Summer Reading: Government Lawyers and Confidentiality
I did a huge amount of reading this summer for a paper I wrote for the journal Public Integrity (and otherwise). The first piece of reading I'm going to talk about is one of the otherwise.
Local Government Attorneys
Local Government Practice
May 14, 2012
Willful Ignorance by Government Attorneys
Over the weekend, I read a March 2010 draft
of Rebecca Roiphe's law review article "The Ethics of Willful
Ignorance," which appeared in the Georgetown
Journal of Legal Ethics, Volume 24, Issue 1 (Winter 2011).
Local Government Practice
April 13, 2012
Chief Legal Officers, Local Government Attorneys, and Ethics Officers
The Schumpeter
column in this week's Economist talks about the corporate
chief legal officer (CLO), who due to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act's
requirements has become a major figure at the top of every big
corporation. Much as the city or county attorney is a major figure
at the top of every local government.
February 17, 2012
Federal Decision on Citizens and the Attorney-Client Privilege
Music to my ears in an
order yesterday from the federal court for the Eastern
District of Wisconsin, in a case involving an unsuccessful attempt by certain
Wisconsin state legislators to claim the attorney-client privilege
with respect to documents relating to redistricting. What resonates so nicely is the way the court considered
state citizens to be the client of the private lawyer.
June 28, 2010
A Second Constitutionality Opinion in Broward County, Just Like the First
According to a letter (attached; see below) from a Fort Lauderdale attorney hired to provide a second opinion on the constitutionality of a lobbying provision in the proposed Broward County ethics code, the Broward county attorney (who wrote the first opinion) has decided not to continue seeking a declaratory judgment due to its cost to the county and the likelihood that a decision would be too late to serve its purpose (see my recent blog post<
Local Government Practice
March 31, 2010
A Government Attorney's Discretion
Georgia seems intent on providing an entire course on the ethical
obligations of government attorneys. This time it's the obligations of
the state's top government attorney, the attorney general. There's also
an issue concerning special government attorneys.
The governor wants to file a suit to challenge the constitutionality of the federal health care reform bill. The elected attorney general says that it's unlikely to be successful, and would be a waste of state resources.
The governor wants to file a suit to challenge the constitutionality of the federal health care reform bill. The elected attorney general says that it's unlikely to be successful, and would be a waste of state resources.
Local Government Practice
March 6, 2009
The Government Attorney and Zealousness
Lawyers are supposed to zealously represent their clients. After all,
Canon 7 of the ABA Code of Professional Responsibility says, "A lawyer should represent a
client zealously within the bounds of the law." This requirement applies as much to government lawyers as it
does to private lawyers, right?
Resources & Learning
February 8, 2009
Folio Article: Miller's Crossing
When Mayor John Peyton decided to hire Carla Miller as Jacksonville’s
Ethics Officer in 2007, the city was in crisis. A grand jury was
investigating violations of state open-meeting laws by nearly every
member of the former City Council. The FBI had begun sniffing around
JaxPort, probing dubious contracts and allegations of influence
peddling. The city had spent $36.5 million to develop the old Shipyards
site, with nothing to show for it. It had spent another $26.8 million
on the courthouse with similar results.
February 3, 2009
BY SUSAN COOPER EASTMAN
February 3, 2009