The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) announced on its website this week that it has launched an inquiry to determine whether Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, should be removed from its membership. NYSBA says the inquiry comes after receiving “hundreds of complaints in recent months” about Giuliani’s efforts to cast doubt on the 2020 presidential election, including the court actions he brought in multiple states in an attempt to overturn the results. The bar association also cited Giuliani’s speech on Jan. 6 at the White House where he was recorded telling a crowd of thousands, “Let’s have a trial by combat,” hours before some from the same crowd stormed the Capitol. NYSBA says Giuliani will have due process and will be allowed to defend his words and actions if he chooses. “This decision is historic for NYSBA, and we have not made it lightly,” the association posted on its website. “We cannot stand idly by and allow those intent on rending the fabric of our democracy to go unchecked.”

American Bar Association President Patricia Lee Refo on Tuesday urged acting Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen to delay the federal executions scheduled for this week. Corey Johnson is scheduled to die by lethal injection this evening for his role in a gang implicated in 10 murders in 1992. Dustin Higgs is scheduled to be executed on Friday for kidnapping and killing three young women on federal land in 1996. Lisa Montgomery was executed on Tuesday. In her letter, Refo writes that the executions to be carried out in Terre Haute “create a substantial risk of COVID-19 case transmission at the prison and in the surrounding communities.”

Data gathered from a new survey of judges shows that one in five respondents met at least one criteria for depressive disorder, the ABA Journal reports. The National Judicial Stress and Resiliency Survey was designed by the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs and surveyed 1,000 judges before the COVID-19 pandemic. The depressive disorder symptoms included lack of initiative, preoccupation with negative thoughts, feeling that work is no longer meaningful, depressed mood and more. When asked about the cause of their stress, 79.7% said it was the importance and impact of their decisions, followed by a heavy docket of cases at 73.2%. The study recommends that judges take steps to control their stress with good habits like exercise, better nutrition, stretching, mindfulness and more. It also recommended that leaders of courts and administrative agencies demonstrate that judicial well-being is a priority.

Knox County attorney Nicholas D. Bunstine today received a public censure from the Board of Professional Responsibility. Bunstine represented a client in defense of a civil proceeding brought by the client’s mother for rescission of a quit claim deed. While the suit remained pending, the mother of Bunstine’s client decided to no longer have the quit claim deed rescinded. Bunstine prepared an affidavit for the mother’s signature confirming her changed position and provided the affidavit to his client. Bunstine’s client presented the affidavit to her mother, who proceeded to execute the affidavit. Bunstine filed a motion to dismiss the suit based upon the content of the affidavit, which was granted by the Court. At all relevant times during the representation, Bunstine was aware that his client’s mother was represented by counsel. Therefore, Bunstine was found in violation of Rules of Professional Conduct 4.2 regarding communication with a person represented by counsel and 8.4(d) for misconduct.

Legal Aid of East Tennessee today announced that it has appointed Knoxville attorney Debra House as interim executive director. House has been with LAET since 1988, when she joined as a staff attorney in the Cleveland office. She moved to the Knoxville office in 2007 and has served in a variety of roles at LAET, most recently as the director of development and compliance. House has managed many teams, initiatives and projects at LAET, including collaborations to develop the Tennessee Senior Law Alliance and Cycles of Success projects. Additionally, House has served in leadership roles for other organizations, including the Knoxville Bar Association, Knoxville Family Justice Center, Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services and the TBA, where she is currently a member of the House of Delegates. LAET Board of Director’s President Keith Alley said the nonprofit firm “looks forward to working with Deb as she continues to lead the organization in providing the highest quality legal services to its clients.”

In the case of a Davidson County man convicted on two counts of “promotional” money laundering, the Tennessee Supreme Court today upheld one conviction, but reversed the second. The defendant sold marijuana to a confidential informant twice in 2009, each time accepting payment for a portion of the drugs, but also “fronting” additional product to the informant, expecting payment after the informant sold the drugs to others. The high court unanimously held that the evidence supported one conviction of money laundering, but for the second conviction, the evidence showed that the defendant had not bought additional drugs with the informant’s payment with the intent to promote future sales. Read more from the Administrative Office of the Courts.  

Nashville lawyer Samantha Flener was yesterday given a public censure from the Board of Professional Responsibility of the Tennessee Supreme Court. Flener was licensed to practice law only in the state of New York when she relocated to Tennessee and began work at a firm. She applied for permission to be admitted by UBE Score Transfer with the Board of Law Examiners and her application referenced the need to apply for practice pending admission if she was currently working in Tennessee as a lawyer or other law-related position. Flener did not apply for practice pending admission and was not authorized to practice law in the state until after she had been employed as a firm lawyer for a period of eight months, thus violating Rule of Professional Conduct 5.5 on unauthorized practice of law. A censure is a rebuke and warning to the attorney, but  does not affect the attorney’s ability to practice law.

If you missed the live virtual 2020 Criminal Law Forum, now’s your chance to catch it on-demand with the 1-Click Criminal Law 2020 package! The package is worth one dual credit and three general credits and features programming on asset seizures and forfeitures from drug trafficking organizations, police misconduct, best practices in post-conviction proceedings and more. Use the prepaid CLE credits that come with your TBA Complete Membership and take this course for free. Not a TBA member? Join now to start saving.

Todd Presnell, a partner in Bradley’s Nashville office and TBA member, was recently selected by the Defense Research Institute (DRI) as the 2020 recipient of the Tom Segalla Excellence in Education Award. The award honors a DRI member whose contributions through legal scholarship exemplify the highest educational standards of DRI and further its mission of improving the skills of the defense lawyer. Presnell is a member of Bradley’s Litigation Practice Group and maintains an active trial practice, serves in discovery-counsel roles, and leads and advises on internal corporate investigations. He is the chair of the TBA’s Litigation Section and a 2007 graduate of the TBA’s Leadership Law program. Read more on Bradley’s website.

Lawyers are frequent targets of criticism and sometimes that criticism takes place in online reviews, but lawyers must be careful not to violate the duty of confidentiality when responding to such reviews, the ABA’s Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility said in an ethics opinion issued today. The committee advises the best response is often no response at all. Formal Opinion 496 identifies the main ethical concern of any response to a negative online review, states that a negative online review does not constitute a “controversy between the lawyer and the client” and identifies best practices when confronted with negative online reviews. One possible response? “Professional obligations do not allow me to respond as I would wish.” Read more about the opinion in the ABA Journal.