The ABA Journal has the story about a law firm suing an associate who signed a employment contract providing for three year term. The associate left after just one year. The contract includes a stipulated damages clause that requires the payment of $10,000 if the associate leaves before the end of the three years. A law firm had made a loan to the associate of $2,500 dollars for bar exam expenses. It deducted the loan and then liquidated damages from her last paycheck, but the associate came up $7,400 dollars short. The law firm claims that it spends considerable resources on the training of new associates.
(a) Unless authorized by law, a lawyer shall not participate in offering or making:.. a partnership, shareholders, operating, employment, or other similar type of agreement that restricts the right of a lawyer to practice after termination of the relationship…
Unknown. But the words of a legal recruiter quoted in the story ring true: this can’t be good for firm recuiting.
David C. Carr ~ Ethics Lawyer
David C. Carr, an attorney in private practice in San Diego, California, specializes in ethics advice to lawyers, California State Bar discipline defense, and attorney licensing.
Mr. Carr is a 1986 graduate of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. Following several years of practice in commercial law and business litigation, Mr. Carr joined the State Bar of California as a staff attorney in 1989, where he served as a staff attorney, a discipline prosecutor and a manager in discipline enforcement office before returning to private practice in 2001.
Mr. Carr is a member of the San Diego County Bar Association, where he is active on the Legal Ethics Committee. He is a member of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers (APRL), the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility, and the Association of Discipline Defense Counsel (ADDC), where he served as president from 2008 through 2011. He is also a member of the State Bar's Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct (COPRAC) for the 2018-2021 term. Mr. Carr is an adjunct faculty member at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, where he has taught professional responsibility.
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