Welcome to Friday and the 277th legal ethics quiz!

As many of you know, I’m more than a little stitious. I’m superstitious.  I also have lots of habits that, while perhaps not rising to the level of superstition, are admittedly a bit odd.  This morning, I’m going to share one that likely will cause me to be late posting Monday’s answers to today’s quiz.

First, some background.

When it comes to tv shows, I’m a binger. I’ve tried not to be, but I can’t help myself.  I prefer not to watch a show unless I can stream an entire season at once.  And, by “prefer not,” I mean “I don’t.”

For example, about a month ago, I offered to my mom that I’d go over one night a week to watch a single episode of any tv show with her.  It’d give us something to do for 8, 10, or 12 weeks.  She agreed, and we settled on The Diplomat, a new Netflix series starring Keri Russell.[1]  At the time, I’d already watched two episodes, so I had to wait for my mom to catch up.

Tom Petty was right: “the waiting is the hardest part.”

I couldn’t do it.  Within 4 days I broke down and watched episode 3. Two days later I binged the remainder of Season 1.  We never watched a single episode together.  Son of the Year!!

With that background established, I’ll now explain the habit that likely will cause Monday’s answers to be later than normal.

I’m a huge fan of HBO’s[2] Succession. Alas, it presents a challenge for me in that it’s a show in which episodes come out once a week. Season 4, which is the final season, began 10 weeks ago.  At the time, I considered waiting until the final episode aired, then watching the entire season at once.  I didn’t, mainly because it would’ve been impossible to avoid spoilers. So, I watched the old-fashioned way – one episode (and week) at a time.

But not as they dropped. To me, that’s bad luck.  It’s best to wait a day or two. In that Succession episodes are released on Sunday night, I usually watch on Monday night, sometimes Tuesday.

That won’t be possible this week.

Sunday’s episode is one of the most highly anticipated series finales in recent memory. Indeed, at the risk of being accused of puffery,[3] I daresay that there’s only one question on Americans’ minds this weekend: “who will take over as CEO of the company that, for now, is known as Waystar Royco?”[4]  The answer will dominate social media’s pop culture threads, making it virtually impossible to avoid.  Thus, watching in real-time seems to make sense.

But it unnerves me. 

This season has been fantastic. Changing up my viewing time might mess with the mojo.

So, the current plan is to shut my phone off at 8:59PM on Sunday, wake up very early on Monday, and watch over coffee.  I hope to have the fortitude not to turn my phone back on until I’ve finished, lest I have a revealing text from a fellow viewer or am unable to resist scrolling through my socials as the coffee brews. In any event, once I’m done watching, who knows how long it’ll be until I’ve sufficiently absorbed and decompressed from the finale.  Hence the expected delay in posting the answers to today’s quiz.

Thank you in advance for bearing with me.

Onto the quiz!

Rules

  • None.  Open book, open search engine, text-a-friend.
  • Exception:  Question 5.  We try to play that one honest.
  • Unless stated otherwise, the Vermont Rules of Professional Conduct apply.
  • Please do not post answers as a “comment” to this post.
  • E-mail answers to michael.kennedy@vermont.gov
  • Team entries welcome, creative team names even more welcome.
  • I’ll post the answers & Honor Roll on Monday,
  • Please consider sharing the quiz with friends & colleagues.
  • Share on social media.  Hashtag it – #fiveforfriday.

Question 1

I took this picture years ago in South Hero.

At CLEs, I use it as a visual when discussing one of the 7 Cs of Legal Ethics.  Which one?

Question 2

Math.

There is a rule that requires lawyers to keep records of trust account funds for X years.

There’s another rule that suggests that lawyers should provide Y hours of pro bono services per year.

What is X + Y?

  • A.   56
  • B.   57
  • C.  66.
  • D.  67

Question 3

A comment to one of the rules indicates that the rule “contributes to the proper functioning of the legal system” by doing three things.  The first two are protecting “against possible overreaching by other lawyers in the matter” and preventing “interference by those lawyers with the attorney-client relationship.”  What does the rule prohibit?

  • A.   Knowingly making a false statement of fact or law to a third person.
  • B.   Communicating with a represented person on the subject of the representation.
  • C.   Knowingly making a frivolous discovery request.
  • D.   Ex parte communications with a court.

Question 4

Lawyer called with an inquiry. I listened, then responded:

  • “There’s no rule that specifically prohibits it. But the fee must be reasonable, you must comply with the rule on business transactions with a client, and you should consider whether it would create a personal interest that would materially limit your ability to provide the client with competent and candid legal advice.”

Given my response, it’s most like that Lawyer called to ask about:

  • A.  a contingent fee.
  • B.  representing a family member.
  • C.  withdrawing from representing a client so as to start a romantic relationship with the client.
  • D.  accepting an ownership interest in a client’s business as payment for legal fees.

Question 5

Earlier this year, Attorney General Merrick Garland testified before the United States Senate on the Justice Department’s long-running investigation of Ticketmaster.  The questions included questions about ticket sales for a famous singer’s current tour.

As it turns out, the AG is a huge fan of the singer and listens to the songs on the singer’s most recent album in the order suggested by his daughter. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, the AG’s chief speech writer confirmed that the AG often drops references to the singer in public comments.  Indeed, according to Above The Law, when asked if he had managed to secure tickets for the current tour, Attorney General Garland replied “That is a delicate question.”

Name the singer.

[1] My official rating: highly recommend.  Also, I’ve long thought it’d be awesome if they cross-pollinated tv shows.  The Diplomat is a thriller that involves global politics, Russell as the United States Ambassador to Great Britain, and a healthy dose of the CIA, MI-6, and other intelligence agencies. In a way, Russell’s role isn’t too dissimilar from her role as a Russian sleeper agent in The Americans. (Another “highly recommend”). Part of me hoped that the big reveal in the Season 1 finale of The Diplomat would be that the US Ambassador to Great Britain was, in fact, Russell’s Russian sleeper agent from The Americans.

[2] I’m not ready to call it “Max” yet.

[3] For more on the ethics of puffery, see this post, one that includes my friends and fellow VBA Presidents, Jennifer Emens-Butler and Andrew Manitsky.

[4] Here’s my prediction.  As you recall, last week’s episode ended with Matsson calling Shiv from a limo and informing her that he’d found the “US-based CEO.”  I think that the person was in the limo with Matsson and that it’s Tom Wambsgans.  So, I predict that, early in the finale, we learn that Matsson will offer up Tom as a US-based CEO.  From there, the episode will focus on the Roy children fighting to block GoJo’s acquisition of Waystar Royco. In the end, I think they fail, and Logan’s parting gift from the grave is Tom as CEO.  I confess: Greg the Egg is my favorite character, but I think the show’s legacy would be tarnished if he wins this modern-day Game of Thrones. Finally, part of me is pulling for Tom because of the fact that, earlier this season, he gave us an example of Rule 1.18 in action when he contacted all the top divorce attorneys in NYC to keep them from representing Shiv.  Variety had the current betting odds here.