Saturday, June 11, 2016

New York State Bar ethics opinion addresses ethics issues when a lawyer copies a client with communications to opposing counsel

A recent New York State Bar Association Ethics Opinion (available here) addresses whether a lawyer must obtain the consent of opposing counsel before he or she can blind copy the client on correspondence to opposing counsel. The opinion concludes that "[a] lawyer may blind copy a client on e-mail correspondence with opposing counsel, despite the objection of opposing counsel.  Because a lawyer is the agent of the client, sending such a blind copy is not deceptive.  However, there are practical reasons why the lawyer should consider forwarding the e-mail correspondence to the client rather than using “bcc”." 

Lawyer Ethics Alerts Blog has more information here.

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