Too busy to read it all? Try these books, blogs, webcasts, websites and other info resources curated by CCBJ especially for corporate counsel and legal ops professionals.
ETHICS OPINION: ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility
Attorneys are free to share offices with other lawyers, but they must comply with applicable ethics rules, according to Formal Opinion 507, released July 12 by the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility. To assure client confidences are safeguarded and conflicts avoided, attorneys must consider measures such as avoiding discussion of cases in common areas, using separate lobbies or waiting areas, installing privacy screens on computers, and training staff on the ins and outs of confidentiality. The upshot is that sharing office space with other lawyers is fine, but only when a strong element of caution is baked into protocols.
Blog: Corporate Legal Operations Consortium
In this piece from the CLOC blog, Keanu Maui Gevero, senior manager of legal advisory with PERSUIT, a popular platform for reverse auctions, which allow outside counsel to revise their prices in real time, discusses “true market price.” Gevero defines “true market price” as the average cost that buyers and sellers can be expected to agree upon for a particular good or service. Gevero says finding a true market price actually renders price less important when you select your firm for a matter. Yes, that’s a bit counterintuitive, but it makes sense, according to Gevero. Using a reverse auction, in-house counsel can empower their teams to manage risk by choosing the best firm — and not just the firm with the best rate. That’s a step in the right direction when it comes to inside-outside counsel relations.
Report: Bloomberg Law
Civil rights protections are migrating to exotic new locales to sweep in novel characteristics and categories, especially in jurisdictions led by Democratic lawmakers. The C.R.O.W.N. Act, which stands for “Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” was created in 2019 to ensure protection against discrimination and is seen as the most widespread of the new discrimination protections. It first passed in California and New York in 2019 and has gained momentum since, becoming law in more than 20 states and dozens of cities. Passage in Texas is widely seen as a major victory given the state’s size and its conservative lawmakers. Worker protections have increased against the backdrop of culture wars, says Michelle E. Phillips, an employment attorney with Jackson Lewis in New York. “At the same time that there’s an expansion of rights, there’s also a retrenchment of rights. It’s difficult for employers to navigate,” says Phillips, noting that many businesses have considered it important for employees to look a certain way, particularly in customer-facing roles. “The idea of a look-ism policy by a company is just no longer acceptable.”
Published September 14, 2023.
