A bar discipline decision issued by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court yesterday: In this bar discipline case, the respondent received cash belonging to an elderly client but did not make a record of the total amount received and did not…

See the original post here:
Burden Of Proof When Entrusted Cash Is Missing

The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the admission of most of the evidence obtained after seizure of the cell phone of an arrested defendant: The focus of our inquiry is whether the evidentiary basis for the warrant to search the cell…

Follow this link:
Hold That Call

The North Carolina State Bar has filed a disciplinary complaint that alleges misconduct by a court-appointed attorney who had represented a client for approximately six months. It is alleged that the attorney throughout the representation “made inappropriate comments of a…

See the rest here:
Attorney Faces Charges Of Improper Importuning Of Client

From the web page of the Ohio Supreme Court: The Supreme Court of Ohio today imposed a six month suspension against the law license of [a]Youngstown attorney…for falsely stating on a North Carolina marriage license application that he had never…

Read the original:
Bigamy Suspension

Posters like these from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime are popular in Bhutan, highlighting concrete examples of corruption’s effects on democracy and development. Bhutan – self-proclaimed “Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon,” one of the world’s newest democracies, and a country fairly high up on the ‘mysterious’ chart. Bhutan has been hidden away from the world nearly since its founding

The rest is here:
Thunder Dragon vs. Corruption

Today’s Daily Angle comes from  Wikinvest Wire member  Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism . You can read  the full article on NakedCapitalism.com As readers may know, the financial reforms proposed by the  Obama administration barely deserve the name. The late-in-the-game efforts to rebrand the effort by putting  Paul Volcker in the forefront and patch up one of the gaping holes, that the government is backstopping risky trading businesses ( Goldman Sachs has issued  FDIC guaranteed bonds) illustrates the typical Obama chasm between rhetoric and action

View original post here:
FDIC Proposes Tough-Minded Securitization Reforms; Industry Howls

Ryan Streeter makes two interesting points in his post on successes of making poverty history .  First, he notes that despite what everyone may perceive about poverty eradication, over the past several decades we have achieved tremendous successes in reducing absolute poverty around the world.   Building on this, he concludes that many of the efforts to “rethink”, “rebuild”, and “redesign” development approaches are probably misguided.  Instead, we should pay greater attention to things that have actually worked over the past 40 years and try to replicate them. Speaking of development approaches that work.  Check out remarks by Greg Lebedev on dilemmas of development assistance and why institutional reform, rather than humanitarian assistance, is key to long-term sustainable development and poverty eradication.

View post:
Replicating Successes in Poverty Reduction

Following a democratic transition, newly elected leaders have limited time and space to make good on campaign platforms.  In January 2009, Iraqi men and women were elected to 14 provincial councils, following political campaigns in which candidates took to the streets, met with voters in face to face settings and actively sought the votes of their fellow citizens.  The newly-elected members of the provincial councils entered a level of government that was weak in relation to a central authority in Baghdad inclined towards maintaining power.  In an October 2009 Report to Congress, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction described the scope of power for provincial council members as “ambiguous.” Rather than wait for power’s devolution from Baghdad to provinces, many council members undertook study and analysis of Law 21, which outlines the power of provincial councils.  Previously supported in election campaign training by the International Republican Institute (IRI), council members turned again to the Institute for assistance in understanding their new jobs and the scope of their statutory powers.  Through 2009, Iraq’s newest class of elected officials lost little time in asserting their rights in local control over budgets, contracts and development projects. An example of the development of democratic government close to the Iraqi people can be found in Salahaddin, where the council removed the provincial governor for incompetence and lack of integrity.  The Salahaddin Provincial Council action was challenged, in court, and the council’s actions were upheld.   A similar move, involving censure of the governor, is underway in Babil. The Babil Provincial Council has gone on to pass revenue enhancement measures such as tourism fees and introduced new regulations and rules on health care licensing.  The council in Wassit passed legislation to subsidize better health care for low income people.  The Muthanna Provincial Council initiated two major water plant projects to provide clean water to the citizens of their province.  IRI governance training has found itself working in “real-time” with Anbar provincial officials on local economic development of its natural gas fields, recommending provincial council members there interact with and draw from the knowledge of Kurdish natural resource civil servants as a guide

Read the original here:
Democracy in Iraq…at the Local Level

The web page of the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board has a newly-posted feature, an attorney E Newsletter that in the January 2010 edition discusses highlights in bar discipline for 2009: In this issue we present our second annual survey of the…

More here:
And The Winner Is…

The New York Appellate Division for the Second Judicial Department imposed the reciprocal discipline of disbarment based on the attorney’s New Jersey consent to disbarment.

