Remote Practice and Harassment & Discrimination in Law Practice

Stephen Gillers and Barbara S. Gillers discuss rules governing the practice of law from a jurisdiction in which a lawyer is not admitted, an issue that’s been discussed since before the pandemic but which is especially timely now. They then turn to a question the New York courts are now considering: Should New York have an ethics rule forbidding discrimination and harassment in law practice? And if so, what should it say?

Stephen is the Elihu Root Professor of Law and Barbara is an Adjunct Professor of Law, both at New York University School of Law.

Listen on Apple Podcasts here, Google Podcasts here, Stitcher here, or Spotify here. 

Reference List for Podcast One – Remote Practice and Headlines on 8.4(g)

Model Rule 5.5 and NYCRR 523

ABA Formal Opinion 493 (July 2020) and 495 (December 2020)

Court Request for Comments on 8.4(g) proposal, which includes the City Bar Proposal and ABA Opinion 493 available at: https://ww2.nycourts.gov/rules/comments/index.shtml Persons wishing to comment to the courts should e-mail their submissions to rulecomments@nycourts.gov or write to: Eileen D. Millett, Esq., Counsel, Office of Court Administration, 25 Beaver Street, 11th Fl., New York, New York, 10004. Comments must be received no later than June 18, 2021.

Proposal of the New York State Bar Committee on Standards of Attorney Conduct (COSAC), dated April 16th

Greenberg v. Haggerty (E.D. Pa. 2020). 

Articles from the growing academic literature about Rule 8.4(g):

• Jessie Allen, Lawyers for White People?, 69 Kansas L. Rev. 349 (2021)
• Veronica Martinez, Combatting Silence in the Profession, 105 Va. L. Rev. 805 (2019)
• Rebecca Aviel, Rule 8.4(g) and the First Amendment: Distinguishing Between Discrimination and Free Speech, 31 Geo. J. Legal Ethics 31 (2018)
• Stephen Gillers, A Rule to Forbid Bias and Harassment in Law Practice: A Guide for State Courts Considering Model Rule 8.4(g), 30 Geo. J. Legal Ethics 195 (2017)
• Josh Blackman, Reply: A Pause for State Courts Considering Rule 8.4(g), 30 Geo. J. Legal Ethics 241 (2017)
• Robert Weiner, “Nothing to See Here”: Model Rule 8.4(g) and the First Amendment, 41 Harv. J. Law & Pub. Policy 125 (2018)
• Symposium, Using the Licensing Power of the Administrative State: Rule 8.4(g), 31 Regent U. L. Rev. 31 (2018- 2019)