The representation of women and minorities in major U.S. law firms, especially at the partnership level, remains low. The numbers indicate that relative to the overall population (half women; one-third minority) and that of the demographic makeup of law students, women and minorities continue to be under-represented among the partnership ranks at major law firms. This exercise examines how maintaining a diverse workforce can be good for business.

Everyone knows that, much like diet and exercise, networking is good for you and that, similarly, there are lots of excuses for avoiding it. This exercise applies specific Rules of Professional Conduct to effective networking strategies.

If you ask most attorneys whether their clients are satisfied, the vast majority would, of course, say "yes." If you then ask them "what makes you so sure?" the responses would typically range from "They donít complain" and "Theyíre nice to me" to "They pay their bills" or "They continue to do business with us." A closer examination of these reasons, however, reveals that such client behavior hardly indicates satisfaction. This exercise makes a business case for keeping clients satisfied to avoid ethics complaints from dis-satisfied clients.

The California State Barís Rules of Professional Conduct lay out very specific guidelines to regulate the professional conduct of its members - through discipline. These rules have been adopted by the Board of Governors of the Bar and approved by the Supreme Court of California pursuant to Business & Professions Code Sections 6076 and 6077 to protect the public and to promote respect and confidence in the legal profession. This exercise provides an overview of these rules for Attorneys.

There are numerous ethical considerations one must make in the day-to-day practice of law. While some seem to follow simple common sense, others are a bit less clear. This exercise will help you learn where to easily find answers to your ethical questions utilizing free State Bar and academic resources on the Internet.

Whether you already have your own Web site or are just beginning to consider launching one, this exercise will help you learn where to easily find answers to ethical questions regarding your Web site. The exercise includes the California Barís standing Committee on Professional Responsibility & Conduct Formal Opinion addressing ethical issues related to attorney Web sites, as well as the Business & Professions Code Sections.

The California Rules of Professional Conduct spell out VERY specific requirements for minimum continuing legal education for Paralegals AND the responsibilities of Attorneys with whom they work to monitor and certify that MCLE compliance. This exercise gives Paralegals AND Attorneys an overview of how these rules affect EACH of them.

The California State Barís Lawyerís Assistance Program to helps attorneys with substance abuse or mental health problems. This exercise features questions about features and benefits of the program. Information for this exercise is drawn directly from the California State Barís Web site and the California Business & Professions Code Sections covering the program.

There are three Federal government Web sites that offer free access to searchable databases of the United States Code (U.S.C.). Even though all use the same Code (prepared by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives), they are not all created equally. This exercise features questions that highlight the strengths of each one separately and explains the differences between them.

Federal government agencies are posting more and more documents (e.g. reports, press releases, etc.) on the Internet. Unfortunately, these agencies donít always do a good job of making them easy to find when you visit the Web sites. This exercise shows you how to use outside sources (e.g. Justia, USA.gov, and Google) to locate even the most hard-to-find information posted by the government.

The term "public record" has always been VERY misleading. Just because a record is "public" and available for public scrutiny in the strictest sense, doesnít mean that it is readily available on the Internet. In this exercise, youíll learn about some of the various types of records that are available for free on the Internet. Each question features an outline of the type of information included in each specific resource discussed, and a hyperlink to take you directly there so you can see for yourself.

Now you can locate information on about companies ñ existing or potential clients, the opposition, their products, financials, etc. ñ quickly online. And for free ñ if you know where to look. This exerciseís clear explanations and hyperlinks to Internet research resources lead you to real-life answer to questions about a real-world companies.

There was a time when the only sources for online legal research were proprietary pay databases like Lexis and WestLaw. Now there are a variety of sources to research cases, codes, statues, etc. online ñ often for free or at low cost. This exercise shows you how to retrieve information from some of the more popular sources for legal research in California.

