A recent ethics opinion from the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, Formal Opinion 494 (Opinion 494) examines the meaning and scope of personal interest conflicts specifically in connection with lawyers’ relationships with opposing counsel, a hitherto often overlooked component of Rule of Professional Conduct (RPC) 1.7. In this article we will discuss the principal conclusions in the opinion, and the lessons it holds for New York lawyers.

Personal relationships are addressed in Comment [11] to ABA Model Rule 1.7. New York addresses the issue in RPC 1.10 (h) which states that [a] lawyer related to another lawyer as parent, child, sibling or spouse shall not represent in any matter a client whose interests differ from those of another party to the matter who the lawyer knows is represented by the other lawyer unless the client consents to the representation after full disclosure and the lawyer concludes that the lawyer can adequately represent the interests of the client.

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]