View original post here:
Consent Leads To Reciprocal Disbarment

The Ohio Supreme Court today issued an arrest warrant for an attorney who had been publicly reprimanded in 2006 and indefinitely suspended in 2009. The court’s order notes that he was ordered to appear in person and failed to do…

View original post here:
Arresting Development

Today’s Daily Angle comes from  Wikinvest Wire member  Kathy Lien of KathyLien.com and FX360.com. You can read the full article on her blog . Flash Player 9 or higher is required to view the chart Click here to download Flash Player now View the full FOREX:GBPUSD chart at Wikinvest Over the past few trading days, the  British pound has been confined to a very tight trading range.

See the original post here:
Down with the Pound

The dangers in suing a client for legal fees are manifest in a recent decision of the New York Appellate Division for the Second Judicial Department. The appeal of the law firm plaintiff was dismissed: The plaintiff is a law…

Read the rest here:
Fee Suit Draws Counterclaim

The Supreme Court of Washington vacated the conviction of a juvenile who had pled guilty to first degree sexual molestation at the age of twelve. The court found that the appointed public defender had rendered ineffective assistance of counsel

More:
Ineffective Representation Of Juvenile Client

Posted by Alan Childress And send cease and desist letters to Mom & Pop tshirt shops who for years have been selling clothing asking that two-word question? Why, the NFL of course.

More here:
"Who Dat" Say They Gonna Own This Putative Trademark Two-Word Question?

A judge may not rent a room to a non-related person who is subject to community control, according to a recent opinion of the Florida Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee. The committee expressed the following concerns: Discussion of the issue requires…

See the original post here:
No Room At The Judge’s Home

An attorney who was convicted of a single incident of impaired driving where no conditions regarding alcohol treatment were imposed may not be subject to professional sanction, according to a recent decision of the Michigan Attorney Discipline Board. The board…

Go here to see the original:
No Discipline For Single Impaired Driving Conviction

The Illinois Administrator has filed a complaint alleging that the attorney obtained pro bono employment under circumstances that amounted to a conflict of interest. As we have seen in the past, Illinois sets out the alleged misconduct in highly-specific detail:…

See more here:
Conflicts Charge

The West Virginia Supreme Court imposed a reprimand with two years probation and other conditions in a disciplinary matter involving two complaints. One matter involved allegations of neglect and failure to communicate with a prison inmate client. The attorney had…

See the article here:
Attorney Did Not Violate Sex With Client Rule: Never Met Client

Corruption is a considerable problem in many countries, undermining the rule of law and impeding broad-based democratic and market development.  Afghanistan, unfortunately, is one of the most glaring examples of the pernicious nature of corruption.  A recent report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime backs up this perception with precise data.  The report found that Afghan citizens pay a total of $2.5 billion a year in bribes, or 23% of Afghanistan’s GDP.  This is nearly the same amount generated from Afghanistan’s entire narcotics trade ($2.8 billion a year).  Nearly 60% of those surveyed place corruption above security or unemployment as areas of concern to the country. Those tasked with enforcing the law were cited as the worst aggressors: nearly 25% of Afghans reported having to pay at least one bribe to policy and provincial officials.  Judges, prosecutors, and members of the national government were not far behind, with 10 to 20% of those surveyed reportedly paying those officials bribes.  What is more, the report found the average bribe to ring up at $160.  With Afghanistan’s GDP per capita amounting to $425, the average bribe could account for some 40% of per capita output

Read the original post:
Corruption in Afghanistan

The West Virginia Supreme Court annulled the license of an attorney for misconduct in handling settlement proceeds on behalf of a now-deceased client. The complaint was filed by the deceased client’s daughter and executrix of the estate. The attorney received…

