Maintaining the Integrity of the Profession
Reporting misconduct
Rule 8.3 requires a lawyer who knows of another lawyer's violation raising a substantial question as to honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness to inform the appropriate professional authority. There is no duty for minor violations, and Rule 8.3(c) forbids disclosing information protected by Rule 1.6 without the client's consent - so a client's confidences cannot be reported. A lawyer also may not use the reporting process to gain litigation advantage.
Bar admission and misconduct
Rule 8.1 requires candor in bar admission and disciplinary matters: no false statements of material fact, no knowing failure to respond to a lawful demand, and no misuse of the process. Rule 8.4 defines misconduct: violating or attempting to violate a rule, knowingly assisting another to do so, committing a criminal act reflecting adversely on honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness, engaging in dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation, engaging in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice, knowingly assisting a judge or public officer in violating judicial rules, and conduct the lawyer knows or should know is harassment or discrimination on protected grounds.
Supervision
Rule 5.1 requires partners and managers to establish measures giving reasonable assurance of firm-wide conformity. Rule 5.3 requires lawyers to instruct and supervise nonlawyers and makes a lawyer responsible for a nonlawyer's conduct when she orders or ratifies it. Rule 5.2 makes clear a subordinate lawyer must follow the rules even when a supervisor directs otherwise.
Traps
Assuming the disciplinary system will catch misconduct without a report; assuming an impaired colleague must always be reported (impairment alone, without dishonesty, is generally handled through assistance programs); assuming Rule 8.4(c) requires that someone relied on the lie or suffered loss - it does not.
Worked example
A lawyer discovers a partner notarized a signature he did not witness, in order to close a deal. That raises a substantial question about honesty, so reporting is required if the lawyer can do so without revealing client confidences.