Lynda C. Shely is a Shareholder in the Phoenix office of Klinedinst. With nearly four decades of experience, Ms. Shely advises law firms, law firm investors, and lawyers alike in all aspects of legal ethics law, Arizona ABS regulations, and risk management. She also assists clients with responding to initial Bar charges and serves as an expert witness in legal malpractice, motions to disqualify counsel, fee disputes, and lawyer discipline cases.
Ms. Shely advises clients on regulatory topics involving compliance with the Rules of Professional Conduct, alternative business structure law firms, lawyer discipline matters, and law office risk management. Prior to joining Klinedinst, Ms. Shely worked at her own law firm, where she built a reputation serving law firm clients in matters such as ethical advertising, Arizona’s alternative business structure program, fee agreements and billing requirements, training and supervision of law firm personnel, and conflict waivers. Prior to private practice in Arizona she was the Director of Lawyer Ethics at the State Bar of Arizona, where she supervised multiple departments and provided tens of thousands of telephonic advisory opinions to members of the State Bar on legal ethics issues. She served as Staff Counsel to the Ethics, Fee Arbitration, and Peer Review Committees, as well as the Client Protection Fund Board of Trustees and the Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee. Before moving to Arizona Ms. Shely was an associate at an Am Law 50 firm handling intellectual property and antitrust matters.
Ms. Shely is an active leader in the legal community, serving on multiple committees of both the American Bar Association and the State Bar of Arizona. She served as the 2020–2023 Chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, was an Arizona delegate in the ABA House of Delegates from 2016–2023, a prior Chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Client Protection, and a longtime member of the ABA’s Center for Professional Responsibility. She also served on the Center’s Conference Planning Committee and the Standing Committee on Professionalism. Additionally, she is a member of the State Bar of Arizona Ethics Advisory Group, acted as Co-Chair of one of the subcommittees of the APRL Futures Committee, and serves on several other non-billable groups involved with legal ethics.
David M. Majchrzak is a seasoned ethicist, civil litigator, and certified specialist by the State Bar of California in legal malpractice law, is listed in Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers, and is rated AV®-Preeminent™ by Martindale-Hubbell. He is Managing Shareholder of the firm’s Arizona office, and serves as Deputy General Counsel. He also chairs the firm’s writing committee and attorney training college. Mr. Majchrzak represents clients in matters involving attorney and law firm risk management, discipline defense, and legal malpractice claims. And he has served as an expert on legal ethics issues.
Mr. Majchrzak devotes a substantial portion of his career to counseling his clients on how to achieve their professional goals in an ethical way. For lawyers and firms with or without general counsel, he helps navigate the often complex ethical waters of the legal profession. Mr. Majchrzak performs law office risk management assessments, trains law firm staff in ethics requirements, and advises on a variety of topics. These include conflicts of interest, fees and billing requirements and dispute handling, trust account procedures, internal and departing lawyer compensation, law firm advertising and online marketing efforts, engagement and common interest agreements, non-engagement and disengagement protocols, attorney-client privilege/confidentiality analyses and protection, subpoena response, multi-jurisdictional practice, lawyer mobility, and ancillary business ventures.
Mr. Majchrzak is active and widely visible within the legal ethics community. Mr. Majchrzak served as the co-chair of California Lawyers Association’s first Ethics Committee and as a member of the organization’s Future of the Profession Task Force; and he co-chaired 2022’s annual meeting. He currently serves as the secretary of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers, the chair of the ABA working group on Model Rule 5.5, a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Professionalism, a member of the editorial board of the ABA/Bloomberg Law Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct, a liaison to the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, and a member of the ABA National Conference on Professional Responsibility Planning Committee. Mr. Majchrzak also served as a three-year member of the State Bar of California’s Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct, and chair of its outreach committee; and is a past chair of the San Diego County Bar Association’s Legal Ethics Committee. In 2015, Mr. Majchrzak revived the then-abandoned Ethics Quarterly, and has continued as one of its two editors. He has also taught professional responsibility as an adjunct law school professor.
Mr. Majchrzak is also active within the general legal community. In 2022, he served as the president of the San Diego County Bar Association.