Current Disciplinary Rule 1.14 requires a Texas lawyer to hold property “belonging in whole or in part to clients” separate from her own property. Current Disciplinary Rule 1.05(d) requires her to “refund[] any advance payments of fee that has not been earned” when discharged. The State Bar’s position is that each of these lawyers in each of her cases—more than ten thousand lawyers, millions upon millions of

In its concerted effort to sell lawyers the bill of goods that is the amendments to the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, the State Bar and its mouthpieces keep saying things like this: YOU MAY HAVE HEARD/READ: “The proposed rules will turn fee collection in the criminal defense world on its head.” CLARIFICATION: This concern may be a reference to proposed Rule 1.15 (regarding safekeeping of

More on my series of posts about the proposed amendments to the Disciplinary Rules, and specifically the State Bar's efforts to do away with flat fees in Question A of the referendum …The State Bar's theory appears to be that there exists a dichotomy: a fee is either "earned" or "refundable," so that if there is any possibility that a portion of a fee will have to

Furthering my discussion of the proposed amendments to the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct …If you want to give me a very large gift, you may. The government will not, as a general rule, interfere. If you have giver's remorse, neither law nor equity will require that I return the gift except in narrow circumstances—where I have defrauded you or taken advantage of some particular vulnerability

From the State Bar of Texas, contact information for a young Houston criminal-defense lawyer:(Original here; archived PDF here.)Yes, the State Bar in fact says that this lawyer is employed by a Texas prison inmate (she is not), and gives that inmate's prison address as the lawyer's address (it is not). This is on the State Bar's lawyer-search site, where people can (theoretically) go to find reliable contact

I want to talk about the proposed amendments to the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct and the State Bar of Texas's war on flat fees, but to care about that you need to know why flat fees are good for people charged with crimes.So your loved one is charged with a serious crime. There are two ways we can handle this fee. Either you pay me

It’s enough for me that the State Bar wants to do away with flat fees. Most people who have the money to pay me a flat fee, in which I accept the risk that litigation will drag on and the client accepts the risk that it won’t, could not possibly afford to deposit enough in trust to cover my hourly rate through every reasonably anticipable contingency of

In the wake of a tragic shooting in Tucson, members of Congress and the media mourn and soberly reflect along with the rest of America. No, I’m just kidding. In the wake of a tragic shooting in which six people who weren’t members of Congress were killed, members of congress rush to exploit the tragedy for their own ends. Peter King of New York wants to make

From today’s Houston Chronicle—the front page:U.S. agents are armed with the secrets of a convicted Houston gunrunner, information that could lead them to top Mexican drug-cartel bosses and the Texas firearms dealers suppling high-powered weapons.[Defendant] was sentenced to three years in federal prison as a result of a plea agreement that offered leniency in exchange for telling U.S. officials about his criminal contacts, according to court papers.”[Defendant]

Prosecutors Lester Blizzard and Kayla Allen, however, asked Ellisor for life sentences to send a message to anyone who would drive while intoxicated. (KHOU.) Howard is an unsympathetic character. Because he is an unsympathetic character, it’s easy to send him to prison for life. Blizzard and Allen were arguing for general deterrence: “send a message.” But for the same reason that it would be easy to send