: Legal Ethics in Cyberspace — Traps for the Unwary
• Social media networking and its ethical hazards
• Internet scams that currently are victimizing lawyers, including Virginia lawyers
• Virtual law offices and ethics — is it safe to practice in the “cloud”?
