Nation’s Top Experts on Legal Ethics, Discipline, Client Protection to Address Issues Crucial for Public at Chicago Conference May 28-30

MAY 4, 2009, CHICAGO—National leaders in the fields of lawyer and judicial ethics, discipline and client protection will convene May 28-30 at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago for the American Bar Association’s 35th National Conference on Professional Responsibility and 25th National Forum on Client Protection.  The events will focus on critical issues involving services to the public and initiatives to ensure client protection.

Key topics will include when conflicts of interests should require judges to remove themselves from considering cases before them, responsibilities lawyers owe to clients after the client-lawyer relationship ends, limits on prosecutorial discretion in lawyer misconduct cases, ethics and liability issues rising from law firm employment practices and lawyer mobility, law school accreditation standards, how the United States and Canada compare in preventing and detecting lawyer misappropriation of client funds, investigating and prosecuting the unlicensed practice of law in immigration matters, and how disciplinary and client protection agencies address depression, addiction and personality disorders among lawyers.

Leading the discussions will be consumer protection officials, state supreme court justices, college and law school presidents, state prosecutors in lawyer discipline systems, law firm risk management consultants, judicial ethics scholars, bar admissions executives and law firm management and ethics chiefs.  Faculty include Chief Judge James F. Holderman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois; Daniel C. Crane, former Massachusetts undersecretary of the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation; Florida Chief Justice Peggy A. Quince and North Dakota Justice Daniel J. Crothers.

The full conference and forum schedules are available at www.abanet.org/cpr/events/home.html.

Since 1978, the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility has provided national leadership and vision in developing and interpreting standards and scholarly resources in legal ethics, professional regulation, professionalism and client protection mechanisms.
With more than 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world.  As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.

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Editors Note: Media representatives are welcome to cover the conference and forum.  For press credentials, please contact Nancy Cowger Slonim at slonimn@staff.abanet.org, or at 312-988-6132.