The Ethics of Bad Facts and Bad Law - Audio Webcast
October 2018
Wednesday, October 3, 2018
The Ethics of Bad Facts and Bad Law
Program Description
Every representation involves “bad” facts and/or “bad” law – facts and law that run counter to a client’s objectives. Ethical tensions and issues arise when a lawyer has to disclose bad facts or law to a court or administrative panel, or even to an adversary. At what point does the lawyer’s duty as a member of the bar and officer of the court require disclose even when it is adverse to a client’s interest whom the lawyer must zealously represent? What are the limits to how a lawyer may represent an adverse fact or adverse law, even unpublished law, to an adversary? Answering these difficulty questions may not only impact the outcome of a representation but potentially expose ethical sanction. This program will provide you with a practical guide to the ethical issues surrounding bad facts and bad law in client representations.
- Lawyer ethical duties to disclose bad facts and bad law
- Ethical issues surrounding the representation of adverse facts to tribunals and adversaries
- Duties to disclose adverse legal precedent to courts and administrative panels
- When is a lawyer required to disclose bad fact or law versus when they may disclose?
- Timing issues – at what stage should adverse facts and law be disclosed?
- Related issues of confidentiality and the attorney-client privilege
- Ex parte communications with the courts – what’s ethically permissible, what’s not?
Faculty:
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.
Elizabeth Treubert Simon is an ethics attorney in the Washington, D.C. office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, where she advises on a wide range of ethics and compliance-related matters to support Akin Gump’s offices worldwide. Previously, she practiced law in Washington DC and New York, focusing on business and commercial litigation and providing counsel to clients regarding professional ethics and attorney disciplinary procedures. She is a member of the New York State Bar Association Committee on Professional Discipline and the District of Columbia Legal Ethics Committee. She writes and speaks extensively on attorney ethics issues. She received her B.A. and M.S. from the University of Pennsylvania and her J.D. from Albany Law School.
Each program will run from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. M.T. (60 minutes each).
Registration Fees
| Non Member | $89.00 |
| CBA Member | $59.00 |
| CLEACCESSPASS | $0.00 |
| Non Member | $0.00 |
- General Credits: 1.00
- Ethics Credits: 1.00
- EDI Credits:
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