More:
License Annulled

The Nebraska Supreme Court has affirmed the dismissal of a libel per se claim on grounds of absolute privilege. The complaint was filed by an attorney licensed in California. The attorney represents clients in Florida matters on a pro hac…

Read more here:
Privilege Protects Statements To Pardon Board

Today’s Daily Angle comes from  Wikinvest Wire member  Asset Prime . You can read  the full article on the AssetPrime blog . Until practical physics and/or electrical engineers devise a better battery, lithium-ion is the power-source of choice for the ever-growing  electrification of our automobiles

Go here to see the original:
Time for a Lithium Futures Contract

Day 2 of our partner conference here in Manila, and Hammad Siddiqui from our Pakistan office is talking about corporate governance of family-owned firms—a big issue here in Asia. Often people think of corporate governance as being just about big publicly traded firms, but good corporate governance can be an enormous boost to the operations of small businesses and to family owned firms of all sizes. After all, CG is about ethics, disclosure, transparency, accountability, responsibility, etc.

The rest is here:
Notes from the field: Corporate governance in Asia

We’ve arrived in Manila for our first-ever partner conference in SE Asia. CIPE partners from all around the region—China, Mongolia, Indonesia, Philippines, Burma—have gathered to share experiences and refine strategies for moving forward in their countries.

See the article here:
Notes from the field: Tilting at Asian Windmills

Today’s Daily Angle comes from  Wikinvest Wire member REITWrecks.com. You can read  the full article on the REIT Wrecks blog . Flash Player 9 or higher is required to view the chart Click here to download Flash Player now View the full NYSE:DRN chart at Wikinvest As the world was coming to an end in March of 2009, REITWrecks wrote a rather forward-leaning post entitled  REIT Stocks: 4 Ways to Play the Carnage .

Originally posted here:
Direxion’s New REIT ETF Posts 168% Gain In Six Months

A common frame of analysis for examining political reform in the Arab world is to group the region’s political actors into three groups: secular democrats, Islamists, and loyal regime supporters. This approach makes it easier to talk about the challenges secular parties face in crafting a space between the regime and popular Islamist groups; it buttresses the profile of leftist activists making great sacrifices to fight for reforms in their own countries; and it offers a convenient lens for explaining the fears more established political actors have of conservative Islamists coming to power in the advent of electoral democracy. While many of these arguments are well-founded and carry a good share of analytical gravitas, they can also perpetuate rigid political categorization that obscures a deeper understanding of regional political dynamics

Read more from the original source:
Islamists as Partners in Fighting Corruption?

The Borse Dubai (foreground) The Hawkamah Institute for Corporate Governance , Standard & Poor’s, and the Credit Rating and Information Services of India Ltd recently launched its Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) index initiative , the first of its kind in the Middle East & North Africa region. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is helping develop the index, which aims to encourage responsible and sustainable investment practices by measuring the environmental, social and corporate governance performance of hundreds of listed companies in the region. It aims to help about 600 listed companies in 11 countries to better understand environmentally and socially responsible investment practices, and the importance of implementing sound corporate governance

Read more:
First Environment, Social, and Governance Index in MENA

Today’s Daily Angle comes from Horacio R.

Visit link:
Buy, Sell or Hold: General Mills Stock Has Shown Its Short-Term Value and Is Still a Long-Term Winner

Since 2005, CIPE has worked with the Corporate Governance Association of Turkey (COGAT; Türkiye Kurumsal Yönetim Derneği ( TKYD )) on increasing awareness of good governance practices among Turkish directors; increasing the skills of current and prospective board members on how to construct a better governance structure within their organizations and in the Turkish private sector; and engendering a voluntary and broadly accepted culture of good governance amongst companies. Most recently, the work has also focused on preparing smaller and medium-sized businesses – particularly family-owned businesses – for compliance with new governance requirements in Turkey’s pending commercial code and encouraging Turkish firms to demonstrate their commitment to adopting best practices above and beyond those drafted into the amended code.   COGAT’s efforts are being felt – since 2006, COGAT  has reached 11, 027 people in 18 cities throughout Turkey through its awareness-raising and practical implementation workshops.  COGAT has also worked with the Istanbul Stock Exchange and the Capital Market Board, helping to establish the Corporate Governance Index (CGI) which was launched in 2007

Original post:
A Culture of Good Governance Grows in Turkey