Saturday, May 8, 2010

Can a lawyer disclose confidential information to reply to media reports about the lawyer?

Suppose a former client, for whatever reason, disseminates unfair or inaccurate descriptions about the lawyer and the lawyer's representation of the client. Assume the inaccurate information is publicized by the media. Can the lawyer disclose confidential information in order to respond to the former client’s unfair comments? Is that disclosure allowed as an exception to the duty of confidentiality or is the so-called "self defense" exception to the rule limited to cases where the disclosure is needed to defend against an actual "proceeding" against the lawyer?

That question is the subject of an interesting debate over at the Legal Ethics Forum blog (here).

No comments:

Post a Comment