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The American Bar Association’s policy-making body is scheduled to vote on Monday on an amendment to its model rules of professional conduct that would prohibit harassment and discrimination by lawyers in the course of practicing law, the New York Times DealBook reported today. Bar associations in 23 states and the District of Columbia already have some kind of protections against harassment and discrimination by lawyers in the conduct of their profession, but the proposal would establish a standard nationwide. But critics of the proposal argue that a rule would inhibit lawyers from speaking freely on behalf of their clients and circumscribing the way they run their practice. Most businesses have rules against harassment and discrimination. Yet the legal profession as whole lacks a flat ban on such behavior. Supporters of the proposal say that while there is no way to track the frequency of such comments and actions, they happen often. Lawyers, they say, use such behavior as a tactic to fluster or intimidate opposing counsel.

The roles played by investment banks in billion-dollar buyouts have lately come under fire in the Delaware courts. Now, a complaint arising from the recent $2.2 billion buyout of the ExamWorks Group focuses on a different kind of deal adviser, according to a commentary in the New York Times DealBook blog yesterday. It contends that lawyers at Paul Hastings, a law firm based in Los Angeles, were in ties with management and the investment banks to sell the company at a below-market price, something ExamWorks vigorously denies. ExamWorks is an independent medical examination company founded by Richard E. Perlman and James K. Price. Perlman and Price are experienced financiers, focusing on industries where they can roll up a number of small companies, take the larger enterprise public and then sell out, typically to a private equity firm. This is what happened at ExamWorks, although in this case, the plaintiff, the Daytona Beach Police and Fire Pension Fund, claims that the buyout was tainted by conflicts and a failure of Paul Hastings to run the process appropriately. The fund, a shareholder of ExamWorks, is suing the company’s directors, as well as the private equity firm leading the buyout, Leonard Green & Partners.