Annual Ethics Seminar: Confidentiality — Part VI

12 – 12:30 p.m. Lunch
12:30 – 2:45 p.m. Program 

1 hour ethics credit anticipated
1 hour professionalism credit anticipated

McGuireWoods invites you and your colleagues to attend Tom Spahn's annual ethics program. The first hour of this interactive program uses hypotheticals to explore lawyers' confidentiality and disclosure duties in the context of clients' intent to commit future misconduct.

Confidentiality: Part VI
Clients' Future Misconduct

• The difficulty of distinguishing between past and future misconduct
• Clients' intent to offer false testimony
• Advising on client conduct illegal under federal law but allowed under state law
• Applying the attorney-client privilege "crime-fraud exception”
• Clients' intent to commit future misconduct that will cause financial injury, bodily harm or death

In the second hour, Spahn will use hypotheticals to explore situations in which lawyers’ interests might conflict with their clients’ interests.

Professionalism Issues: Conflicts Between Lawyers and Their Clients (Part I)

• The applicability of ethics rules to lawyers’ non-legal activities
• Accepting gifts from clients
• Lawyers’ agreements to limit their practice in partnership agreements or in litigation settlements
• Limiting liability to clients
• Clients’ and non-clients’ claims against lawyers
• Lawyers’ other personal interests (e.g., public policy matter disagreements, sexual relationships with clients)

Presenter

Thomas E. Spahn, Partner, McGuireWoods LLP

Spahn has served on the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, and has spoken at more than 1,800 CLE programs on ethics and other topics. Tom was selected as the 2013 and 2020 metro-Washington, D.C., "Lawyer of the Year" for "Bet the Company Litigation" by Best Lawyers®.

For more information, contact Bridget Light at blight@mcguirewoods.com.