Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility: Confidentiality, Conflicts, and Supervision
Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility tests the rules that govern lawyers and, by extension, the nonlawyer staff who work under them. CLE Entrance Exam questions are practical: a document arrives, a client calls, a subpoena is served, a fee is deposited. The right answer is usually the one that keeps the decision with the lawyer and the client informed. Know the rule numbers, the exceptions, and who holds each right.
Confidentiality versus privilege
Confidentiality under Rule 1.6 is broader than attorney-client privilege. It covers all information relating to the representation, survives the end of the relationship and the client's death, and may be disclosed only with informed consent or under narrow exceptions such as preventing reasonably certain death or substantial bodily harm, complying with law or a court order, or defending against a claim. Privilege is an evidentiary shield held by the client, asserted by the lawyer, and defeated by the crime-fraud exception.
Conflicts of interest
Concurrent conflicts (Rule 1.7) require informed consent confirmed in writing when the lawyer can competently and diligently represent each client. Former-client conflicts (Rule 1.9) bar use of confidential information to the former client's disadvantage in a substantially related matter. Conflicts are imputed across a firm (Rule 1.10), and duties to prospective clients arise at the first consultation (Rule 1.18).
Candor, money, and supervision
Rule 3.3 requires candor to the tribunal; Rule 4.2 restricts contact with a represented person. Client funds go in trust, never commingled, with advances held separately from earned fees. Nonlawyers may not give legal advice, set fees, or accept cases (Rule 5.5); the supervising lawyer is responsible for their conduct (Rule 5.3).
Worked example
A subpoena for the client's file is served on a paralegal at the firm. Correct handling: notify the supervising attorney immediately, do not disclose anything, and let the attorney assert the client's privilege, move to quash, or seek a protective order. Where partial production is ordered, the attorney prepares a privilege log. The paralegal's duty is to preserve and escalate, not to decide.
Traps that cost marks
Treating confidentiality and privilege as synonyms, assuming the lawyer holds the privilege, and believing a paralegal may screen a conflict or advise a client to speed things along.