Ethics and Professionalism

Note from the Editors:  Recently, the Campbell Law Observer hosted a write-on competition to recruit new staff writers.  Each student was to discuss the impact of for-profit law schools on the legal academy and the legal profession.  Below, you will find the article that received the second-highest score from the editorial board.  We have published these articles in an attempt to display two perspectives.   It is no secret that entering the legal profession in its current state is a [...]

Judge James L. Gale, Special Superior Court Judge for Complex Business Cases in Greensboro, North Carolina, denied in part and deferred in part the North Carolina State Bar’s Motion to Dismiss a case brought by LegalZoom in response to the Bar’s ongoing efforts to prevent LegalZoom’s operations without a license to practice law in North Carolina.  In order to understand the significance of this ruling, a brief discussion of the case’s background is appropriate. LegalZoom is a [...]

 While social media is often associated with distant friends showing pictures of their pet or what they ate for dinner, it is advantageous for small and large law firms to participate in at least some of the many forms of social media now available.  Social media is a broad category.  Webster’s Dictionary defines it as “forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, [...]

 On March 2, 2012, Durham District Attorney Tracey Cline was removed from office.  A portion of Judge Robert Hobgood’s order removing Cline read as follows: “Tracey E. Cline has lost the confidence of the attorneys and the public necessary to continue as an effective District Attorney for Durham County . . .  By recklessly making blatantly false allegations against Judge Hudson in public record totally lacking in factual support, attacking his morality, honesty and asserting that he is [...]