Happy Memorial Day!

Congrats to all (including those I forgot to mention in Friday’s intro) who were part of yesterday’s Vermont City Marathon! It was fantastic to see so many of you out there.

Friday’s questions are here. The answers follow today’s Honor Roll.

Honor Roll

  • Matt Anderson, Pratt Vreeland Kennelly Martin & White
  • Alberto Bernabe, Law Professor, University of Illinois – Chicago
  • Beth DeBernardi, Administrative Law Judge, Vermont Department of Labor
  • Robert Grundstein
  • Glenn Jarrett, Jarrett/Hoyt
  • Douglas Keehn, Assistant Attorney General, Medicaid Fraud & Residential Abuse Unit
  • Jeanne Kennedy, Mother of the Blogger
  • Michael Mand, Double Helix Law
  • Jack McCullough, Vermont Legal Aid, Project Director, Mental Health Law Project
  • Honorable Susan McManus, Vermont Superior Judge
  • Jeffrey Messina, Messina Law
  • Hal Miller, First American Title, SoCal Office
  • Patrick Olmstead, Patrick Olmstead Law
  • Jim Remsen, Instrumart
  • Keith Roberts, Darby Kolter Roberts
  • Jonathan Teller-Elsberg, Staff Attorney, New Hampshire Legal Assistance
  • Brendan Walsh, Quantum Leap Capital

ANSWERS

Question 1

Is the following statement true or false?

“While there are many examples of AI-generated legal research that includes citations to cases that do not exist, there has not been a single reported incident of AI-generated legal research that cites to a real case but attributes to the case a quotation that does not appear in the opinion.”

  • A.           True.
  • B.           False.  See this blog post.

Question 2

Fill in the blank.

“A concurrent conflict of interest exists if _______________ the representation of one or more clients will be materially limited by the lawyer’s responsibilities to another client, a former client or a third person or by a personal interest of the lawyer.”

  • A.           there is a significant risk that.  V.R.Pr.C. 1.7 (a)(2).
  • B.           there is an appearance that.
  • C.           there is a reasonable likelihood that.
  • D.           Trick question.  There is no “blank.”  The language in the question is the entire rule.

Question 3

There’s a rule that states that “upon termination of representation, a lawyer shall take steps to the extent reasonably practicable to protect a client’s interests, such as __________:

  • A.           giving reasonable notice the client.
  • B.           allowing time for employment of other counsel.
  • C.           surrendering papers & property to which the client is entitled and refunding any
  • advance payment of fee or expense that has not been earned.
  • D.           All the above.  V.R.Pr.C. 1.16(d).

Question 4

“Candor” is one of the 7 Cs of Legal Ethics.  The rule that sets out the duty of candor to a tribunal includes this statement:

“A lawyer may refuse to offer evidence, other than the testimony of _____________, that the lawyer reasonably believes is false.”

Which of the following properly fills-in-the-blank?

  • A.    The lawyer’s client.
  • B.    An expert witness.
  • C.    A witness that the client instructs the lawyer to present.
  • D.   A defendant in a criminal matter.  V.R.Pr.C. 3.3(a)(3).

Question 5

I seriously doubt that anyone will remember this character, but context clues should help to noodle through the answer even if you don’t and even if you’ve never seen the show.

George Wendt passed away this week.  Of course, Wendt is famous for having portrayed “Norm Peterson” on Cheers.       

Wendt’s passing made me consider an intro that discussed the greatest tv theme songs of all-time.  I decided against it. In my opinion, the theme song from Cheers is good, but is not the greatest of all-time. While Rolling Stone apparently disagrees, there can be no reasonable dispute that Gilligan’s Island holds the top spot.  But that’s a topic for another day.

To honor Wendt’s passing, I tried to work in a law-related question about Cheers. Not easy!  Here’s the best I could do.

Cheers included a minor character named “Tom.”  The Cheers Wiki Fandom page describes Tom as “one of the barflies that frequently appears in the background at Cheers during the first six seasons.” While I have zero recollection of the character, it turns out that Tom often gave legal advice to the main characters!  Perhaps this explains why Tom had speaking roles in episodes titled “The Tortelli Tort,”  “Where There’s A Will,” and “Chambers v. Malone.”

Alas, it appears that Tom likely engaged in misconduct by providing such legal advice. Why? Because it wasn’t until his 10th episode that Tom finally did something that is required to provide legal advice.  In fact, it took him 11 times to do this “something” – only one fewer time than his total number of episodes. 

What did it take Tom 11 times to do – which, over the years, Cliff Clavin repeatedly mocked him for not being able to do?

And, with Cliff Clavin in mind and because it’s a holiday weekend, here’s a bonus question:

If there were such a thing as being disbarred from appearing on game shows, what show would disbar Cliff for his horribly incompetent end-of-game strategy?

Answer:  It took Tom 11 attempts to pass the bar exam.

Bonus:  Jeopardy!  Cliff’s famous appearance on Jeopardy is here.  The clip is long – 4 minutes, 52 second – but entertains me.  Not only for the “lawyerly” way that we can attempt to justify giving Cliff credit for a wrong guess – but also for the sneaky attempt to look at the lawyer’s response and the incompetent betting strategy.