1814
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| A criminal defense lawyer may directly or through an agent engage in legal undisclosed recording of a telephone call with an unrepresented witness whom the lawyer worries might change his story and implicate the lawyer's client. Because such tape recording involves "a higher risk of the unrepresented party misunderstanding the lawyer or the lawyer's agent's role," the lawyer or the agent "must assure that the unrepresented third party is aware of the lawyer or agent's role" in order to comply with the Rule 4.3 provision governing a lawyer's communication with an unrepresented person. Although many states previously found a lawyer's participation even in lawful tape recording of telephone calls to be unethical, "more recently a number of states have reversed or significantly revised their opinions to allow undisclosed recording" (describing many of those states' approaches in a footnote). [overruling LEO 1217 and LEO 1438 to the extent they are inconsistent with LEO 1814]. |