We are proud to announce Lewis Rice member Benjamin A. Lipman will be honored on January 24th by Missouri Lawyers Weekly as a 2014 Legal Champion. Mr. Lipman is receiving the award for his work to provide public access to previously secret attorney disciplinary hearings.
A recent change in rules by the Missouri Supreme Court said attorney disciplinary hearings should be presumed open except in limited circumstances. The government in this case sought to conduct the entire proceedings in secret, and the hearing panel overseeing the proceedings refused to allow Mr. Lipman’s client to attend. Mr. Lipman then filed a petition in the Missouri Supreme Court, arguing the public had a right to attend these proceedings; in a rare move, the Supreme Court granted the petition, but the fight continued. The government argued even if the entirety of the proceedings should not be closed to the public, select portions should be. With the Supreme Court’s mandate, though, Mr. Lipman was able to convince the hearing panel that there was no legitimate basis to close any portion of the proceedings. More…
The New York Court of Appeals ruling that came down last week in .jpg)
We’re kicking off a new feature today here on Zen – Two for Tuesdays! I’ve given myself the assignment of sticking to an editorial calendar for the blog this year (everyone get excited!) and one of the regular posts I’d like to contribute is this one, which will cover two quick tips that you can implement today on a range of subjects.
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