ABA-414
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| A lawyer planning to leave a firm has an ethical obligation to inform the pertinent clients in a timely manner, but must comply with applicable restrictions on solicitation; any notice before the lawyer leaves the firm should be "limited to clients whose active matters the lawyer has direct professional responsibility at the time of the notice; should "not urge the client to sever its relationship with the firm, but may indicate the lawyer's willingness and ability to continue her responsibility for the matters upon which she currently is working," and should emphasize that the client may choose to stay with the firm or hire the withdrawing lawyer;" despite implications to the contrary in earlier informal opinions [1457 and 1466], "we reject any implication . . . that the notices to current clients and discussions as a matter of ethics must await departure from the firm;" the departing lawyer "must ensure that her new law firm would have no disqualifying conflicts of interest" preventing the new firm from representing the client; although it would be best for the firm and the departing lawyer to provide joint notice to the clients, the firm's failure to cooperate entitles the departing lawyer to send a separate notice; legal rules govern a departing lawyer's actions before the firm receives notice of the departure; "the departing lawyer may avoid charges of engaging in unfair competition and appropriation of trade secrets if she does not use any client lists or other proprietary information in advising clients of her new association, but uses instead only publicly available information and what she personally knows about the clients' matters"; citing the case of Graubard Mollen v. Moskovitz, 653 N.E.2d 1179 (N.Y. 1995) and providing helpful guidance on a departing lawyer's fiduciary duties, including the fact that "informing firm clients with whom the departing lawyer has a prior professional relationship about his impending withdrawal and reminding them of their right to retain counsel of their choice is permissible"; a withdrawing lawyer generally may retain documents the lawyer prepared or which are in the public domain, although "principles of property law and trade secret law" govern these issues; a lawyer "does not violate any Model Rule in notifying the current clients of her impending departure by in-person or live telephone contact before advising the firm of her intentions to resign, so long as the lawyer also advises the client of the client's right to choose counsel and does not disparage her law firm or engage in conduct that involves dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation. After her departure, she also may send written notice of her new affiliation to any firm clients regardless of whether she has a family or prior professional relationship with them."). |