Daniel Chammas: Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibilities

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Daniel Chammas Legal Ethics and Professional
Responsibilities
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Background

• Daniel Chammas works for Venable LLC, which is
  one of the top one hundred legal firms in the
  United States according to the AmLaw 100 Survey.
  He has enjoyed a distinguished personal career
  that has merited his inclusion in the Southern
  California Super Lawyers Rising Star Edition on
  five separate occasions between 2007 and 2014. He
  has achieved all of this due to the fact that he
  is an excellent lawyer, but also because he takes
  his professional responsibilities very seriously
  and understands the obligations he has to each
  and every one of his clients.

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What Are Legal Ethics and Professional
Responsibilities?

• At the most basic level, they are a code of
  conduct that all legal professionals must follow
  in order to provide the best possible service to
  their clients. Specifically, most lawyers in the
  United States are bound by the Rules of
  Professional Conduct that were adopted by the
  American Bar Association in 1983 and have since
  become the standard for every other bas
  association in the country, barring California.
  This state has a similar code of conduct, named
  the California Rules of Professional Conduct,
  which serves the same purpose but has a different
  format.

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Why Must They Be Followed?

• Failure to comply with any code relating to your
  professional responsibilities as a lawyer means
  that you are not serving the clients best
  interests. If a client has reason to believe that
  their lawyer has violated the code, they have the
  option of filing a complaint with the relevant
  state bar association. As such, it is crucial
  that any practicing lawyer is aware of the code
  that they must comply with, in order to protect
  themselves from such claims.

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Common Violations

• The code that a lawyer must follow is often quite
  complex and is often breached by accident if the
  lawyer is not diligent enough in following it.
  However, common violations that Daniel Chammas
  has noticed during his career include the failure
  to communicate properly with the client, which
  can amount to neglect in some cases.
  Solicitation, in which lawyers are misleading or
  deceptive in their advertising, is also a common
  problem. The safest way to avoid such issues is
  to be fully aware of the professional
  responsibilities you have as a lawyer and to
  abide by them to the letter.

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Thank You