A Word on Corporate Ethics or Legal Malpractice Reading.

You may have a legal malpractice problem or you are doing research on a specific legal or corporate ethics topic.  Either way, you probably want the links we have below, to help you find the specific law or discussion to solve your problem or to advance your thinking. But --- the links scattered below do something more than address your present problems.  These links will get you to interesting reading material.  It is our hope that you will read ethics materials, just as you read your industry journals or state's recent case law decisions, once a month or so. 

If for no other reason than to stay out of trouble, if you are a lawyer, you should  keep reasonably current on legal ethics.  Once a week, spend an hour browsing and reading, to stay out of hundred thousand dollar trouble.  Besides: it may make you a better person and a better lawyer. Here are some suggested ethics reading resources for you.

Charles Luce on Legal Ethics is an excellent collection of legal ethic articles, collected by an attorney of the Colorado bar.   Although this site includes a list of legal ethics links, I am recommending this site because every so often you should read one of his articles for your general education.  As my father told me when I asked why I had to go to church: "Son, no one every got hurt by listening to a good preacher."  Go ahead, read an ethics article today; no lawyer ever go hurt by reading an ethics article.

David Hrick on Legal Ethics is a former lawyer, now a law professor (not necessarily the same category)  who collects legal ethics articles that are practical and to the point.  He has a free newsletter of current items on which he is interested.  His wide ethics interest gives you a wide choice of reading.

I belong to the Texas Center for Legal Ethics and Professionalism which is a 501(c)(3) public foundation organized for the purposes of promoting and enhancing ethics, professionalism and civility among the state's lawyers. It is a learning center and a resource center for Texas Lawyers, and well worth the minimal cost of membership.  Articles and resources abound for browsing, if you are a Texas lawyer.

Freivogel on Conflicts has a practical online guide to conflicts of interest for lawyers. Reasonably short articles on various aspects of conflicts of interest. Probably one of the best places to read practical ethics advice on conflicts of interest, to keep you out of trouble, to or discuss with your expert witness in a legal malpractice lawsuit on the topic.

Open Compliance and Ethics Group  Are you advising a corporate director or executive trying to figure out what do to improve your company's legal compliance and ethics? The Open Compliance and Ethics Group has the right idea for you.  Most of the problem that good intentioned business managers have in implementing an effective compliance and ethics system is in knowing the nuts and bolts they need to build their own.  Every company is different, so it really is not possible to just grab a code from some other company and slap it on your own company.  The Open Compliance and Ethics Group gives practical advice.  They are still in the drafting stage, but what they have available of their output is worth your time.

LegalEthics.com , perhaps the Web's oldest ethics site, is the place to go if you want to know the legal ethics codes and rules of a specific state, or are new to researching what a particular state says on a legal ethics topic.  This site will lead you to a specific state's legal resources on the web about their ethics and legal malpractice cases. LegalEthics.com is really a good way to start looking for the ethics code of a particular state. (See comment below.)

Cornell Law Library (below) and LegalEthics.com (above) have the largest collection of good solid research links to legal ethics sites available on the world wide web. On Cornell's site, rather hidden, on the right side of the home page, is a state by state access to ethics codes and rules of the states.  (Cornell's site is not as good as LegalEthics.com's listing.) Cornell hosts the American Legal Ethics Library of the Legal Information Institute, which offers narratives drafted for the American Legal Ethics Library. If they have an article on your state, you are well on the way to researching the ethics rules of that state. 

ABA Code of Professional Responsibility.  The original 32 Canons of Professional Ethics were adopted by the American Bar Association in 1908. They were based principally on the Code of Ethics adopted by the Alabama State Bar Association in 1887, which in turn has been borrowed largely from the lectures of Judge George Sharswood, published in 1854 under the title of Professional Ethics, and from the fifty resolutions included in David Hoffman's A Course of Legal Study (2d ed. 1836).  In  1964, the American Bar Association created a Special Committee on Evaluation of Ethical Standards to examine the then current Canons of Professional Ethics and to make recommendations for changes. That committee produced the Model Code of Professional Responsibility which was adopted by the House of Delegates in 1969.    It was adopted in some form by all states.

ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct  The ABA Code of Professional Responsibility was in turn the subject of various revisions.  In 1983, it was replaced by the ABA Model Rules of Professional Responsibility.  44 States base their codes on this version of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, but usually there is some small variances.   In 2001, the ABA House began debate of Report 401, the Ethics 2000 Commission's recommended changes to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, The changes to the Model Rules as proposed by the Commission and amended by the House during its debate became official ABA policy at the completion of the House vote on the Report on February 5, 2002. The ABA Model Rules which are hyperlinked here (to the on-line version of the Model Rules) includes the Ethics 2000 changes made in February 2002, as well as the Multijurisdictional Practice Commission and Ethics Committee changes from August 2002. The comments to the ABA Model Rules have been greatly expanded, (ever heard of the ABA shortening anything?) and should be read when reading the rules themselves.

ABA Ethics Opinions      ABA EthicSearch      and
ABA Task Force on Corporate Responsibility   are helpful and have just what their names imply.

ABA Center for Professional Responsibility  Since 1978, the Center has provided national leadership in interpreting standards and in scholarly resources in legal ethics.  Staid, but authoritative articles can be accessed here. Open Compliance and Ethics Group  Are you a corporate director or executive trying to figure out what do to improve your company's legal compliance and ethics? The Open Compliance and Ethics Group has the right idea for you.  Most of the problem that good intentioned business managers have in implementing an effective compliance and ethics system is in knowing the nuts and bolts they need to build their own.  Every company is different, so it really is not possible to just grab a code from some other company and slap it on your own company.  The Open Compliance and Ethics Group gives practical advice.  They are still in the drafting stage, but what they have available as an "exposure draft" of their output is worth your time.
Center for Applied Ethics was formed by the University of San Francisco School of Law, in 2000, as a forum for dialogue about teaching and applying legal ethics.   It is a forum, really geared to the academic.

Online Journal of Ethics (Univ. of St. Thomas)
Center for Business Ethics (Univ. of St. Thomas)

Ethics Officers Association, the premier association, in my book, for corporate ethics officers.

Legal Ethics Codes and Issues has links to articles of substance.