1. You are a paralegal in a five-attorney legal services/aid practice. The office manager, who writes all the checks for the organization, will not be back for several hours. Your supervising attorney asks you to get the checkbook out of the office manager's desk and issue a check that she needs right now. You fill in the manual check stub and type the check. Because the office manager is not there to sign the check, you hand the check to your supervising attorney to sign with several other papers. The attorney quickly signs her name while lookin at the other documents. On your way to your office, the receptionist asks you to drop off the office manager's mail in his office. You notice that one of the envelopes appears to be a check from the local bar association that makes contributions to the practice as a communit service. You also notice that another of the envelopes appears to be a bank statement and returned checks for the previous month. The office manager uses the returned checks and bank statement to reconcile the bank account. You place all the items on the office manager desk as requested. Do you see any potential problems? Would it matter if the office manager had been there for 20 years, was extremely trustworthy, and refused to even take a vacation in that it might take him away from work? What recommendations would you make? 2. Your office represented a business client in litigation. During the litigation, the client made several cash advances. e matter has been concluded for approximately two months and the client has a balance in the trust account of about $20,000. The client has requested that the money be return the supervising attorney has not gotten around to it yet. How would you analyz tuation, and what would you do? Page 246 Go W O3. You have just been given the assignment to begin work on incorporating a new business. At the first meeting with the client, the client hands you a check for $5000 and states that Page 246 lay not be copied, scanned, or dupli Key Terms content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or Chapter (s). not materially affect the overall learn. ional coment at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it - Page 246 Go break 19 1 10 17 LA X & 8 9 O 96 5 6 Pplatfo ocs.com elf. eReader Client although no work has been performed on the case, this was the agreement that the client and your supervising attorney worked out last week on the telephone. Later, you hand the check to the supervising attorney. The attorney says to just deposit it in the office's account. What problems would you face, what would you do, and why? 4. As a paralegal in a sole practitioner's office, you sometimes become "burned out" and tired. The attorney you work for is very appreciative of your hard work and would like to give you incentives when possible to keep you motivated. The attorney mentions that she will pay you a bonus equal to 10% of any new client retainers you are responsible for bringing in. How does this sound to you? Analyze this arrangement from an ethics perspective. 5. You are a paralegal in a relatively small office. One day, one of the partners in the office instructs you to transfer $5000 from the trust account into the office's general account. You ask him what case is involved. The partner says "There is no case name, but it doesn't concern you." What would you do? Explain your answer. 6. At 8:00 A.M. on a Monday morning, your supervising attorney rushes into your office. Q Search O