Supreme Court Adopts New Attorney Ethics Code and Attorney Disciplinary Procedures
Task Force on Judicial Compensation Provide Final Report to the Legislators
Call up your President and tell him how it is!
Bridge the Gap
People's Law School

Supreme Court Adopts New Attorney Ethics Code and Attorney Disciplinary Procedures

April 20th, 2005 the Iowa Supreme Court issued an Order changing our existing Code of Professional Responsibility and adopting the new Iowa Rules of Professional Responsibility. As you will remember from last Fall's Traveling Seminar where the differences were explained, there will be significant changes in the way we practice. The ISBA appeared before the Supreme Court and made several suggested changes a vast majority of which were adopted. We urge all of you to log on to the ISBA web site and download a copy of the Rules and study them. Upcoming ISBA seminars will further explore the differences between the Code and the Rules.

While you are studying the Rules and forming your own practice guidelines, below are 5 tips that may protect you and your client.

(1) Get your client involved in the decision-making process. Simply put, the client is responsible for setting the goals of the representation, the client and you jointly are responsible for deciding on a strategy to use to accomplish the goal after you have explained the risk/benefits of the strategy, and you, after informing the client, are responsible for deciding what tactics to use to accomplish the strategy. Confirm this in a simple letter to your client identifying the goals, strategy and tactics.

(2) Keep a "log" of when you talked to the client and what was said,

(3) Remember the one-client-one lawyer rule. If you are about to represent multiple clients (even husband, wife and child) there may (notice I said "may" be a potential for conflict. Check the Rules for what to do and write a memo that you checked it.

(4) While the Rules do not mandate it, get your fee agreement in writing and be sure to distinguish between expenses and fee.

(5) Lastly and most importantly, when deciding what to do adopt the late great Hedo Zacherle approach to the practice: When in doubt...don't. After you have completed your study of the Rules you will be in a better position to develop your own practice guidelines.

In addition to the Rules, the Supreme Court also amended the Court Rules regarding the nature and types of attorney fees and how they should be handled. These are extremely important rules to follow. Rule 45.7 concerns advance fee and expense payments; Rule 45.8 defines a "general retainer" and how to handle it; Rule 45.9 concerns "special retainers" and Rule 45.10 concerns "flat fees".

(New Rules)
Position and Comments of the ISBA (Prior to adoption)
Iowa Rules of Professional Conduct Drafting Committee Comments

Task Force on Judicial Compensation Provide Final Report to the Legislators

The Iowa State Bar Association hosted a task force on judicial compensation and support services over the last three months. This task force was chaired by Gov. Robert Ray and has provided its final report to the legislators.

View Final Report

Call up your President and tell him how it is!

Since the ISBA staff and officers will be in attendance of the Bridge the Gap Seminar on Friday May 6th the General Membership call for May 6th has been cancelled. President Critelli hopes to see you at the Bridge the Gap Seminar.

Bridge the Gap

You Still Have Time to Register for next week’s Bridge the Gap Seminar

Register online now for this year’s Bridge the Gap Seminar that will be held next week on May 5th and 6th at the downtown Marriott Hotel in Des Moines. This program has been approved for 15.25 State CLE hours including 6 Federal hours and 2 Ethics hours.

The new rules of professional conduct will go into effect on July 1, 2005. Here’s your opportunity to hear Bruce Braley discuss how the new rules will affect you and your practice. In addition to the new ethics rules there are 24 other presentations that will be informative and beneficial: case law, federal law and legislative updates; a criminal law topic on meth; business entity selection; license revocation; judgment collections; cross examination; fair credit report act/identity theft; overtime regulations/FLSA exemption and Sarbanes Oxley just to name a few.

Where else can you get all of your CLE requirements for $195?

Don’t delay—register today!

More information
Register on-line

People's Law School

The People's Law School is a free, innovative public service project sponsored by the Iowa State Bar Association designed to educate the public about Iowa's legal system. All persons are invited to attend their local People's Law School presentation, hosted by local attorneys, to learn more about their legal rights and responsibilities in Iowa's court system. The People's Law School, presented across the state of Iowa as the ISBA 2005 Law Day Project, provides general legal information and brochures designed to inform the public about common legal situations and to help people find an attorney that can help them with legal matters.

The local presentation of The People's Law School for the Des Moines area will be held on Tuesday, May 3, 2005 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Windsor Heights City Council Chambers located at 1133 66th Street, Windsor Heights. Topics and speakers will be:

Wills: David Repp
Personal Injury: Joe Cacciatore
Identity Theft: Tracy Deutmeyer
Starting a Business: Alan Kress
Employment Law: Jill Jensen-Welch
Criminal Law: Curtis Stamp

Please feel free to contact Bridget Penick at bpenick@dickinsonlaw.com or 515/246-4545 with questions or for additional information.