Partners Michael McNamara and Kirsten Spira have been recognized as Top Professional Responsibility Lawyers by the Daily Journal. They serve as co-chairs of Jenner & Block’s nationally recognized Professional Responsibility Practice.
“I really enjoy representing other lawyers. People call it being a lawyer’s lawyer. I’m really very proud of that,” said Mr. McNamara in his profile (subscription required). He has several active cases around the country and a number of his matters grow out of Ponzi schemes where he represents law firms being sued by investors of former clients — who allegedly turned out to be criminals. The profile highlights his and Ms. Spira’s representation of one of the several law firms caught up in the $1.3 billion collapse of the now bankrupt Woodbridge Group of Companies’ real estate investment operation. “In many ways, the law firms are victims, too, in these Ponzi scheme cases,” Mr. McNamara commented.
Ms. Spira’s profile (subscription required) explains that she represents law firm clients in connection with a variety of professional responsibility claims, including malpractice claims, ponzi scheme allegations, disqualification disputes, and employment matters. The profile highlights her role as chair of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Professional Responsibility and Ethics Committee, a panel that publishes written opinions on the complex issues that lawyers face and comments on proposed professional conduct rules affecting lawyers. The committee’s recent task was commenting on a report from the State Bar’s California Paraprofessional Program Working Group, which endorsed allowing non-lawyers to provide limited legal services to consumers in specified areas. “[W]e looked at the paraprofessional rules of conduct proposed by the [working group], and we commented on all of those rules — which rules made sense, which ones didn’t, and why we thought they didn’t,” Ms. Spira said in her profile.
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