By Mallory H. Chase

Although nonlawyers are not directly governed by the California Rules of Professional Conduct (see CRPC, rule 1.0(a) [the “rules are intended to regulate professional conduct of lawyers through discipline”] [emphasis added]), rule 8.4 provides that it is professional misconduct for a lawyer to “violate these rules or the State Bar Act, knowingly* assist, solicit, or induce another to do so, or do so through the acts of another[.]”[1] (CRPC, rule 8.4(a).) Additionally, under CRPC, rule 5.3, managerial and supervisory lawyers must make reasonable efforts to ensure the conduct of nonlawyers who are employed by, retained by, or associated with the lawyer is compatible with lawyer’s professional obligations. Among those professional obligations is the prohibition on certain types of solicitations, as delineated in CRPC, rule 7.3.[2] Read More

By David C. Carr

The Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division 3, has a new opinion, Falcon Brands v. Mousavi & Lee L.L.P. (case no. G059477, filed 1/27/22), that adds to our knowledge of one of the more opaque issues in legal ethics: when do a lawyer’s demands to settle become extortion? Read More

By Anne M. Rudolph 

In 2018, the Supreme Court rejected a proposed modified version of Model Rule 1.14 which would have allowed an attorney to take protective action if the attorney reasonably believed that the client had diminished capacity, was unable to act in the client’s own interest, and was at significant risk of physical, psychological or financial harm. Though the Supreme Court did not state its reason for the rejection, it is understood that the proposed rule was rejected because taking such protective action would have required an attorney to disclose a client’s confidential information in contradiction of the attorney’s duty under Business and Professions Code 6068, subdivision (e).  Read More

By Timothy Casey

This issue of Ethics in Brief covers an attorney’s duty of confidentiality and a commonly held misconception regarding a “public records” exception to the duty of confidentiality. The misconception may stem from a conflation of the ethical duty of confidentiality with the evidentiary rule about the attorney-client privilege. In sum, there is no public records exception to the duty of confidentiality, although information revealed in a public record may not be privileged. Read More

By Edward J. McIntyre

We tend to think of our obligations under the Rules of Professional Conduct as personal duties specific to our own conduct. And, indeed, the rules prescribe permissible conduct for California lawyers. Those obligations, however, stretch beyond what each of us may or must do and say. Read More

By David C. Carr

A State Bar Court hearing judge filed her decision this week recommending the disbament of Thomas V. Girardi.  Read More