Across the Bar

The State Bar of California's new and amended Rules of Professional Conduct took effect November 1, 2018—the first overhaul in nearly 30 years. Sixty-nine approved rules replace the 46 that previously governed the conduct of California's more than 250,000 licensed attorneys. The changes seek to align California's rules with legal standards across the country. Previously, California was the only state that did not base its rules on the American Bar Association's Model Rules of Professional Conduc...

E-discovery: what is it, where is it, and (if it doesn't help our case), why do we care? The California State Bar has opined that an attorney may violate ethical duties of competence by failing to understand and perform e-discovery.1 The Committee Opinion set out a list of nine e-discovery tasks that "attorneys handling e-discovery should be able to perform (either by themselves or in association with competent counsel or expert consultants)." They include: Initially assess e-discovery needs and...