COURSE DESCRIPTION
Ethical tensions are perhaps never as great as when a lawyer is in dispute with a client. The dispute may arise over fees, communication, perceived conflicts of interest, or something else. In these and other circumstances, the lawyer’s duties of loyalty, zealous representation and confidentiality are all brought into direct conflict with the lawyer’s interest in self-defense. In these extremely delicate circumstances, the lawyer must determine what information may disclosed in his or her self-defense, its impact on the attorney-client privilege, and what steps he or she can take to de-escalate the conflict. This program will provide you with a real-world guide to the ethical issues for a lawyer when he or she is in conflict with a client.
- Disputes involving lawyers’ fees, communications, unfavorable result of representation, conflicts of interest, malpractice claims
- Confidentiality and self-defense – what disclosure of confidences is permissible?
- Waivers and engagement letters to prevent dispute – or mitigate their damage
- Permissible and mandatory withdrawals from a representation
- Special attorney-client privilege issues in these disputes
Speakers:
Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a substantial practice advising clients on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections. For more than 30 years he has lectured extensively on legal ethics and professionalism and has written “The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner’s Guide,” a 750 page treatise published by the Virginia Law Foundation. Mr. Spahn has served as a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Legal Ethics Committee. He received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Yale University and his J.D. from Yale Law School.
Elizabeth Treubert Simon is an ethics attorney in the Washington, D.C. office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, where she advises on a wide range of ethics and compliance-related matters to support Akin Gump’s offices worldwide. Previously, her practice focused on business and commercial litigation and providing counsel to clients regarding professional ethics and attorney disciplinary procedures. She is a member of the New York State Bar Association Committee on Professional Discipline and the District of Columbia Rules of Professional Conduct Rules Review Committee. She is the immediate past chair of the District of Columbia Legal Ethics Committee. She writes and speaks extensively on attorney ethics issues. She received her B.A. and M.S. from the University of Pennsylvania and her J.D. from Albany Law School.