Professional Responsibility
Just as the saying goes, "He who represents himself has a fool for a client." - Abraham Lincoln
This applies to attorneys as much as it applies to any other sophisticated client. However, it often goes unheeded by attorneys causing them to lose valuable time, sometimes clients, and energy more properly focused on their own practices. Our goal is to assist attorneys in all aspects of their practice from client intake to client retention, from ethical questions to State Bar inquiries, and as well as general law practice management and business issues unique to attorneys and law firms big and small.
In San Francisco, the Bay Area, California and beyond, Dimitriou & Associates, P.C., have a reputation for their extensive experience in advising attorneys on matters of law and professional conduct, including counseling attorneys leaving, joining, and forming firms. Attorneys like any other kind of business need counsel.
Attorneys who have an objective trained individual will achieve a better result for their clients, as well as themselves. Attorneys should not attempt to discharge their own legal matters on their own, no matter how simple they think it might be. However, attorneys often do not always heed their own advice. They will at times attempt to handle their own personal and business legal matters, which results in some of the same problems confronted by non-professionals. This is where Dimitriou & Associates provides valuable counsel and is an asset.
We counsel attorneys, law partnerships, law corporations, and limited liability partnerships on a range of legal and professional matters, including: Choice of firm entity, Law practice management, Ethics, State Bar disciplinary actions, Professional responsibility (including screening and ethical walls), and Professional liability.
Attorneys have a variety of choices to use for their firm entity. Attorneys need to take care, just as any other business, regarding their choice of entity. However, in addition to the general business decisions relating to choice of entity, attorneys must also take into consideration the ethical and State Bar constraints.
Law practice management and office management goes beyond choice of billing software, or on line research plans. Law practice management ranges from creating office manuals and procedures to protect clients and attorneys, to developing practical business.
The attorneys at Dimitriou & Associates, P.C. have a wealth of experience in the area of professional malpractice from the point of view of defense as well as plaintiffs. We provide advice, expert witness testimony, as well as to lecture on this topic.
We assist lawyers who need advice about a particular ethical or professional conduct problem, and advise firms on how to avoid charges of professional misconduct from clients and the State Bar of California. We advice on improving your office systems to maximize protection against inadvertent rule violations.
When the State Bar contacts attorneys, we provide assistance, advice, and advocacy. We also represent former attorneys who have been subject to disciplinary actions, such as probation or license suspension, and assist disbarred clients with applications for reinstatement with the State Bar.
Dimitriou & Associates, P.C. advises and represents law graduates, lawyers admitted in other jurisdictions, including other countries, and others seeking admission whose past criminal record — or even credit history — can raise problems with the moral character component of the application to the State Bar of California.
Expert Witnesses
Our attorneys also serve clients nationwide as expert witnesses in lawsuits involving questions of legal ethics, standard of care, professional misconduct, and attorney malpractice. We will expertly assist you in matters such as professional malpractice defense, attorney misconduct, and motions for disqualification of counsel based on prior relationships or other conflicts.
