The Friday Whine By BRIAN L. TANNEBAUM December 7, 2018

The Friday Whine is a casual email to friends and colleagues and contains two things: An ethics update, and a wine recommendation. If you see text in blue, it is a link to an article or information.

Ethics

The Expert Thing, It’s Back

This issue is becoming like an email chain that’s so long you’re starting to read the same emails over and over again.

So let’s review:

A U.S. District Court Judge (Robert Hinkle) says The Florida Bar cannot prohibit lawyers from calling themselves “experts” or “specialists.” The reasoning is that The Florida Bar only allows Board Certified lawyers to call themselves “experts” and “specialists” and because the Bar doesn’t have certification in every area (like ethics…ahem…), it’s a First Amendment violation.

So the Bar, wanting to protect the sanctity (and financial benefit it receives) of lawyers seeking to be Board Certified, sent a Rule change proposal to the Supreme Court of Florida, to which they responded “no.”

And now we’re back, with what the Rule should say:

“Adds new subdivision (a)(5) that lawyers may use of terms “specialist” and “expert” if can objectively verify the claims based on their education, training, experience, and substantial involvement in the area of practice. Adds new subdivision (a)(6) that law firms may claim specialization or expertise if they can objectively verify the claim as to at least 1 lawyer in the firm based on education, training, experience, and substantial involvement in the area of practice, but would require a disclaimer that not all lawyers in the firm are specialists or experts if that is the case.”

Here’s the full proposal, which I think will pass muster with the Court.

Wine

Holiday Gifts

The other day a fellow ethics lawyer called me to discuss an important matter – my advice on his holiday wine gift giving.

So I put together this list. Obviously we’re not saying “thank you” with $10 bottles of wine, right? So here’s some good ideas that are all on wine.com.

You can sign up for their Steward Ship program for $49 and all shipping is free for a year. Plus they’re usually running some 10% discount code on the site.

Here we go:

I like this Champagne gift set

https://www.wine.com/product/charles-heidsieck-brut-reserve-coffret-with-2-flutes/127374

Here’s a good red

https://www.wine.com/product/stags-leap-wine-cellars-artemis-cabernet-sauvignon-2016/501119

This red is awesome

https://www.wine.com/product/chappellet-signature-cabernet-sauvignon-2016/512789

Here’s your “wow, nice” bottle of Caymus. This is a liter, so a little bigger than the regular bottle, and it’s $99

https://www.wine.com/product/caymus-napa-valley-cabernet-sauvignon-1-liter-bottle-2016/507398

This is a legendary Pinot for $100. Anyone who really knows wine will absolutely know this, but I would only get it for a serious wine person:

https://www.wine.com/product/kosta-browne-russian-river-pinot-noir-2016/421590

For $50 this is a great deal