The state of Washington is proposing to change its ethical rules for lawyers to require defense lawyers to tell the court if they later learn their client told a lie.

Some lawyers say the proposed rule would not only crush the whole idea of attorney-client confidentiality, but it would force them to reveal things that could get the very people they're supposed to defend put in jail, convicted or charged with perjury.

"I think it's terrible," said lawyer David Trieweiler, co-chairman of Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers' rules committee. "It profoundly alters the traditional role of defense attorneys by making us into tools of the prosecution, instead of defenders of our clients."

Several states already have enacted the rule, based on an ABA model rule. I think Washington's current rule is much better.

Our immigration-phobic Congress passed a law last week exempting Australian professionals from competition over H-1B visas. It created a new class of visa just for them, called an E-3 visa, and authorized 10,500 of them.

So, will we get their tired or their poor? How about their skilled laborers? Guess again.

We're getting their lawyers.

The new program, widely regarded as a reward for Australia's support of President Bush's policies, opens the door to a vast expansion of the number of Australians working in the United States, only 900 of whom received H-1B visas last year.

The Boston Globe reports on a very unusual case in which three prominent lawyers are facing disbarment for scheming against a judge by promising a fake job to her law clerk and then telling the law clerk she had to get dirt on the judge. It's a strange tale.

Three well-known lawyers accused of orchestrating an elaborate scheme to discredit a former Superior Court judge ''brought shame and disrepute" to the legal community and should be disbarred, a hearing officer for the state recommended yesterday, in one of Massachusetts' most closely watched attorney discipline cases ever.

In a blistering 229-page ruling, M. Ellen Carpenter, the hearing officer for the state Board of Bar Overseers, said a plot by Kevin P. Curry, Gary C. Crossen, and Richard K. Donahue to try to show that Judge Maria Lopez was biased during the long legal battle over the Demoulas family supermarket fortune was unparalleled in its sordidness. The lawyers allegedly tried to wring information from Lopez's former law clerk through trickery, extortion, and intimidation.

Robert Ambroggi has the link to the opinion and describes the three lawyers:

The Southern District of New York will be losing David Kelly, a well-respected prosecutor who has shunned publicity and politics, because he's a Democrat.

Mr. Kelley, 45, is drawing attention now because the Bush administration is about to replace him. The White House has let it be known that President Bush plans to nominate Michael J. Garcia, the immigration and customs chief for the Department of Homeland Security, according to Senator Charles E. Schumer, a Democrat of New York, who has been monitoring the process.

According to Mr. Schumer and several justice officials, Mr. Kelley was not tapped to continue in his job because he is a registered Democrat. "The virtually universal view is that he's done an excellent job," Mr. Schumer said.

Among the successful prosecutions the office yielded under Kelly's stewardship: Martha Stewart, the Rigas family of Adelphia Communications, WorldCom's chief Bernard J. Ebbers, and the defense lawyer Lynne F. Stewart.

5,000 mourners attended Johnnie Cochran's funeral today at a South LA baptist church West Angeles Cathedral in South Los Angeles. The LA Times has coverage here, including this video of Al Sharpton's eulogy. Here's the entire list of speakers.

Rap mogul Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, civil rights activists Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton, actor Sidney Poitier, singer Stevie Wonder, record producer Quincy Jones and Motown Records founder Berry Gordy were also on the guest list.

The speaker's list included one of Cochran's most notable clients -- former Black Panther Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, who spent 27 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.

Also in attendance: Michael Jackson, whose trial was recessed today, and O.J. Simpson.

More pictures here.

by TChris

One of the great trial lawyers of modern times, Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., died today of a brain tumor at the age of 67.

"Certainly, Johnnie's career will be noted as one marked by 'celebrity' cases and clientele," his family said in a statement. "But he and his family were most proud of the work he did on behalf of those in the community."

Johnnie Cochran earned celebrity status for his defense of O.J. Simpson, but he used his formidable talents both to defend the accused in criminal cases and to help powerless victims obtain redress for governmental abuse in civil cases.

