The Ethics of Bad Facts and Bad Law

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Description

Every lawyer wrestles with how to handle facts or law that is unfavorable to a client. There is a natural tension between a lawyer's duty to be honest, on the one hand, and the lawyer's duty to provide zealous representation of a client. In some instances, bad facts or bad law must be disclosed. In other instances, disclosure is not required. How this tension is resolved involves substantial ethical issues.

This program discusses the ethics issues involved and how they may be resolved in a practical setting.

Ethical issues surrounding the representation of adverse facts to tribunals and adversaries
Disclosure of adverse legal precedents
Required discloses of bad facts or law
Timing issues – when must the disclosure occur?
Related issues of confidentiality and the attorney-client privilege
Ex parte communications with the courts – what's ethically permissible, what's not?

Contributors

Thomas E. Spahn

Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a broad complex commercial, business and securities litigation practice. He also has a substantial practice advising businesses on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections. For more than 20 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 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

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Thank you

Description

Contributors

Thomas E. Spahn