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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.

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.