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Bar Counsel Informal Advisory Ethics Notes*

The following Bar Counsel notes were previously published in Board email updates to active members of the Maine Bar.

April 9, 2013

  1. Grievance and Discipline Process
  2. Client Confidentiality Issuesl

February 11, 2013

  1. Confidentiality of Information
  2. Communications with Person Represented by Counsel

December 12, 2012

  1. Notice Regarding Fee Arbitration
  2. Successive Representation

October 5, 2012

  1. Conflict of Interest
  2. Unauthorized Practice of Law

August 7, 2012

  1. Screening of Non-lawyer Staff
  2. Disclosure of Deceased Client Info

June 20, 2012

  1. Termination of Representation
  2. Communication with Person Represented by Counsel

April 18, 2012

  1. Communications with Person Represented by Counsel
  2. Former Client Conflicts

February 10, 2012

  1. Confidentiality of Information/Candor Toward the Tribunal
  2. Conflict of Interest: Financial Assistance to a Client in Connection with Pending or Contemplated Litigation

December 2, 2011

  1. Confidentiality of Information/Candor Toward the Tribunal

June 3, 2011

  1. Conflict of Interest
  2. Client Confidentiality

April 8, 2011

  1. Prospective Clients
  2. Reporting Professional Misconduct

December 3, 2010

  1. Candor Toward a Tribunal
  2. Confilict of Interest

October 8, 2010

  1. Duties to Prospective Client

August 1, 2010

  1. Candor Toward a Tribunal
  2. Confidentiality of Information: Release of Client's File

June 1, 2010

  1. Confidentiality of Information
  2. Conflict of Interest: Current Clients

September 4, 2009

  1. Confidentiality of Information: Former Clients File

October 22, 2008

  1. Conflict of Interest/Representation of a Minor
  2. Refunding "Unearned Fees"

August 20, 2008

  1. Conflict of Interest/Lawyer as Witness
  2. Protecting Interest of at Risk Client

June 26 2008

  1. Tape recording conversation.
  2. Communicating with adverse party.
  3. Confidentiality.

March 25, 2008

  1. Communicating with adverse party.

February 25, 2008

  1. Conflict-when lawyer may be called as a witness/lawyer's own interest
  2. Fee splitting/referral fees.

November 20, 2007

  1. Restriction on right to practice - non compete.
  2. Retention of files.

April 19, 2007

  1. Fee splitting/referral fees.
  2. Termination/withdrawal of representation.

February 5, 2007

  1. Conflict/successive representative.
  2. Adverse conduct/deceit.

November 6, 2006

  1. Client confidences/confidentiality
  2. Conflicts/screening of support staff
  3. Client confidences/confidentiality.

June 27, 2006

  1. Conflicts/office sharing.
  2. Communicating with adverse party/statutory service.

February 2, 2006

  1. Advertising fields of practice.
  2. Conflicts/former clients confidences
  3. Termination/withdrawal - failure to pay fee.

May 31, 2005

  1. Client provides false testimony on cross.
  2. Client shows signs of diminished capacity
  3. Legal assistant confronted with inadvertent disclosure.

April 22, 2005

  1. Conflicts/prospective clients.
  2. Client confidences/incapacity.
  3. Contact with witnesses.

February 3, 2005

  1. Returning "the file" - copying.
  2. Duty to report another lawyer.

*Disclaimer: The Informal Ethics Advisory Notes from Bar Counsel are intended as outreach by the office of Bar Counsel for the use and benefit of the Maine bar. These scenarios are drawn from actual telephone calls received by the attorneys in the office of Bar Counsel in the course of providing informal advice on the Code of Professional Responsibility, known as Bar Counsel's "Ethics Hotline." The particular advice in each case is limited with reference to the particular factual situation related by the inquiring attorney who must be inquiring about his or her own conduct or the conduct of a member of his or her firm. We do not provide any advice to one attorney about the conduct of another attorney unless they are members of the same law firm. In the telephone opinions, we usually explore and discuss additional factual variables. However, I have attempted to pare down these factual scenarios to make the email newsletter more readable and useful in a general sense. Obviously, that creates the risk that slight variations on the facts, to a learned reader, may give rise to a different analysis and conclusion.