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Penn Foster Paralegal Ethics Graded Project

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Thinking Critically about Ethics- Graded Project- Paralegal Program Attorney Howe’s possible Ethical Violations: (MONDAY) Model Rule 5.5(B)- Attorney Howe, left a new hire, Carl, unattended, while also suggesting that he may conduct interviews in his office without specifying particulars regarding his presence or direct supervisory responsibilities. In hindsight, Attorney Howe could be indirectly contributing to the unauthorized practice of law due to his gross negligence to supervise his paralegal. ABA 5.3 (A)(B)(C). – Attorney Howe did not make reasonable efforts to supervise his paralegal. Mr. Howe knew that Carl was inexperienced in the firm as a “new-hire and should have practiced due diligence in his supervisorial duties. …show more content…

The documents were physically tampered with by client, zeke, when he physically touched the documents and proceeded to write down information obtained from his phone call onto the documents of another client. EC -1.2(D) – Legal assistant, Carl, did not follow the procedures for communicating the price of a “fixed” fee. Instead he acted on his own without directions from a supervised attorney to negotiate the price of a bill. EC- 1.5 (F), ABA/EC-1- 1.5(A)- Legal assistant, Carl, breached the confidentiality of Jane when he allowed the client’s boyfriend Zeke, to sit in on the consultation. Carl then later continued to speak to the client about their case even when the client was outside of the privacy of attorney Howe’s office. Attorney Howe’s Possible Ethical Violations: (Tuesday) 1.16 (A).1, 5.5(B) - Upon learning that Carl had taken on a case on his own, which is an example of unauthorized practice of law, Attorney Howe should have notified the clients that Carl did not have such authority to take on a case, set discounted fees or conduct an interview without Attorney Howe’s supervision, thus in good consciousness Attorney Howe cannot take on clients under fraudulent circumstances. 5.5 (B)- Attorney Howe left new hire, Carl, to conduct an interview unsupervised. Legal Assistant Carl Jackson’s Possible Ethical Violations: (Tuesday) NFPA1.8(A)- Carl gave unauthorized legal advice to Jane when

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