Ethics and Dishonest Clients

course

COURSE INFO

  • Available Until 5/31/2021
  • Next Class Time 1:00 PM ET
  • Duration 60 min.
  • Format MP3 Download
  • Ethics Credits 1 hour(s)


Course Price: $79.00
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COURSE DESCRIPTION

One of the dangers of practicing law is that, now and again, you have a dishonest client.  Your client may be misleading you – and others – about the facts of their case, either through silence or affirmative misstatements. Or they may be telling you one thing and other people something else.  You may discover proof of the dishonesty or just suspect it. Client dishonesty raises many ethical issues.  What must you do to ensure your client is telling you the truth?  What if you discover a client is lying to a court or tribunal?  Are you allowed to disclose the dishonesty despite the duty of client confidentiality?  Are there degrees of client dishonesty – some acceptable, others not?  This program will provide you with a guide to the substantial ethical issues when client dishonesty is discovered or suspected. 

  • Tension between the duty of confidentiality and the duty to be honest in communications
  • Determining whether a client is lying – active v. passive, fact v. opinion, affirmative statements v. silence
  • Unknowing attorney representations to others on basis of client dishonesty
  • Duties of disclosure and to whom – the tribunal, third parties?
  • Mandatory and permissive withdrawals from a case, including “noisy” withdrawals
  • Ethical issues when dishonesty is discovered in closed matters

Speakers:

Brian S. Faughnan is special counsel in the Memphis office of Lewis Thomason, PC, where he represents clients in a wide variety of matters at the trial level and on appeal.  He counsels lawyers and law firms on a wide variety of issues surrounding legal ethics and professional responsibility. He is the chair of the Tennessee Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, a reporter for the committee’s rules revision project, a member of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers, and a member of the Media Law Resource Center’s Ethics Committee. Mr. Faughnan received his B.A. from Rhodes College and his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Memphis School of Law.

 William Freivogel is the principal of Freivogel Ethics Consulting and is an independent consultant to law firms on ethics and risk management.  He was a trial lawyer for 22 years and has practiced in the areas of legal ethics and lawyer malpractice for more than 25 years.  He is chair of the Editorial Board of the ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct. He maintains the Web site “Freivogel on Conflicts” at www.freivogelonconflicts.com.  Mr. Freivogel is a graduate of the University of Illinois (Champaign), where he received his B.S. and LL.B.