{"id":7268,"date":"2009-10-03T13:34:02","date_gmt":"2009-10-03T18:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=7268"},"modified":"2009-10-03T13:34:02","modified_gmt":"2009-10-03T18:34:02","slug":"questions-of-professionalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2009\/10\/questions-of-professionalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Questions of Professionalism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/150478518_b829b989562.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-7275\" title=\"150478518_b829b98956\" src=\"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/150478518_b829b989562-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"150478518_b829b98956\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been thinking about professionalism lately.\u00a0 Two discussions in the past week or so have stuck with me.<\/p>\n<p>The first discussion appeared in the Law Librarian Blog (thank you, Professor O\u2019Brien, for forwarding it.)\u00a0 In Florida, U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Presnell <a href=\"http:\/\/lawprofessors.typepad.com\/law_librarian_blog\/2009\/09\/attention-legal-research-and-writing-profs-example-of-how-not-to-draft-court-filings-provided-by-jud.html\">issued an order denying a plaintiff\u2019s motion for voluntary dismissal<\/a> for<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Failing to comply with Local Rule 3.01(g), for failing to secure a stipulation of\u00a0dismissal from Defendant pursuant to FED. R. CIV. 41 (a)(ii), and for\u00a0otherwise being riddled with unprofessional grammatical and typographical\u00a0errors that nearly render the entire Motion incomprehensible.<!--more--><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Over the years, I\u2019ve collected accounts of judges reprimanding lawyers for unprofessional conduct related to research and writing.\u00a0 This one stands out because the judge went several steps beyond chastising the attorney for poor writing.\u00a0 The judge<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>hand-wrote comments and corrections on the motion;<\/li>\n<li>ordered the attorney to hand-deliver the order personally, along with the marked-up motion, to the client<\/li>\n<li>ordered the attorney to read local court rules and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and<\/li>\n<li>ordered the attorney to file with the court a certificate of compliance when he had completed these tasks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>(A note to my first-year students:\u00a0\u00a0 I know that getting back marked-up copies of your memos this week is painful.\u00a0 It would be more painful to have a judge mark-up your writing and then order you to show it to your client.)<\/p>\n<p>I wonder how the client feels in this situation.\u00a0 I worry about how difficult it is for layperson clients to know which lawyers are worthy of their trust and worth the fees.\u00a0\u00a0 Often clients choose among lawyers on the basis of advertising, which leads into the second professionalism discussion that has stuck with me this week, lawyer solicitation letters to individuals involved in car accidents.<\/p>\n<p>In New Jersey, an attorney organization composed primarily of personal injury attorneys requested that the state completely prohibit attorney solicitation letters to accident victims, except in cases where an attorney already had a business relationship or close personal relationship with the person involved in the accident.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.judiciary.state.nj.us\/notices\/2009\/n090707c.pdf\">Ultimately<\/a>, the New Jersey Supreme Court Professional Responsibility Rules Committee recommended a waiting period of 30-days for such letters.<\/p>\n<p>Wisconsin has no ban on solicitation letters and no waiting period.\u00a0 When an individual in Wisconsin is involved in a car accident for which an accident report is generated, that individual will likely receive a solicitation letter from an attorney, even when the accident report states that there were no injuries.\u00a0 This attorney advertising does not violate Wisconsin ethical rules on advertising, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wicourts.gov\/sc\/scrule\/DisplayDocument.html?content=html&amp;seqNo=36968#Communications\">SCR 20:7.1 and 20:7.2<\/a>, as long as the solicitation letter is not false or misleading and does not create unjustified expectations of the results the attorney can achieve.<\/p>\n<p>My question is whether this type of solicitation via letter, though not unethical, is somehow unprofessional.\u00a0 I\u2019ve certainly heard from individuals who believe the solicitation tarnishes the reputation of the legal profession.\u00a0\u00a0 Some believe the solicitation may manipulate people in a vulnerable position.\u00a0 On the other hand, individuals involved in car accidents may benefit from immediate assistance from a lawyer because they are in a vulnerable position and need to take steps to protect their rights.<\/p>\n<p>This dilemma is not new.\u00a0 In reading about client solicitation, I ran across these words from Justice Blackmun:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In this day, we do not belittle the person who earns his living by the strength\u00a0of his arm or the force of his mind.\u00a0 Since the belief that lawyers are somehow\u00a0\u2018above\u2019 trade has become an anachronism, the historical foundation for the\u00a0advertising restraint has crumbled.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, <\/em>433 U.S. 350,<em> <\/em>371-72 (1977).\u00a0\u00a0 I also learned that Abraham Lincoln solicited three different potential clients\u00a0 by letter in a railroad taxation dispute in <em>Illinois Central Railroad Co. v. County of McLean<\/em>, 17 Ill. 291 (1855).\u00a0 These potential clients had adverse interests.\u00a0 (If you want to read more about Lincoln\u2019s solicitation letters in that case, I suggest Robert F. Boden, <em>Five Years After Bates: Lawyer Advertising in Legal And Ethical Perspective, <\/em>65 Marq. L. Rev. 547 (1982)).<\/p>\n<p>Is there something unprofessional about lawyer solicitation letters after accidents?\u00a0 I wonder what other Wisconsin lawyers think.<\/p>\n<p>(Editor&#8217;s note: The nice photo of a mosaic representation of Justice, inside the Wisconsin State Capitol, was found <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/lydiat\/150478518\/\">here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve been thinking about professionalism lately.\u00a0 Two discussions in the past week or so have stuck with me. The first discussion appeared in the Law Librarian Blog (thank you, Professor O\u2019Brien, for forwarding it.)\u00a0 In Florida, U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Presnell issued an order denying a plaintiff\u2019s motion for voluntary dismissal for Failing to 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