1.05. Sources of law for regulating professional conduct

Throughout the course we will be drawing on a number of sources of law to establish and define the scope of your professional obligations.  These will either be cited in the text or will be included in the readings:

• Rules of Professional Conduct:  Discussed above.  These are the rules, either the model rules adopted by the American Bar Association or the rules adopted by each state.
• Case law:  Cases will inform a number of the professional responsibility obligations we study.  The cases may be either an appeal from disciplinary action or a case discussing a substantive claim (such as malpractice).
• Ethics opinions:  Every state has a bar association and every bar association issues ethics opinions to attorneys that give advice and interpretations of the state’s ethical rules.  In addition, the ABA issues ethics opinions interpreting its rules.  These opinions are very persuasive to state ethics committees.  We will look at a number of ethics opinions (from both the states and the ABA) throughout the semester.  An interesting question is the role of ethics opinions.  Are they precedent that a lawyer can rely on if a complaint is filed against the lawyer?  Perhaps surprisingly – the answer is: it depends.  In most jurisdictions, good faith compliance with an ethics opinion is evidence that will be considered in a disciplinary proceeding but does not bar the proceeding.  In a minority of states, the ethics opinion is binding on the disciplinary authority and constitutes a complete defense to an ethics complaint.
• Restatement:  The Restatement (Third) of the Law Governing Lawyers is a treatise that was adopted by the American Law Institute.  It was drafted by legal academics and practitioners.  It is a statement of the law either as it generally is across the United States or as the members of the Institute think the law should be.