On October 6, 2021, the American Bar Association issued Formal Opinion 500 addressing language access in the client-lawyer relationship. The Opinion notes: “Communication between a lawyer and a client is necessary for the client to participate effectively in the representation…
Think Your Client Is Up To No Good? You May Have a Duty to Inquire
Practitioners should be aware of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) recent pronouncement that lawyers may have a “duty to inquire” in certain circumstances to avoid “advising or assisting a client in conduct the lawyer ‘knows’ is criminal or fraudulent.” Plaintiffs…
Risk Management: California’s Mediation Confidentiality Disclosure
California lawyers must disclose the confidentiality rules that apply to mediation to their client before the mediation. California Evidence Code section 1129 ensures that attorneys make their clients aware of the confidentiality rules related to mediation, including that communications…
Risk Management: Duties Of Partners In A Dissolving Firm
Nearly ten years after international law firm Heller Ehrman closed its doors, the California Supreme Court addressed whether the dissolved firm had any interest in the hourly-fee legal matters former partners continued to handle. In Heller Ehrman LLP v. Davis…
Risk Management Tip: Understanding Duties to Third Parties, Part 2
An attorney’s primary duty to a client is tempered by the overriding duty in all settings to be truthful. In the transactional setting there is no protection for attorneys from claims by non-clients when an attorney engages in affirmatively deceitful…
Risk Management Tip: Understanding Duties to Third Parties, Part 1
The primary duty to a non-client is to be truthful. This month we examine this duty in litigation. Generally, attorneys owe no duty to a non-client. In Goodman v. Kennedy (1976) 18 Cal.3d 335, purchasers alleged they were damaged because…
Risk Management Tip: Ethical Walls Can Protect Against Disqualifying Conflicts
Conflicts of interest might disqualify an entire law firm from representing clients who are adverse to each other in unrelated matters. Proposed amendments to the California Rules of Professional Conduct would allow the use of an ethical wall in certain…
Legal Malpractice Corner: Risk Management Tip – SEC Reporting Rules Preempts California’s Attorney-Client Privilege
Over the past three months this column has reviewed attorney Sanford Walder’s trial victory over his former employer, Bio-Rad. Among other attorney-client privilege issues, the district court examined whether California law is preempted by regulations promulgated under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.…