Professor Kirsten K. Davis publishes piece on lawyer blogging
By Kirsten K. Davis
Appellate Advocacy Blog
Nov. 14, 2019
Excerpt
In Formal Ethics Opinion No. 480, issued in the Spring of 2018, the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility considered for the first time how a blogging lawyer must treat the confidentiality of client information…
…I’m going to make the case that writing public commentary–whether digital or not–is a unique genre of legal writing. First, writing public commentary to influence thought and discourse on legal topics is decidedly less client-centered than other, more traditional forms of legal writing. Writing public commentary is more connected to the lawyer’s role as a “public citizen with a special responsibility for justice” than it is to the lawyer’s role as a representative of clients. Both of these roles are identified (along with others) in the Preamble to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct (most if not all states have adopted the Preamble’s language).
The complete blog post was originally published on the Appellate Advocacy Blog website on Nov. 14, 2019, with the headline, ““Digital Public Commentary”: A New Rhetoric for Lawyers?”
Post date: Dec. 16, 2019
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