He won a $760,000 award in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Ron Settles, a black college football star who died in police custody in 1981. Cochran challenged police claims that Settles hanged himself in jail after a speeding arrest. The player's body was exhumed, an autopsy performed and it revealed Settles had been choked.

His clients also included Haitian immigrant Abner Louima, who was tortured by New York police, and Tyisha Miller, a 19-year-old black woman shot to death by Riverside police who said she reached for a gun on her lap when they broke her car window in an effort to disarm her.

He also represented former Black Panther Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, who spent 27 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit. When Cochran helped Pratt win his freedom in 1997 he called the moment "the happiest day of my life practicing law."

Cochran brought style, intellect, wit, courage, tenacity, and dedication into the courtroom on behalf of each client he represented during a career that spanned three decades. He was fun to watch, making it no surprise that juries loved him.

The profession lost one of its wonders today. Rest in peace, Johnnie.

Sharon Bush and Robert Andrews, the former husband of Bush brother Neil's current wife Maria, have settled the slander suit Andrews brought against Sharon Bush for spreading false rumors that Neil was the father of the John and Maria Andrews' child. Neil had to take a paternity test as a result of the suit, and the result showed he was not the father. Background here and here.

Question for civil lawyers out there: Does her homeowner's umbrella policy pay for the settlement?

Arkansas prosecutors subpoenaed a defendant's dog to his murder trial, thinking the dog was a witness they could get to "roll over" on him.

[Prosecutors]sent out a batch of subpoenas for anyone who had contact with Albert K. Smith while he was jailed awaiting his murder trial. One of those subpoenas went out to 5-year-old Murphy Smith - Smith's dog, it turned out.

The defendant had written his dog a letter from his cell, and that is how the shih tzu's name got on the witness list. Prosecutors realized the mistake on Tuesday after the defendant's brother brought in Murphy to answer the subpoena and a deputy would not let them into the courthouse because no dogs were allowed.

Writer Jan Burke has developed a Yahoo group entitled CLP Morgue for news and articles about forensic science. CLP stands for the Crime Lab Project which Jan is using to develop a grass roots effort among writers. CLP Morgue is a free subscription service where news articles on forensics are posted. If you are interested, sign up here and pass it on to any others who might be interested. [Via CrimProf Blog.]

Civil and domestic lawyers frequently complain about the rudeness and lack of civility among their peers. I've even heard Judges remark on it. In South Carolina, things have gotten so bad that lawyers have to take a one-hour civility class and re-take their oath, with the added passage:

"To opposing parties and their counsel, I pledge fairness, integrity, and civility, not only in court, but also in all written and oral communications."

If this is representative of how lawyers treat witnesses in South Carolina, a career change rather than an oath might be in order:

A witness complained that a lawyer told her before a deposition, "You are a mean-spirited, vicious witch and I don't like your face and I don't like your voice."

Apparently, the tradition of rudeness and worse has a long history in South Carolina:

In 1856, a cane-wielding South Carolina lawyer who was a member of Congress beat an anti-slavery senator from Massachusetts unconscious on the Senate floor. In 1897, Will Thurmond, a prosecutor and father of the late Senator Strom Thurmond, shot and killed a political enemy who had insulted him on the street.

There are two great profiles of lawyers in the New York Times this week. One is of Reid Weingarten, lawyer for World Com's Bernard Ebbers, now on trial for fraud.

The other article is my favorite of the two because it's about my good pal Joe Tacopina, currently representing, among others, Bernie Kerik.

In the truth can be stranger than fiction department:

Defense attorney Leslie Ballin called it the "jury pool from hell." The group of prospective jurors was summoned to listen to a case of Tennessee trailer park violence. Right after jury selection began last week, one man got up and left, announcing, "I'm on morphine and I'm higher than a kite."

When the prosecutor asked if anyone had been convicted of a crime, a prospective juror said that he had been arrested and taken to a mental hospital after he almost shot his nephew. He said he was provoked because his nephew just would not come out from under the bed.