Government lawyers who is the client

Privacy Copyright. Skip to main content Washington University Law Review. Select an issue: All Issues Vol. Digital Commons. Recent corporate scandals put a new focus on the duties of a lawyer representing a company when wrongdoing occurs. As amended, Model Rule 1. This change would raise additional conflicts issues. Nearly as problematic is an alternative proposal that would require the lawyer to withdraw and the corporation but not the lawyer to disclose the withdrawal.

Lawyers representing corporations must take care in determining who is actually the client. Lawyers also must remain alert to changed circumstances that alter their representational obligations. Insurance liability claims occur so frequently that one would think all the underlying legal and ethics issues involved in defending them would have been resolved long ago. Here is a typical scenario: Blue car and red car collide. Driver of blue car sues driver of red car.

Most often, the defense lawyer takes direction from the insurance company and settles the lawsuit to the mutual satisfaction of the insurance company and its insured driver.

Nevertheless, courts and scholars continue to grapple with a most fundamental question: Whom does the defense lawyer actually represent? Is it only the driver or is it also the insurance company? Most insurance defense lawyers warn against tinkering with practices that seem to have worked well for decades. In counterpoint, ethics scholars question whether such long-standing practices square fully with modern ethical rules.

And they are reluctant to fashion special rules that would distinguish insurance companies from other third-party payors. Only when the legal status of the relationship has been defined do ethics issues crystallize. There is general agreement on one aspect of the relationship: The insured is a client of the lawyer.

But at this point the road divides. Most decisions, however, have found that, absent a conflict of interest, the lawyer ordinarily represents both the insured and the insurance company.

Jurisdictions that have adopted the single-client view must wrestle with a number of related questions. If, for example, the insurance company is not a client of the lawyer:.

And regardless of whether the jurisdiction recognizes the insurance company as a client, insurance defense lawyers should inform insureds about the relationship in accordance with Rule 1. Under subparagraph 1. From the moment the insurance company asks the lawyer to defend a lawsuit, the lawyer has to consider ethical obligations and to whom they are owed.

Michael E. In the 20 years I worked for the federal government, I never really figured out who my client was. In fact, more than one current government lawyer has faced potential investigation under those rules in the last four months. Law professors filed a misconduct complaint against Kellyanne Conway under the Washington, D. As a former Justice Department lawyer, I have been thinking about the relationship between my old job and my new one.

In practice, I sought advice from mentors and took cues from supervisors; as a law professor, I remind my students to begin with formal legal rules. For those lawyers who are representing the U. For practicing government lawyers, Rule 1. Rule 1. For those lawyers, Rule 1. The corporate lawyer must raise the flag up the chain of command to the very top, and to shareholders if necessary, to curb the negative effect on the organization. Even if that means disclosing confidential attorney-client information.

Today, all 50 states and the District of Columbia have adopted some version of Rule 1. Some may ask whether that duty of loyalty to organization is different for government lawyers.