Potential Clients: ABA Commission on Ethics 202/20 - New technology tools for client development

Prospective clients don't sit across the desk from you anymore. They don't even call. They might send email, or fill out a form on your website, or answer your targeted mailing, or post something on you Facebook page. The ABA Commission on ethics 20/20 has been studying the problem. After posting a draft for comment they now have proposed changes to RPC 1.18 Prospective Clients and 7.3 Direct Contact with Prospective Clients.  The ABA would now describe the subjects of RPC 7.3 as  "Potential Clients" - those who are the target of lawyers' active solicitations.

The complete proposed resolution and report are HERE

Proposed Resolution

RESOLVED: That the American Bar Association adopts the proposed

amendments to Model Rules 1.18 Prospective Clients, 7.2 Advertising , and 7.3 of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct as follows (insertions underlined, deletions in brackets):

Rule 1.18 Duties to Prospective Client

(a) A person who [discusses] communicates with a lawyer about the possibility of forming a client-lawyer relationship and has a reasonable expectation that the lawyer is willing to consider forming a client-lawyer relationship with respect to a matter is a prospective client.

(b) Even when no client-lawyer relationship ensues, a lawyer who has had [discussions with] learned information from a prospective client shall not use or reveal that information [learned in the consultation], except as Rule 1.9 would permit with respect to information of a former client.

For the report on the proposed amendments to the black letter and to the comments on Model Rules 1.18, 7.2 and 7.3 go to the link above. - GWC