Continued Developments on Model Rule 8.4(g) and Lawyer Free Speech

Nearly a decade ago, the ABA amended the Model Rules of Professional Conduct to address concerns regarding sexual harassment and discrimination in the practice of law. Both before the adoption and since, there has been fierce debate regarding the scope of Model Rule 8.4(g) and whether it sweeps too broadly to encompass, not just forbidden conduct, but also protected speech. State across the country have undertaken a variety of approaches to the issue and litigation on the rules adopted has been ongoing. 

 

This program will discuss the rule, the applicable law regulating lawyer speech, and the law regarding this particular rule.

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Presenter Bios 

Donald Patrick Eckler is a Partner in Freeman Mathis & Gary, LLP’s Chicago office and is Co-Chair of the firm's Professional Liability / Errors and Omissions national practice section. He is a highly experienced litigator who focuses his practice on defending lawyers, accountants, insurance brokers, and other professionals in a variety of civil disputes in state and federal courts across Illinois and Indiana. His practice ranges from representing insurers in coverage disputes to defending professionals, businesses, and tort defendants in complex litigation. Mr. Eckler’s commercial litigation experience involves complex contract disputes and class-action lawsuits. His coverage practice for insurers and the insured involves commercial general liability and personal lines policies, issues involving the duty to defend and indemnify, bad faith, and the application of exclusions. His tort defense work spans the representations of product manufacturers and distributors, trucking and transportation clients, and premises owners. Drawing on his experience as a college basketball coach, Mr. Eckler has also represented a coach before the NCAA Committee on infractions.

 

Mr. Eckler is active in the organized defense bar both at the state and national level. He is a committee chair, columnist, and board member with both the Illinois Defense Counsel and the Professional Liability Defense Federation. He also serves as the current president of the PLDF. He publishes extensively in professional journals on a wide range of topics, including legal ethics, attorney-client privilege, and Illinois and federal civil procedure. He also provides thought leadership on substantive areas of law ranging from products liability and toxic torts to premises liability and claims against accountants.

 

After completing his undergraduate degree, Mr. Eckler taught history and coached high school and college basketball for three years before attending law school at the University of Florida. In his final semester of law school, he served as a certified legal intern with the Public Defenders’ Office of the Eighth Judicial Circuit, where he represented defendants in misdemeanor criminal cases.

Sally Wagenmaker provides legal counsel in corporate, tax, employment, and real estate matters for nonprofit, tax-exempt clients, including public charities, private foundations, and trade associations operating on local, national, and international levels. Her clients include churches and other religious organizations, social service providers, and schools. Through her legal work, she strives to fulfill the firm's values of trustworthiness, cost-efficiency, creative collaboration, mutual respect, and community engagement.
 
Sally's corporate and tax work includes development of new tax-exempt entities, resolving IRS disputes, counseling clients on the responsibilities of board members, providing guidance for effective nonprofit governance within the current legal climate, and other operational legal issues. In addition, she represents clients in property tax exemption matters for charitable, religious, and educational purposes, shared occupancy arrangements, and property transfers. Sally also regularly advises and counsels the firm's nonprofit clients on employment matters including contracts, termination, employment policies, tax, unemployment insurance, discrimination issues, and compliance with other employment laws, particularly as they relate to nonprofit issues such as volunteers and clergy.
 
Prior to practicing law with Wagenmaker & Oberly, Sally was a partner with Mosher & Wagenmaker and worked previously for other law firms. In addition, she worked as a solo practitioner, providing legal assistance to indigent and low-income clients primarily in Chicago's west side neighborhood of North Lawndale. Upon finishing law school, she clerked for United States District Judge William C. O Kelley of the Northern District of Georgia. Sally is a graduate of Emory University School of Law and the University of Mississippi. Sally is thankful for her husband Dan and two young adult children, who remind her continually that we are each valuable beyond measure.
 
Richard Samp regularly litigates in the U.S. Supreme Court and federal appellate courts
throughout the country.  His First Amendment free-speech challenge to Connecticut’s version of
Rule 8.4(g) is pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. 
 
Mr. Samp was Chief Counsel for more than 30 years of the Washington Legal Foundation and more recently served as Senior Litigation Counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance, from which he retired in February 2024.  He is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School.