“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds — Emerson

The State Bar Task Force on Discipline Standards had its initial meeting on Friday May 12 at State Bar HQ in San Francisco.  There to gird their loins for a battle with the hobgoblin which has haunted California disciplinary jurisprudence since 1986: the Standards for Attorney Sanctions for Professional Misconduct. The Standards were, in their own words “adopted by the Board of Trustees to set forth a means for determining the appropriate disciplinary sanction in a particular case and to ensure consistency across cases dealing with similar misconduct and surrounding circumstances.”  Of course, there was no Board of Trustees in 1986, Continue reading →

The short yet eventful life of AB 1515 raises many interesting issues in the jurisprudence of lawyer ethics in our Golden State.

The Latest Version

First, the most current version of AB 1515 as amended on May 8, from the Legislative Analysis (201320140AB1515_Assembly Judiciary-) which is well worth the read. Continue reading →