Calif. State Bar Advises Lawyers Seeking Ethical Guidance

The State Bar of California’s ethics committee recently examined several scenarios where an attorney consults another attorney on ethical obligations to a client, and questioned whether this advice seeking conflicts with other duties owed to the client.

Attorneys have to balance their duty to communicate with their clients and their duty of loyalty to them with their duty to meet their ethical obligations, said the opinion from the Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct.

But the “act of seeking legal advice concerning ethical obligations owed to a client by itself does not create a conflict with the client,” the ...