How can an attorney possibly deprive his client of a critical fact he needs to know when deciding how to wage his defense? Yet it happens.

So imagine this excruciating scenario. You’re a criminal lawyer retained as local counsel (LoC) to represent a defendant on an extremely difficult charge – say, murder. Extremely experienced, you recognize, quiet as it is kept, that oftentimes, particularly in the state court system, off-the-record conversations among participants in a proceeding are the lubricant that facilitates the quest for justice. And the participants recognize the often-critical importance of maintaining the confidentiality of these conversations. Still, the importance of lawyers maintaining confidentiality can often go just so far.