Happy Friday!  And welcome to the 324th legal ethics quiz!

I’m pleased to introduce you to 6th grade me:

Why the introduction?

Because D-Day always makes me think of Cleland Selby, my 6th grade Language Arts teacher.

I loved Mr. Selby’s class. It’s the first class that I remember to include writing.  Real writing – as in essays, stories, and papers.  You know, stuff beyond copying sentences as we learned to stay between the lines and to keep lower case letters from going even a millimeter higher than halfway up.

I remember three of Mr. Selby’s writing projects more clearly than others.  And by “more clearly than others” I mean that there are exactly three of which I have even the faintest memory.

One assignment was to write our own fable that conveyed the same lesson as one of Aesop’s. I chose The North Wind and The Sun. I have no idea what I wrote. Rather, I remember working very hard at illustrating my piece, painstakingly drawing the expressions of a smiling, benevolent sun and a scowling, angry wind.  

The second – which now that I think about it must have been part of the same unit as the first – is a memory of a story that I wrote about a frog. In my tale, someone captured a frog and intended to cook it over a campfire. The frog, however, managed to escape. How?  Because whoever had caught it stared so intently at the pot in which they intended to cook it that the water never reached cooking temperature. So, the person gave up, went home, and my frog hopped off happily ever after.

That’s right: as a 6th grader, I used disturbingly dark imagery to share that “a watched pot never boils.”

The third assignment that I remember is the source for this introduction.

Mr. Selby taught us to write research papers that included citations. I have no idea why, but I chose to research and write about D-Day.  

  • Aside: how did Mr. Selby not contact my parents about sending me to a psychiatrist? First, a story about boiling a frog. Next, and as anyone who has seen Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers,or who has even a passing knowledge of 20th century history knows, a story related to an indescribably gruesome battle. And it’s not like Mr. Selby would’ve had to work too hard to contact my parents. My dad was the principal!!

Anyhow, while other memories are vague, I am 100% positive that the title of my first ever research paper was “The German View of D-Day.”  How can I be so sure you ask? Because, apparently satisfied that I wasn’t troubled, my mom saved my research paper! 

Suspecting that she might have, I rummaged through the storage bins that are in my basement and that contain all sorts of souvenirs of my youth. Jackpot!

Here’s a picture of the cover page:

And here’s the outline:

An outline AND citations??? There’s a non-frivolous argument that Mr. Selby was my first legal research & writing professor!

The entire paper is here.  What glorious handwriting!

Until I dug it out this morning, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you anything more than “my paper was about D-Day.” But I have never forgotten a lesson that I learned from Mr. Selby while writing it.

When it came to writing, Mr. Selby was meticulous and diligent, all about the process. His process included index cards. He taught us to do our research by taking notes onto 3 x 5 index cards. Mr. Selby had a rule: ONE thought per index card.

Next, after we’d recorded the whole of our research onto what must have been 50 or 60 index cards, he had us sort the cards into the order we thought best. Critical to the sorting was to throw away any card that didn’t fit somewhere. Including such a card would only detract from the story’s focus. 

Once in order, the final step was to turn each index card’s single thought into a sentence or two until, voila, a final paper.

I have no idea what my point is or if I even had one to begin with. Maybe it’s this.

There’s a Robert Frost quote that I think about a lot: “Sometimes the only way out is through.” (Something that too many brave kids realized on the Normandy beaches.) As I thought of Mr. Selby this morning, Frost’s observation helped me realize that the index card method is about more than writing a research paper.

Like Aesop’s fables, the method conveys a larger life lesson: often, life’s best course is one focused step at a time.

Here’s to Mr. Selby!

Onto the quiz!

RULES

  • None.  Open book, open search engine, text-a-friend.
  • Exception:  Question 5.  We try to play that one honestly.
  • 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@vtcourts.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

Advising a client that their social media posts might be used against them in litigation ________:

  • A.  is not advice that a lawyer is reasonably expected to provide.
  • B.  is improper because of the risk that it might make the client decide to destroy evidence.
  • C.  is not an issue that any bar association or lawyer regulation agency has commented on.
  • D.  is likely an aspect of the duty of competence.

Question 2

Speaking of D-Day, the rule that establishes this duty includes these comments:

  1. “The lawyer’s duty to act with reasonable __________ does not require the use of offensive tactics or preclude the treating of all persons involved in the legal process with courtesy and respect.”
  2. “A lawyer’s workload must be controlled so that each matter can be handled competently.”
  3. “Perhaps no professional shortcoming is more widely resented than procrastination.”

What duty? (It fills in the blank that’s in the first comment I listed.)

Questions 3 & 4

A comment to one of the rules on conflicts of interest states that “a particularly important factor in determining the appropriateness of common representation is the effect” that common representation will have on two related principles.

One of the principles is reflected by a duty that is established by rule and that is one of my 7Cs of Legal Ethics. 

The other principle is an evidentiary doctrine that protects against a lawyer’s compelled disclosure of certain information.

Identify each principle.

Question 5


Speaking, again, of D-Day . . .

Louis Prevost grew up in Chicago. After joining the United States Navy, he commanded a landing craft during the invasion of Normandy.  Upon returning from the war, Prevost married Mildred Martinez. In 1955, Mildred gave birth to a son who they named Robert.

After attending a Catholic high school in Chicago, Robert graduated from Villanova University. A few years later, Robert received two different types of law degrees from a university in Rome.

Robert made international headlines last month.  The headlines resulted from a job change – a “promotion” to “managing partner” if you will.  The job change resulted in Robert having to choose a new name.

What new job & name did Robert Prevost recently take?