The Minnesota Supreme Court recently approved the budget for the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility (Director’s Office). The fiscal year (now FY2011) for the Lawyers Board runs from July 1 to June 30. As a part of the end-of-fiscal-year cycle, the Board and Director’s Office also must file an annual report outlining the year’s>>>

One of the unique side effects of the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility (OLPR) having such a highly usable website is that it makes writing this column more challenging. All of the articles ever written by directors and other attorneys in our office for Bench & Bar of Minnesota over the past 39 years are available online,>>>

Is it just me, or was it only yesterday that we were worrying about and then celebrating New Year’s Day 2000? I’ve been told that as I get older, time supposedly “speeds up.” Well, that last decade sure went by quickly. And now we have to worry about 2012! I guess the point is how easily time can get away from all of us; meanwhile, our>>>

Readers familiar with the Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board/Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility (LPRB/OLPR) website (www.mncourts.gov/lprb/index.asp) will recognize that the site contains a wealth of information helpful to Minnesota lawyers. You may also recognize that the current design of the website is not a model of>>>

By Martin Cole In calendar year 2009, the Director’s Office resolved 120 files with admonitions that were issued to Minnesota attorneys for isolated and nonserious misconduct.1 Fifteen lawyers entered into stipulations for private probation that were approved by the Lawyers Board chair;2 these stipulations resolved an additional 35 complaint>>>

In August 2009 the American Bar Association initiated yet another “thorough review of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and the U.S. system of lawyer regulation,” this time “in the context of advances in technology and global legal practice developments.”  A Commission on Ethics 20/20 is charged with this review.  The>>>

By Martin Cole Recently, the Minnesota Supreme Court issued an order temporarily increasing the lawyer registration fee paid by most practicing Minnesota lawyers.  An additional $100 per year is being required for each of the next two years in order to provide funding for the Board of Public Defense and the Legal Services Advisory>>>

By Martin Cole At its October meeting, the Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board adopted Opinion 21: A Lawyer’s Duty to Consult with a Client about the Lawyer’s Own Malpractice.1 This is the second opinion adopted by the Lawyers Board since the reconstitution of its opinion committee in 2008. The process of posting a proposed opinion>>>

By Martin Cole All lawyers are people; some people commit crimes; therefore some lawyers commit crimes. This simple piece of questionable deductive reasoning may best explain why criminal convictions of licensed attorneys are a regrettably regular source of lawyer discipline. While we’d no doubt like to think that—as educated, licensed>>>

By Martin Cole Last year, the Director’s Office received 2,135 requests for an advisory opinion.  Most such requests are by telephone, although a growing number of attorneys, approximately 10 percent, are taking advantage of the ability to submit questions through the internet from the office’s website.  So far this year, over 1,500>>>