COURSE 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 will discuss 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?
Speakers:
Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a substantial practice advising clients on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections. For more than 30 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 a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Legal Ethics Committee.