Field of law

Legal Ethics & Responsibility

Conflicts and screening, client trust accounts, confidentiality and its exceptions, fee agreements and division, unauthorized practice, advertising, withdrawal, and the discipline process.

Imputation and Screening a Lateral Hire

Lawyers associated in a firm are generally treated as one lawyer for conflicts purposes, so a disqualifying interest held by any of them disqualifies all. The model rule creates two escapes: a conflict personal to a lawyer that poses no significant risk to the representation is not imputed, and a firm may keep a matter conflicted by a lateral hire if that lawyer is timely screened, takes no part of the fee, and the former client receives prompt written notice.

6 min readState law

Legal Ethics & Responsibility

Dividing a Fee Between Lawyers in Different Firms

A division of a fee between lawyers who are not in the same firm is permitted only if the division is in proportion to the services each performed, or each lawyer assumes joint responsibility for the representation; the client agrees to the arrangement, including the share each lawyer will receive, and the agreement is confirmed in writing; and the total fee is reasonable. Lawyers in the same firm are not subject to the rule, and sharing fees with non-lawyers is separately prohibited.

6 min readState law

Legal Ethics & Responsibility

Withdrawing From a Representation, By Choice or By Duty

A lawyer must withdraw where continuing would violate the rules or other law, where the lawyer's condition materially impairs the representation, or where the lawyer is discharged. A lawyer may withdraw where it causes no material adverse effect on the client, or on one of several enumerated grounds including repugnant client conduct and non-payment after warning. Where a tribunal is involved its permission controls, and protective steps are owed in every case.

6 min readState law

Legal Ethics & Responsibility

Confidentiality Is Wider Than Privilege

The duty of confidentiality bars a lawyer from revealing information relating to the representation of a client, whatever its source, unless the client gives informed consent, disclosure is impliedly authorized, or an exception applies. The attorney-client privilege is a rule of evidence protecting confidential communications made for the purpose of obtaining legal advice, and it operates only to resist compelled disclosure. The ethical duty is broader in scope and narrower in force.

6 min readState law

Legal Ethics & Responsibility

Former Client Conflicts and the Substantial Relationship Test

A lawyer who formerly represented a client may not represent another person in the same or a substantially related matter where that person's interests are materially adverse to the former client, absent informed consent confirmed in writing. Matters are substantially related where they involve the same transaction or dispute, or where there is a substantial risk that confidential information normally obtained in the earlier work would materially advance the new client's position.

6 min readState law

Legal Ethics & Responsibility

Contingent Fees and What Must Be in Writing

A contingent fee agreement must be in a writing signed by the client, stating how the fee is determined, the percentages accruing at each stage, the expenses to be deducted, whether they are deducted before or after the contingency is calculated, and which expenses the client owes whatever the outcome. On conclusion the lawyer must give a written statement of the outcome and the remittance. Contingency is barred in criminal defense and in specified domestic matters.

6 min readState law

Legal Ethics & Responsibility

Client Trust Accounts and the Rules That Catch Lawyers Out

Property of clients and third persons must be held separate from the lawyer's own, in an account in the state where the lawyer's office sits unless the client consents otherwise, and complete records must be kept for a set period after the matter ends. Receipt of funds in which a client or third person has an interest triggers prompt notice, prompt delivery of what is owed, and an accounting on request. Disputed portions are held apart until the claim is resolved.

6 min readState law

Legal Ethics & Responsibility

Lawyer Advertising, Solicitation and the Line Between Them

A lawyer may not make a false or misleading communication about the lawyer or the lawyer's services, meaning one containing a material misrepresentation or omitting a fact needed to keep the statement from misleading. Advertising through any media is otherwise permitted. Live person-to-person solicitation for pecuniary gain is prohibited unless the person contacted is a lawyer, has a close personal or prior professional relationship, or routinely uses such services.

6 min readState law

Legal Ethics & Responsibility

The Exceptions That Permit a Lawyer to Disclose

The model confidentiality rule permits, but does not require, disclosure to prevent reasonably certain death or substantial bodily harm, to prevent or mitigate substantial financial injury from a client crime or fraud in which the lawyer's services were used, to obtain ethics advice, to establish a claim or defense in a controversy with the client, to comply with other law or a court order, and to detect conflicts on a change of employment. Disclosure is limited to what is reasonably necessary.

6 min readState law

Legal Ethics & Responsibility

Unauthorized Practice and Supervising Non-Lawyers

A lawyer may not practice in a jurisdiction in violation of its regulation of the profession, nor assist another in doing so. The model rule permits temporary practice elsewhere on four bases: association with active local counsel, work related to a proceeding where admission is expected, work related to an alternative dispute resolution proceeding, and work related to the lawyer's home-state practice. A lawyer is separately answerable for non-lawyers whose work they direct.

6 min readState law

Legal Ethics & Responsibility

Concurrent Conflicts and Consent Confirmed in Writing

A concurrent conflict exists where one client's interests are directly adverse to another's, or where there is a significant risk that a representation will be materially limited by the lawyer's responsibilities to another client, a former client, a third person, or the lawyer's own interests. Some conflicts may be waived by informed consent confirmed in writing; others cannot be waived at all, and the boundary between the two is where most disciplinary trouble begins.

6 min readState law

Fields of law

This journal

Legal Ethics & Responsibility

Imputation and Screening a Lateral Hire

Dividing a Fee Between Lawyers in Different Firms

Withdrawing From a Representation, By Choice or By Duty

Confidentiality Is Wider Than Privilege

Former Client Conflicts and the Substantial Relationship Test

Contingent Fees and What Must Be in Writing

Client Trust Accounts and the Rules That Catch Lawyers Out

Lawyer Advertising, Solicitation and the Line Between Them

The Exceptions That Permit a Lawyer to Disclose

Unauthorized Practice and Supervising Non-Lawyers

Concurrent Conflicts and Consent Confirmed in Writing