California Bar Floats Opinion on Lawyers Who Need Lawyers

The California bar is seeking member input on a proposed opinion that tackles some of the knottiest questions in legal ethics: whether—and if so, when and how—lawyers who seek advice on potential errors must disclose those deliberations to the affected client.

The proposed opinion notes that courts have given “considerable attention” in recent years to whether to recognize a privilege for internal or external consultations about possible errors—the records of which aggrieved clients often seek to discover in malpractice cases.

The proposed opinion does not directly analyze those privilege questions; instead, it focuses on “ethical questions [that] arise concerning what ...