Originally published in Student Lawyer magazine, May 2005 (Vol. 33, No. 9). All rights reserved.

LIAISON NOTEBOOK

Liaison Notebook includes reports of Law Student Division members who represent the Division in the ABA's practice-related sections, divisions, forums, and other entities. For information on how you can become a student liaison, visit www.abanet.org/lsd/elections and scroll down to "Liaisons."

Do You Have a Legal Ethics Question? Turn to the ABA for Assistance

by Matt Christensen

What obligations does a lawyer have to report professional misconduct by a lawyer not engaged in the practice of law, such as a licensed lawyer employed by a corporation as a business executive? May a lawyer accept credit card payments from clients? Research assistance with these questions and many others is available through a membership in the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility. A $20 annual law student membership provides access to two of the most powerful tools in answering these questions—the formal ethics opinions of the Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and ETHICSearch.

Formal ethics opinions are issued throughout the year. As a center member, you will receive new opinions by e-mail and have access to them from the members-only section of the center’s web site.

ETHICSearch is staffed by lawyers with vast experience in legal ethics research. They can quickly provide citations to ABA rules, opinions, and other research to help resolve any ethics question you may have as a law student or lawyer.

In addition to these two resources, students will receive quarterly issues of CenterPiece, the center’s membership newslet-ter. In addition, electronic versions of The Professional Lawyer are accessible online. The Professional Lawyer is one of the premier legal ethics magazines, with excellent articles on current ethics issues, as well as updates on recent cases. Each fall, the center publishes a symposium issue of The Professional Lawyer, which includes information from the annual National Conference on Professional Responsibility. Like all issues of the magazine, this symposium issue is a valuable resource every law student should be aware of.
As a member, you also will receive a copy of the most current Model Rules of Professional Conduct and updates as they are issued.

Seth Rosner, chair of the center’s coordinating council, advises students: “As you graduate, pass the bar exam, and enter the profession, you will come to realize how valuable a keen awareness of ethics and professional responsibility issues is. This knowledge will help protect you and your firm from inadvertent ethics violations and aid in your professional progress.”
Learn more about the center at www.abanet.org/cpr.

Matt Christensen, a student at Duke University School of Law, is the ABA Law Student Division’s liaison to the Center for Professional Responsibility.

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