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Simple rules.
“Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn’t mean the circus has left town.” For as long as I can remember I’ve liked aphorisms, those pithy aspirational adages that run from the comedic to the...
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Living deep.
I was watching a segment on Sunday about America’s oldest teacher, Agnes ‘Granny’ Zhelesnik of New Jersey, who just turned 100 and is still working 35-hours a week teaching home economics to kids....
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One more add on a marinated post-racial America.
It was premature to say so. But the election of Barack Obama did not augur the start of a new ‘Post-Racial’ America. If there was any doubt about that, a 2013 Pew Research Center poll cleared it up....
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Suicidal lawyers? State bars react like usual.
“Why are lawyers killing themselves?” That was the sensational headline to a CNN story that ran a few days ago. Talk about implicit assumptions. Talk about a leading question. Long on anecdote, short...
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Sitting on a “filing cabinet” and More Free CLE.
Knock on wood but on occasion, I have sore back problems. I usually chalk it up to my sorry golf game or to my reckless past. There are a lot of blameworthy pratfalls in my annals of yesteryear. Here’s...
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Permanent disbarment coming to Arizona?
The public and some lawyers may not realize this — but when it comes to lawyer disbarment — in most states, it’s not permanent. In Arizona and in 34 other states plus the District of Columbia,...
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The Mexican singer and ‘stupid is as stupid does.’
Arizona yard art “Are you Mexican?” she asked after the how-do-you-stuff was over. Must have been the look on my face over the abruptly blunt question coming right after my introduction. Because that’s...
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Super bowl, super-sized and Jamie Casino’s super advertisement.
Kevin Lomax: “Why the law? Cut the shit, Dad! Why the lawyers? Why the law?” John Milton: “Because the law, my boy, puts us into everything. It’s the ultimate backstage pass. It’s the new priesthood,...
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Topless lawyer wanna-bes and the unauthorized practice of law.
Topless lawyer wannabes? With that as a titillating lead, I’m going to tell you about a devastating critique of what passes for prosecuting the unauthorized practice of law (UPL) in Arizona. It’s a...
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A bowl of menudo and the politics of judicial nominations.
I was having a bowl of menudo yesterday and thinking about Elizabeth Warren. Not so odd a juxtaposition — chowing down the communal Mexican ‘breakfast of champions’ while chewing on the Massachusetts...
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Fairness and unfairness.
“I’d like to see lawyers for god’s sakes say something about the RULE OF LAW and doing what we came to do – ENHANCE FAIRNESS AND JUSTICE FOR ALL,” a lawyer friend wrote me the other day. Her words...
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Colorado lawyers want a rocky mountain high.
Lawyers in Colorado are smart to be circumspect about what their attorney lords of discipline might do to them if they start counseling marijuana-related businesses or partaking a bit of the herb for...
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Monologuing mentors and captive mentees.
Ah mentorship — the latest state bar flavor of the month. Seems all the bars are doing it in various forms. But mandatory bars empowered as they are as a condition of licensure to compel lawyers to...
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Candor, courage and UPL.
Even in Maricopa County, Arizona where most everyone has transplanted from someplace else, no one likes hearing about how things were done elsewhere. It’s as welcome as grey-whiskered prattle about...
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Knickers in a bunch over Burke discipline. Meanwhile DOJ hides prosecutorial...
From the knickers in a bunch file. Last week, the local paper’s editorial board was in high dudgeon grabbing all four cheeks over the wrist-slap inflicted on Fast, Furious and famous former U.S....
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Random irreverence and more Free CLE.
A couple of Saturdays ago, we were paired up on the golf course with a happy wise-cracking guy who turned out to be a presiding judge in another jurisdiction. I won’t mention where he was from but...
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Pigs, old chestnuts, and life lessons.
Probably thinking I needed it, someone recommended a book with pithy business and life advice. When I looked it up, I discovered it was larded with the kind of time-worn advice that if you live long...
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Arizona Bar fees go up as lawyers try decoding costs to practice.
(Click to enlarge) Not satisfied with already being near the top among highest U.S. cost-to-practice1 mandatory bar associations, on February 27, 2014 the Arizona...
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Lawyer discipline –‘the third rail’ and making unwelcome news.
In politics, there’s the ‘third rail,’ a metaphor for topics so charged that like a train’s exposed electrical conductor, they’re too dangerous to touch. For at least some lawyers, the profession’s...
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Easter snark-break to watch a father’s video portrait.
An occasional break from legal profession snark can be welcome, especially when it’s been a good week. And how about this for one more reason? Earlier this afternoon, I watched an enjoyably memorable...
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