Lucian T. Pera, a partner with the Litigation Practice Group, has been invited to participate as a panelist in the discussion “Ethics Opinions That Matter” during the Spring 2007 National Legal Malpractice Conference of the American Bar Association in Washington, D.C. The discussion will highlight significant recent ethics opinions from the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, and from state ethics advisory committees that affect potential lawyer liability and the practice of law across the country.
Pera, a member of both the Ethics and Commercial Disputes Practice Teams, practices primarily in the civil trial area, including a wide variety of commercial, media, intellectual property and personal injury litigation. He has represented a number of major media outlets in significant litigation concerning public and media access to public records, open meetings, and court proceedings. These cases include a landmark Tennessee Supreme Court decision granting public and media access to the records of a troubled nonprofit government contractor administering tens of millions of dollars in public money in assistance to low-income mothers. He is an active member of the Media Law Resource Center’s Defense Counsel Section, serving as chair of its ethics committee and as co-author of chapters in two of its national surveys of law relating to the media. He speaks and writes annually on media law issues, both in Tennessee and nationally.
Pera also counsels and represents lawyers, large and small law firms, law departments, and other clients in the area of lawyer ethics, professional responsibility, malpractice and loss prevention; and he has developed a nationwide practice and reputation in this field. He is a frequent speaker and author on such matters in numerous venues across the country. He served for five years as a member of the American Bar Association’s Special Commission on the Evaluation of the Rules of Professional Conduct, which proposed significant changes that were approved by the ABA in 2002, and which have now been considered by almost all American jurisdictions for adoption. He currently chairs the ABA Section of Business Law’s Committee on Professional Conduct and has chaired the Editorial Board of the ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Responsibility. Additionally, he has served as chair of the Tennessee Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility since 2000. Among other professional awards, Pera is listed in The Best Lawyers in America (First Amendment Law).
Adams and Reese has attorneys and advisors strategically located in offices in Baton Rouge, LA; Birmingham, AL; Houston, TX; Jackson, MS; Memphis, TN; Mobile, AL; Nashville, TN; New Orleans, LA and Washington, D.C. American Lawyer Magazine includes Adams and Reese on its distinguished list of the nation’s top 200 firms - “The AmLaw 200.” The National Law Journal also lists the firm on the “NLJ 250” of the nation’s largest law firms.