Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility
Duties of the lawyer
Know the duties to the client (competence, diligence, confidentiality, loyalty, avoiding conflicts of interest), to the court (candor, no misleading), and to the profession (integrity, no unauthorized practice). Understand the rules on fees, trust accounts, and the prohibition on receiving a contingent fee in criminal matters.
Conflicts and confidentiality
A lawyer may not represent both sides of a dispute; a former client's confidences may bar a new representation. Trap: the duty of confidentiality survives the end of the relationship and even death.
Discipline
Know the disciplinary framework and the grounds for sanction: breach of professional rules, criminal conduct, and conduct unbecoming.
Worked example
A lawyer learns a former client's trade secret and is asked to represent a competitor. The conflict is disqualifying unless the new client can show no confidential information will be used and the former client consents.
Rule of thumb
For any ethics question: identify the duty (client, court, profession), whether it is breached, and the remedy (disqualification, discipline, fee forfeiture).