The Legal Ethics of Crisis Lawyering

This program will analyze the special ethics issues lawyers confront when dealing with crises in their practice and emergency situations. It will focus on some of the lawyer experiences recounted in Crisis Lawyering: Effective Legal Advocacy in Crisis Situations (Ray Brescia & Eric K. Stern, eds., NYU Press 2021), including those of lawyers dealing with the early efforts to address the travel ban in the first Trump Administration, lawyers representing detainees in the U.S. prison on Guantánamo Bay, lawyering on Election Day, those who have had clients sought by government officials because of their clients’ immigration status, and lawyers working to combat climate change. It will address the ethical constraints under which lawyers operate in such situations, but also strategies for working effectively and zealously within them and engaging in advance planning for them.

Topics to be addressed include:

• Defining the Crisis [10 Minutes]
  • Differentiating between a client crisis and a lawyer crisis
  • Goal setting in a crisis: Rules 1.2 (allocation of authority between client and lawyer) and Rule 1.4 (communication with clients)
• Developing Situational Awareness/Understanding the Crisis [10 Minutes]
  • Rule 1.6 (duty of confidentiality)
  • Working with other professionals and disciplines
• Attorney Competence in Crisis Situations [10 Minutes]
  • Rule of Professional Conduct 1.1 (competence)
  • Rule 1.16 (withdrawing as counsel)
• Zealous Advocacy within the Bounds of the Law [15 Minutes]
  • Rule 3.1 (meritorious claims and defenses)
  • Rule 3.3 (candor to the tribunal)
  • Rule 4.2 (communicating with represented parties)
• Duty of Supervision in Emergency Situations [10 Minutes]
  • Rule 5.1 (supervisor obligations)
  • Rule 5.2 (subordinate lawyer obligations)
• Crisis-Proofing Your Practice: Developing “Crisis Competence” [5 Minutes]
  • Rule 1.1 (competence)

Who Should Attend: Lawyers concerned with the special ethical issues lawyers face in dealing with crisis situations and acute client emergencies.

Program Level: Overview

Prerequisites: None

Advanced Preparation: None

Faculty:

Raymond H. Brescia

Associate Dean for Research & Intellectual Life and the Hon. Harold R. Tyler Chair in Law & Technology

Albany Law School

Author of Crisis Lawyering: Effective Legal Advocacy in Emergency Situations (NYU Press 2021)