2013 Annual Convention Legal Ethics and Professional...

2013 Annual Convention

Legal Ethics and Professional Conduct Committee Seminar

Legal Ethics and Professional Conduct Committee

1.0 Ethics, 1.0 Professionalism, and .5 Substance Abuse CLE Hours

May 8-10, 2013 ♦ Cleveland

CONTRIBUTORS

Judge Richard A. Ambrose Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Cleveland, Ohio Judge Ambrose received his BS from the University of Virginia and his JD from the Cleveland State University Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He presides over civil and criminal trials arising in Cuyahoga County ranging from personal injury lawsuits to felony cases involving capital murder. Prior to his service with the court, Judge Ambrose was a trial attorney for 17 years, practicing with the law firms of Nicola Gudbranson & Cooper, LLC; Chriszt McGarry Co., LPA; and McDonald Hopkins Co., LPA. He focused on business litigation and employment law, including discrimination claims and compliance with federal and state regulations.

John J. Mueller John J. Mueller LLC Cincinnati, Ohio Mr. Mueller received his BBA from the University of Cincinnati and his JD from Northern Kentucky University Salmon P. Chase College of Law. His professional memberships include the American Bar Association (Litigation and Tort Section; Insurance Practice Section), American Bar Association Center for Professional Responsibility, Ohio State Bar Association (Legal Ethics and Professional Conduct Committee), Cincinnati Bar Association, Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers, and American Association of Attorney-Certified Public Accountants (Life Member). Mr. Mueller practices in the areas of lawyer malpractice (plaintiff’s) and lawyers’ professional responsibility, including defense of discipline cases, ethics opinions and advice and lawyer-mobility issues, and law-firm break-ups. He is the author of A Handbook on the Rules Governing the Duties of Lawyers to Account for Client Funds and Property (Cincinnati Bar Association, 2006).

Karen E. Rubin Thompson Hine LLP Cleveland, Ohio Ms. Rubin received her BA from Cleveland State University and her JD from Cleveland State University Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. Her professional memberships include the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association (Certified Grievance Committee; Women in Law Section) and Ohio State Bar Association (Legal Ethics and Professional Conduct Committee). Ms. Rubin is a member of her firm’s business litigation practice group. She focuses her practice on a wide variety of litigation issues, including contract disputes, fiduciary claims, federal preemption, venue and forum questions, and Daubert challenges. In addition, she practices, teaches, and writes in the area of professional responsibility, including legal malpractice and attorney ethics. Ms. Rubin both investigates and prosecutes attorney misconduct. For additional information, please visit www.thompsonhine.com.

Geoffrey Stern Kegler Brown Hill & Ritter Columbus, Ohio Mr. Stern received his BA from The Ohio State University and his JD from The Ohio State University Michael E. Moritz College of Law. His professional memberships include the American Bar Association (Center for Professional Responsibility), American Bar Foundation (Life Fellow), Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers, Columbus Bar Association, Columbus Bar Foundation (Fellow), Ohio State Bar Foundation (Fellow), Ohio State Bar Association (Former Chair, Legal Ethics and Professional Conduct Committee), and Litigation Counsel of America (Fellow). Mr. Stern is a director of his firm and chair of its professional responsibility practice area. He engages in professional liability/responsibility, appellate, and litigation management practice and has been an expert witness/consultant on numerous occasions. Mr. Stern provides clients with preventative consultation, expert witness consultation and testimony, and representation in disciplinary matters. He was the

former Disciplinary Counsel of the Supreme Court of Ohio from 1993-97, where he was responsible for investigating and prosecuting professional responsibility complaints in regard to Ohio’s 44,000 attorneys and judges. During Mr. Stern’s four-year term, his office considered over 14,000 grievances. He was also special investigator for the Supreme Court of Ohio’s Board of Commissioners on Character and Fitness, and he appeared in 178 Supreme Court of Ohio cases. Mr. Stern received the Columbus Bar Association’s Liberty Bell Award for service to the profession and community and has been named Columbus Appellate Lawyer of the Year 2012 and Columbus Professional Malpractice Lawyer of the Year 2013. He was recognized by the Ohio State Bar Association for service to the profession through various continuing legal education lectures on ethics, professionalism, and substance abuse issues. He has given over 400 presentations, including several as keynote speaker, and continues to lecture frequently on those issues. For additional information, please visit www.keglerbrown.com.

Brian D. Weaver Attorney at Law Dayton, Ohio Mr. Weaver received his BA from Ohio University and his JD from Ohio Northern University Claude W. Pettit College of Law. His professional memberships include the Dayton Bar Association and the Ohio State Bar Association (Legal Ethics and Professional Conduct Committee; Lawyers Assistance Committee). Mr. Weaver has practiced law for 40 years as a defense litigator. He is a frequent speaker on topics relating to criminal defense, professional ethics, and substance abuse.

