The Brocker Law Firm, P.A.

02/19/2026

https://brockerlawfirm.com/2026/02/19/raising-your-rates-communication-is-key/

Does your law firm regularly raise hourly rates for attorneys and paralegal staff? How much notice do you give existing clients of the firm? A newly proposed ethics opinion may mean you need to change how and when you notify clients of increased rates. Importantly, it appears the Ethics Committee ma...

01/20/2026

https://brockerlawfirm.com/2026/01/20/time-for-a-change-in-the-new-year/

In the last year, the State Bar Ethics Committee adopted a comprehensive ethics opinion providing guidance on lawyer departures and notice to affected clients. See 2025 FEO 1. This opinion marks a significant improvement over the prior ethics opinions and provides a roadmap for both the departing la...

05/21/2024

https://brockerlawfirm.com/2024/05/21/the-brocker-law-firm-retained-as-counsel-for-nc-board-of-counselors/

Doug Brocker and The Brocker Law Firm, P.A., were recently selected and are looking forward to serving as Counsel for the North Carolina Board of Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselors, which has more than 15,000 active licensees. Doug and the Firm will take over representation of the Board from...

03/07/2024

https://brockerlawfirm.com/2024/03/07/could-state-bar-expungement-be-right-around-the-corner/

Currently, there is no pathway for expungement of an attorney’s public disciplinary record in North Carolina. This means that attorneys, who received public discipline early in their careers, but have since practiced without incident and do not pose a threat to the public, are forever suffering th...

02/26/2024

https://brockerlawfirm.com/2024/02/26/nc-state-bar-review-committee-accepting-comments/

The State Bar Review Committee continues to accept public comments about the lawyer disciplinary process and proceedings, including the transparency and fairness of the disciplinary functions of the State Bar. Comments may be submitted to the committee using its electronic form HERE. Its next meetin...

01/22/2024

https://brockerlawfirm.com/2024/01/22/the-state-bar-review-committee-meeting/

“The organizational meeting of the State Bar Review Committee will be held on Wednesday, January 24, at 2:30 pm. The committee was established last year (SL 2023-134) in part to “review and examine the grievance review process of the North Carolina State Bar conducted in accordance with Article ...

01/19/2024

https://brockerlawfirm.com/2024/01/19/the-nc-state-bars-new-trust-account-random-audit-selection-process/

01/04/2024

https://brockerlawfirm.com/2024/01/04/new-year-new-trust-account-random-audit-procedures/

Starting in 2024, things will be changing as far as trust account random audits are concerned. Through the end of 2023, and for many years, the State Bar’s Random Trust Account Audit program operated the same way. A computer program randomly selected two judicial districts to audit each quarter. O...

12/07/2023

https://brockerlawfirm.com/2023/12/07/double-dip-dont-slip-can-lawyers-bill-for-overlapping-time-spent-on-different-client-matters/

Let’s say you are driving to an out-of-town deposition for Client A. You decide to take advantage of the uninterrupted time in the car and call Client B to have a long discussion about case strategy. Is it permissible to provide these services to both Client A and Client B at the same time? Can yo...

11/15/2023

https://brockerlawfirm.com/2023/11/15/seo-whats-in-a-trade-name/

If you or your law firm has a website, you may be paying someone to assist with search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is a complex process that considers how people search for things online and how search engines work. The point of SEO is, of course, to land higher on a search engine’s results pag...

11/08/2023

https://brockerlawfirm.com/2023/11/08/take-a-lawyer-to-lunch-2/

When I first began practicing law in North Carolina, one of my primary mentors told me about a policy he followed concerning filing sanction motions against an opposing attorney. His practice was to invite an opposing lawyer to lunch before potentially filing a motion for sanctions against that atto...

10/11/2023

https://brockerlawfirm.com/2023/10/11/doug-and-crystal-present-at-wcba-pna-program-3/

On October 11, 2023, Doug and Crystal presented “Pitfalls and Ethical Considerations of Social Media Use” at the Wake County Bar Association’s Professionalism for New Attorneys program at the State Bar building in Raleigh.