Richard Zitrin is one of the nation's leading authorities on legal ethics and attorney conduct. He is also a trial lawyer with extensive experience from legal malpractice cases to murder trials to products liability, and has tried approximately 50 cases to verdict. As of 2011 Mr. Zitrin has been approved as a Certified Specialist in Legal Malpractice by the State Bar of California.
In the field of legal ethics and attorney conduct, Mr. Zitrin is:
- An expert advisor on the ethical conduct of lawyers. He has consulted with over 1000 lawyers, law firms, and individual and institutional clients; evaluated hundreds of legal malpractice claims; and has been an expert witness or consultant on over 200 attorney conduct matters.
- Lead author of three books and approximately 60 published articles on legal ethics, and a speaker at approximately 200 continuing education programs on legal ethics and malpractice avoidance.
- Founder and from 2000 to 2004 the first Director of the Center for Applied Legal Ethics at the University of San Francisco School of Law.
- Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of San Francisco from 1977 to 2005, where he taught both Ethics and Trial Practice, and the University of California Hastings College of the Law from 1994 to the present, as well as a guest instructor in legal ethics at other law schools across the country.
- Chair of the State Bar of California's Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct from 1994 to 1995 and Special Advisor in 1995-96. He was a member of the committee from 1990 to 1996.
- A speaker around the country on ethics issues, including in Colorado, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin, and across Canada. Mr. Zitrin was invited by Hitotsubashi University School of Law to speak in Tokyo, Japan in March 2009 on the best approaches for teaching legal ethics to practicing attorneys.
Mr. Zitrin is also a noted pro bono attorney. He was one of three individual recipients of the ABA's Pro Bono Publico Award in 2006, principally for his work as founder and director of the legal clinic at Glide Memorial Church, co-sponsored by the Homeless Advocacy Project of the Bar Association of San Francisco. His other pro bono work includes:
- Drafts legislation in cooperation with California legislators and legislators in other states and in the United States Senate. Also drafts, facilitates, and presents formal comments on California ethics issues, including revisions of the ethics rules, on behalf of other national legal ethics figures and numerous California ethics professors.
- Serves as pro bono ethics counsel to several legal services organizations and offices. Also does extensive work for legal consumers of modest means, especially in the lawyer referral area. Co-author, with two others, of the American Bar Association's Model Rules on Lawyer Referral Services, and principal drafter of the California State Bar's Certification Standards for Lawyer Referral Services. Also serves as pro bono ethics counsel to several legal services organizations and offices.
- Chair, since 2002, of the San Francisco Bar's Minority Student Scholarship Committee, which awards scholarships to economically disadvantaged students who are members of underrepresented minorities, and past chair of several other San Francisco and California bar committees.
Mr. Zitrin's trial work has included:
- Obtaining a $3.3 million products liability verdict against Chrysler Corporation, including $3 million in punitive damages, for a client with a broken leg. The jury agreed that his client was driving a car that had defective steering that caused the accident, warranting the large punitive damages award.
- Obtaining a $700,000+ personal injury verdict for an out-of-state client with a soft-tissue injury and $10,000 in medical bills.
- In recent years, resolving numerous malpractice claims with “seven-figure” settlements for plaintiffs with claims of legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty.
- A speaking role as Gene Hackman’s opposing counsel in the 1991 film Class Action, for which he was the legal technical advisor.
Mr. Zitrin is admitted to all California and New York State Courts, the U.S. District Court (Northern, and Central Districts) and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Education:
New York University Law School
Oberlin College (Ohio)
Legal Ethics in the Practice of Law
(LexisNexis), Third Edition, 2007. Purchase a copy here
The Moral Compass of the American Lawyer
Ballantine Publishing, a division of Random House, May 1999. Purchase a copy here
More Books
The Judicial Function: Justice Between the Parties, or a Broader Public Interest?
32 Hofstra L. Rev. 1565, Summer 2004.
Why the Laudable South Carolina Court Rules Must be Broadened
55 , Summer 2004.
Time to End the Secrecy
San Francisco Chronicle, August 21, 2001 (for a statute against secret settlements)
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FEMA lawyers' ethics doubted in trailers mess - Advising against toxics tests would be wrong, experts say
Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle, 07/22/07
Attorney Privilege
The state bar is supposed to punish dishonest attorneys. Instead, it too often coddles them
By Martin Kuz, SF WEEKLY, July 17, 2007
CALIFORNIA - Clemency flap puts Starr in spotlight again - Apparently bogus documents mar his bid to halt execution
Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle, 02/16/06
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