Dennie is the managing partner of a small law firm that handled workers compensation cases for injured plaintiffs. The firm had two partners and five associates and it operated without a designated in-house ethics counsel. After an increase in business, Dennie hired ten new associates to help handle the new work. The associates were recently licensed and had little or no experience. Dennie held a weekend training session for the new associates and then he assigned thirty cases to each associate. Each case was set for an evidentiary hearing within the next two weeks. Since each associate was a licensed lawyer, Dennie did not personally supervise any of the new lawyers and no other lawyer in the firm supervised their work for clients. The associates represented the clients with diligence and competence. Is Dennie subject to discipline for his conduct in managing the law firm?

a. Yes, because Dennie failed to take reasonable efforts to ensure that the associates conformed to the rules of professional conduct, including the ethical obligation to provide competent and diligent representation under time pressure.
b. No, because the clients of the associates in fact did receive competent and diligent representation in workers compensation