In the latest issue of Washington State Bar News, attorneys David Sheldon and Leron Vandsburger answer some key NFT questions and explain the rights that are transferred through an NFT transaction and what legal professionals should know before talking to a client about whether to get into NFTs.
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For many, dairy farms will bring to mind pleasant imagery of placid cows nibbling grass and farmworkers ambling in the pre-dawn hours with stool and milking bucket in hand. In reality, the job of a dairy farmworker involves handling sometimes dangerous fully grown cows, machinery that can lead to injury or death, and long hours in a risky environment. These are some of the reasons why dairy farmworkers fought and won the right to overtime pay after the landmark Washington Supreme Court decision Martinez-Cuevas v. DeRuyter Bros. In the newest issue of Washington State Bar News, Marc Lampson breaks down the court’s decision and provides a detailed history of dairy farming to explain how this battle for overtime pay and worker safety on dairy farms came about.
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Approximately every four years since 1985, the American Bar Association has published a “Profile of Legal Malpractice Claims.” Plaintiffs’ personal injury and family law are the most frequent source of claims, according to the latest profile. Although the Profile does not correlate the severity of claims by practice area, the Profile’s “anecdotal observations” section suggests that business and commercial law have traditionally been higher-risk areas on this score.
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As the hub for voices of Washington’s legal community, the content on this blog is as varied as WSBA members themselves.
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Earlier this year, Division I of the Washington Court of Appeals issued a decision touching on an area of the Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC) that is rarely litigated: revoking consent to conflict waivers. The decision was “unpublished” under General Rule 14.1, but is instructive nonetheless—both for its illumination of this comparatively “unplumbed” area of conflicts law and as an illustration of the result.
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Should you represent a witness in the same case in which you are representing a party? Mark Fucile examines Alaska Bar Association’s opinion.
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Ethics Guru Mark Fucile examines a recent Supreme Court ruling that an elected prosecutor’s entire office is disqualified to litigate in cases the prosecutor tried prior to election.
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In a case of first impression, the Idaho Supreme Court recently held that fee disgorgement is available as a remedy against a lawyer for breach of fiduciary duty even if there are no resulting damages.
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The WSBA literally would not function without the hundreds upon hundreds of dedicated volunteers who often work behind the scenes to keep the legal profession on a path of progression. Serving selflessly in everything from committees to boards to sections, WSBA volunteers are the propulsive force behind issues that touch the lives of lawyers, LPOs, […]
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In the November issue of NWLawyer we meet Lisa Daugaard, a 2019 MacArthur fellow who is reforming the criminal justice system. And we take a trip around the world in nine ways with WSBA members sharing their experiences practicing law from the Czech Republic to Nigeria and beyond.
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From corner to corner, Washington state is a geographic and geologic smorgasbord encompassing densely packed forest and glacial-carved craggy mountain peaks, copper-colored grasslands and scrubby deserts, crushed urban jungles and placid fertile hills. And Washington’s legal community is equally varied in what they love about where they work, from folks looking to escape the perpetually […]
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The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) will soon begin rolling out a new electronic system for case management and electronic filing (e-filing) for Washington’s district and municipal courts and probation offices. The AOC is trying to spread the word about the e-filing component of its Courts of Limited Jurisdiction Case Management System (CLJ-CMS) project, also known as Odyssey File & Serve (OFS).
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The WSBA Committee on Professional Ethics recently released advisory opinion No. 201802 addressing “quadripartite” relationships. “Tripartite” relationships among an insurer, the insured, and defense counsel have been delineated extensively in both court decisions and advisory opinions. “Quadripartite” relationships, by contrast, are a fairly new development and remain comparatively unplumbed. The term generally describes situations where […]
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Mark Fucile explains the Supreme Court’s analysis of RPC 3.7. RPC 3.7(a), which generally prohibits a lawyer from acting “as advocate at a trial in which the lawyer is likely to be a necessary witness.”
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An Oregon lawyer was recently suspended over the content of his responses to negative online reviews.
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After voters approved Initiative 502 in November 2012 permitting and regulating “recreational” marijuana, questions immediately arose regarding the extent to which lawyers could advise and assist clients in state-authorized marijuana businesses. Washington RPC 1.2(d), like its ABA Model Rule counterpart, generally permits lawyers to advise clients on the legality of proposed conduct but prohibits lawyers […]
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