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NJ Attorney Ethics
Next edition to be published on or about November 2010
Paperback Edition: 2010
Paperback Edition Commentaries Are Current Through: 200 N.J. 274; 410 N.J. Super. 113; L. 2009 c. 143
The "What's New" Feature Brings The Online Edition Current Through:
202 N.J. 42; 413 N.J. Super. 300; 176 L.Ed.2d 581; L. 2010 c. 49
Author
Kevin H. Michels
N.J. Attorney Ethics
Kevin H. Michels is Assistant Professor of Business Law and Ethics at The College of New Jersey. Prior to joining the TCNJ faculty, he practiced law for 20 years, most recently with the firm of Michels & Hockenjos, P.C., in Flemington, New Jersey, where his ethics practice included service as defense counsel in attorney disciplinary matters, and as expert witness and consultant in matters involving attorney ethics and malpractice. He served on the New Jersey Supreme Court Commission on the Rules of Professional Conduct (the Pollock Commission), which provided recommendations to the New Jersey Supreme Court on the revisions to the Rules of Professional Conduct effective in 2004. Mr. Michels graduated in 1983 from Rutgers College, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he was a Henry Rutgers Scholar and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated in 1986 from Rutgers Law School in Newark, where he was Research Editor of the Law Review. He served as law clerk to Justice Robert L. Clifford of the New Jersey Supreme Court for the 1986-87 term. His article on attorney third-party liability and its relation to the ethics rules, appears in the 2009 volume of the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics.
Synopsis
New Jersey Attorney Ethics
By Kevin H. Michels
The first definitive treatise in an ever-expanding area, New Jersey Attorney Ethics: The Law of New Jersey Lawyering collects, organizes and analyzes the New Jersey Rules of Professional Conduct, court rules, decisions of the New Jersey Supreme Court, the Superior Court, and District of New Jersey, opinions of the Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics, the Advertising and Unauthorized Practice Committees, and statutory authority governing attorney conduct in New Jersey. A dog-eared copy of this treatise should be on every New Jersey attorneys desk. The treatise has been cited in opinions of the New Jersey Supreme Court, the Appellate Division, the Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics and the Disciplinary Review Board.
New Jersey attorneys are governed by some of the strictest and most complex ethical principles in the nation. The New Jersey Rules of Professional Conduct varied significantly from those proposed by the ABA when they were first adopted by the New Jersey Supreme Court in 1984. In 2004, the Court substantially revised those rules even further. This volume provides a comprehensive, systematic analysis of the maze of New Jersey authorities that regulate an attorney's conduct, including the literally thousands of opinions interpreting and applying the current and predecessor rules. For example, the treatise, which is over 1,000 pages in length, contains extensive discussions of:
- The N.J. Supreme Court's authority over the profession
- The limits of court authority and the roles of the other government branches
- Organization of a law practice, including entity selection, firm names and letterhead
- Advertising, marketing and solicitation
- The legal fee agreement, including retainers and contingent fees
- Fee sharing
- Fee collection, including attorney liens, and fee arbitration
- Attorney trust accounting
- Duties in representing a client, both in the transactional and litigation settings
- Conflicts of interest, including imputed disqualification, screening, conflicts relating to concurrent clients, former clients, public representations, family relationships, the attorneys own interests, and business transactions with a client.
- Client waivers of conflicts
- Client confidentiality
- Disclosure of client information to the courts and adversaries
- Ex parte communication
- Detailed analysis of New Jersey's attorney discipline system, both procedurally and substantively
- Immunity and confidentiality in the disciplinary system
- The quantum of discipline imposed in various types of disciplinary matters
- The unauthorized practice of law
- Liability based on RPC violations
