Supreme Court Appoints Special Committee on Attorney Ethics and Admissions
The New Jersey Supreme Court has created a Special Committee on Attorney Ethics and Admissions to review the recent American Bar Association (ABA) amendments to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct and standards for admission to practice law for attorneys from other jurisdictions.
"We are very fortunate that a panel of distinguished legal experts will examine the ABA's new model rules," said Chief Justice Stuart Rabner. "The ABA's revisions reflect changes in technology, the globalization of his legal profession, and other related issues. We look forward to the committee's recommendations about how to change the New Jersey Rules to respond to those developments.
The committee, chaired by retired Chief Justice James R. Zazzali, has been formed in response to the ABA's recent amendments, which reflect changes in technology and global legal practice. Topics addressed by the ABA's Commission on Ethics 20/20 include confidentiality in a digital age; ethics issues arising from new forms of advertising; outsourcing of legal services; issues relating to lawyer mobility; choice of law problems related to conflicts of interest; issues relating to practice of out-of-state lawyers; and practice of foreign lawyers in the United States.
"The practice of law has undergone a sea change in recent years, reflecting changes in technology and the resulting globalization of the profession," said Zazzali. "Our committee will need to think carefully about how those changes affect the practice of law and use the ABA model as a starting point to identify opportunities to improve and strengthen the legal profession in New Jersey."
The ABA commission's work included examining the effects of technology in modern law practice, such as how to store and safeguard electronic client information; whether lawyers should be obligated to modernize their practices; how to handle inadvertently discovered electronic communications; whether advertising rules should be explicitly revised to address websites, legal blogs, social media and online advertising; and whether increased lawyer mobility should spur accommodation in the form of admission by motion or practice pending admission.
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