Lawyers looking for evidence for their cases need to start thinking about looking "virtually" in addition to the traditional sources their more familiar with. With increasing amounts of "paperless" information being added to the Internet every minute of every day, there is an increasing chance lawyers could find potentially relevant evidence there. This exercise examines some sources of this evidence, as well as how other lawyers have handled challenges to the "virtual" evidence they have introduced.

From the lowbrow to the highbrow, there are millions of Internet sources with information on the entertainment industry. This exercise will show you how to cull information about companies in the field and individuals from sources ranging from scholarly journals to pop-culture Web portals.

Contacting Unrepresented Persons via Social Networking Sites - New York State Bar and Philadelphia Bar Ethics Opinions
More and more attorneys and judges are using social media. Some use it for its intended purpose of social networking (and, for the lesser intended purpose of marketing). Others take advantage of the information contained in these sites for an unintended purpose - investigative research. Legal pundits have argued (online and in print) about the ethical issues for attorneys utilizing this information in the matters they handle. Few Bar Associations have opined on the topic. Two exceptions are the Philadelphia Bar and the New York State Bar. They addressed the specific questions of whether it is ethical for an attorney to ask a non-lawyer assistant to "friend" an unrepresented witness even if the non-lawyer uses her real name but without also disclosing the reasons for making the request? Learn which ethics rules that these Ethics Opinions point out for potential violation by this activity.

Contacting Unrepresented Persons via Social Networking Sites - New York City Bar Ethics Opinion
The Association of the Bar of the City of New York considered a question similar to the one presented to the New York State Bar and the Philadelphia Bar. The New York City Bar's Committee on Professional and Judicial Ethics' Opinion 2010-2 (Sept. 2010) concluded that there would be no violation of the rules of professional conduct if an attorney or her agent uses her real name and profile to send a "friend request" to obtain information from an unrepresented person's social networking website without also disclosing the reasons for making the request. Learn the New York City Bar's reasoning behind their decision.

During the past three-four decades, achieving diversity in the legal profession has been the goal of many within, as well as outside, of the profession. If you google the terms “diversity” and “legal profession,” there are over a million and half results. Many of them describe the efforts of the American Bar Association (ABA), numerous state and local bar associations, law firms, corporate legal departments, law schools, court systems and others to increase the number of minority and women attorneys. “Pipeline” efforts are the newest trend within the legal profession’s diversity realm to address this issue. Pipeline programs are designed to reach out to minorities early and throughout their educations.

As early as 1996, many state bar associations began issuing formal (or advisory) ethics opinions on the ethical uses of Internet technology. Many of those opinions relating to Web sites and online communications apply the advertising rules that already exist for print advertising. In the late Summer of 2010, the American Bar Association issued its Formal Opinion 10-457 discussing ethical concerns for lawyers who maintain Web sites.

Lawyers are struggling with questions of whether or not to store their client files and work product "in the cloud." Their largest concern is for the security of this material and whether trusting a third-party cloud computing vendor to store these sensitive documents could constitute an ethical breach on the lawyer's part. This MCLE exercise looks at all of the existing Bar Association ethics opinions on the topic of cloud computing from which lawyers might seek guidance.

Public Laws, bills, resolutions, hearings, congressional reports, and committee reports can all be found online if you know where to find them (and how to search those sites effectively). The Library of Congress’s Thomas site and the Government Printing Office's FDsys both make searchable databases of these materials available for free online. This exercise shows you how to track a current bill, read Public Laws in their entirety (after they're passed and before they're split up across the U.S. Code) uncover legislative intent of a bill, and how to conduct historical research about a bill that was never passed.

Public Laws, bills, resolutions, hearings, congressional reports, and committee reports can all be found online if you know where to find them (and how to search those sites effectively). The Library of Congress’s Thomas site and the Government Printing Office's FDsys both make searchable databases of these materials available for free online. This exercise shows you how to track a current bill, read Public Laws in their entirety (after they're passed and before they're split up across the U.S. Code) uncover legislative intent of a bill, and how to conduct historical research about a bill that was never passed.