We Win. For the Moment.

Texas Lawyer Blog: State Bar of Texas members vote down proposed amendments to Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct

A big “thank you” to all who voted and encouraged others to do the same. Forty-percent turnout is apparently astounding for such a referendum.

State Bar President Terry Tottenham said, “We expect that this will not be the end of the Supreme Court’s interest in making revisions to these rules.” According to Lillian Hardwick‘s account, however, “the Supreme Court of Texas appointed a task force to assess the need for changes to the Rules and to suggest new language.” (PDF; emphasis is mine.) Most of these changes are not only ill-considered, but also simply unneeded.

In the next go-round, let’s see if we can get them to let us vote on each rule or amendment as the statute contemplates, so that we can pass the worthy rules (no sex with clients) without eating too much excrement. Meanwhile, any bets on whether the SBOT will let us know without a fight how badly their proposed rules got crushed?

[Update: they gave up the numbers without a fight: it was pretty close to 80/20, except on Question D, which included the no-sex-with-clients rule; that one was about 70/30.]