Legal Ethics and Professional Conduct

Committee Seminar Session # 505

Chapter 1

Professionalism in Action Honorable Richard J. Ambrose Professionalism in Action—PowerPoint Presentation ..................................................................... 1.1 Chapter 2

Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility: Lawyers’ Trust Accounts (and Related Matters)—FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) and Facts John J. Mueller Lawyers’ Trust Accounts (and Related Matters)—FAQs (Frequently Asked

Questions) and Facts ................................................................................................................... 2.1 Chapter 3

“One More Won’t Hurt You” Brian D. Weaver What Is Substance Abuse Anyway? .................................................................................................. 3.1

1 Professionalism in Action

Honorable Richard J. Ambrose Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court

Cleveland, Ohio

Professionalism in Action • 1.1

1.2 • Legal Ethics and Professional Conduct

2 Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility: Lawyers’ Trust Accounts (and Related Matters)—FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) and Facts

John J. Mueller John J. Mueller, LLC

Cincinnati, Ohio

Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility • 2.1

“One More Won’t Hurt You” • 3.1

3 “One More Won’t Hurt You”

Brian D. Weaver Attorney at Law

Dayton, Ohio

Why bother?

They’re hopeless.

Hopeless drunks.

Every one of us knows a drunk. They’re spouses or partners or less than favorite uncle. They live or work across the street or across the hall. We wonder . . . why? Why don’t they stop drinking? Or at least, tone it down. Why won’t they stop after two?

We’ve tried. We’ve talked, we’ve lectured, even cried. Oh, they may slow down, even stop for a while, but it never lasts.

They live by the saying, “One more won’t hurt you.”

WHAT IS SUBSTANCE ABUSE ANYWAY?

A. The disease of addiction.

1. Primary.

2. Chronic.

3. Progressive.

4. Fatal.

5. Treatable.


B. A treatable disease—absolutely.

1. If so, how?

2. Can’t all be cured?

C. Alcohol use can result in the disease of alcoholism.

For over 50 years the American Medical Association has considered alcoholism (or chemical dependency) to be a disease, and the American Bar Association’s Commission on Impaired Attorneys has adopted this model as well.

D. What are the principal characteristics of the disease?

1. Primary disease.

The disease itself causes the drinking or drug use. It is not secondary to some other disease or mental illness, etc.

2. Chronic.

There is no cure for the disease, but it can be treated and controlled.

3. Progressive.

The disease always gets worse with use; it does not get better, and there is no turning back and beginning all over again as if no one ever drank or used.

4. Fatal.

This is a fatal disease if not controlled. It always leads to premature death and serious health problems even if the death certificate indicates the cause of death to be one of the complications of the disease, e.g., heart problems, liver failure, bleeding ulcer, cancers, etc.

5. Treatable.

The disease can be treated if the drinking or drug use is stopped. It is much like diabetes in the sense that if body chemistry is stabilized by not drinking or using, then the alcoholic may lead a normal life. Recovery rate among the general population who have undergone appropriate treatment is around 70 percent and among professional groups as high as 90 percent.

E. What are the ultimate “personal costs” of doing nothing?

1. Loss of physical, emotional, spiritual health for the alcoholic, and usually his or her family.

2. Damage to or loss of marriage.

“One More Won’t Hurt You” • 3.3

3. Damage to or loss of parent-child relationships.

4. Loss of friends.

5. DWIs.

6. Suicide.

F. What are the ultimate professional costs?

1. If nothing else, loss of real potential.

2. Eventually minor or isolated ethical problems—not yet real neglect because isolated.

G. Eventually it can cause:

1. Actionable misconduct.

2. Patterns of neglect.

3. Competency issues.

4. Loss of professional license, income, etc.

H. What can I do?

Recognize that you have a personal and professional duty to act—to help, whether it is you, yourself, or a colleague or family member who has the disease.

The Lawyers Assistance Committee wants to help—and for obvious reasons, the earlier the better:

1. Before it reaches even an isolated instance of professional misconduct, try to get the person to call the committee.

2. If he or she won’t do so—call a member of the committee yourself.

3. We want to help get treatment for the person and restore them to active, healthy, and happy lives.

4. Call the Ohio Lawyers Assistance Program hotline at 1-800-348-4343.

5. Anonymity and confidentiality build into procedure.

Prof. Cond. R. 8.3 gives the committee a privilege for things said to committee members.

6. Those seeking advice from the committee or its program and those working through it to carry out intervention are covered by the qualified immunity from lawsuits in Ohio Rev. Code § 2305.28.


The key to unlocking the door of resistance held tight by the alcoholic—lawyer or not—is to present them with a realistic picture of hope and success. The alcoholic truly believes he is hopelessly lost beyond anyone’s desire to help.

But when faced with the reality of who and what they are, any alcoholic can recover. Who and what they are, is ridiculously simple—a person with the disease of addiction to alcohol. Not an inherently bad person, just a drunk, and it could be so much worse!

2013 Annual Convention Legal Ethics and Professional...

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