BarbriSFCourseDetails
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Course Details

Course Information
  • smart_display Format

    Live Online with Live Q&A

  • signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level

    Intermediate

  • work Practice Area

    Ethics

Date & Time
  • event Date

    Wednesday, April 30, 2025

  • schedule Time

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

  • timer Program Length

    90 minutes

Credit Information

  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.

  • An excellent opportunity to earn Ethics CLE credits. Note: BARBRI cannot guarantee that this course will be approved for ethics credits in all states. To confirm, please contact our CLE department at pdservice@barbri.com.

$197.00

This CLE webinar will guide both litigators and transactional attorneys in distinguishing between a prohibited representation that is directly adverse to concurrent, joint or former clients, disclosures, waivers and a permitted representation. The program will review scenarios where conflicts are relatively straightforward but focus on those situations where determining the existence of a material adverse interest is difficult. The panel will also discuss the propriety--and effectiveness--of attempting to navigate, create or reconcile "direct adverse interests" through disclosure, consent and/or adequate waivers, and when that might not be possible.

Faculty

Lefkowitz David
Shareholder
The Lefkowitz Firm LLC, LLC

Mr. Lefkowitz represents individuals and companies (corporations, LLCs, PCs, etc.) in their claims for legal malpractice (legal negligence) and similar claims such as breach of fiduciary duty; trustee misconduct; executor misconduct and ethical misconduct by attorneys and other fiduciaries. He also represents attorneys and law firms with regard to risk management, law firm dissolutions and attorney’s fee disputes.

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Krauss Geri
Shareholder
Krauss PLLC, PLLC

Ms. Krauss is a respected litigator and recognized expert on complex issues relating to professional partnerships. She counsels lawyers in disputes involving partners, employees and their firms, as well as negotiates and litigates such disputes. She often speaks and authors on lateral hiring and wrote Partner Departures and Lateral Moves: A Legal and Ethical Guide (ABA 2009).

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Parker Port
Shareholder
Parker Taylor Law Group APC, APC

Mr. Parker has more than 25 years of experience in innumerable areas of law. He specializes in complex civil, tort, and probate litigation, with an emphasis on matters involving trusts and estates, corporate, professional malpractice, and breach of fiduciary duty (including legal, accountancy, trustee, and real estate). Mr. Parker has also successfully litigated cases involving franchise, partnership, insurance, business and property disputes, as well as employment and securities-related matters.

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Description

Because individual State Rules of Professional Conduct and the Model Rules of Professional Conduct prohibit an attorney (and any other attorneys within the firm) from representing a client that is "directly adverse to another client on the same or substantially related matter," attorneys must understand just how far the requirement of "directly adverse" extends.

Answering this crucial question depends entirely on the nature and circumstances of the different representations. The adverseness must be legal and not merely economic, but the lines can be blurred.

Clients may try to restrict an attorney from representing competitors or define "client" so broadly that a lawyer must forego a host of potential future clients.

Listen as our expert panel guides counsel through the issues related to conflicts of interest that can arise from the attorney’s  responsibilities to concurrent or joint clients, former clients, and even prospective clients, as well as best practices or strategies to attempt to mitigate risk and comply with the applicable Rules.

Outline

  1. Relevant rules and how to identify a conflict
  2. Potential conflicts of interest rules and conflict resolution
  3. Lateral moves
  4. Potential adversity with concurrent, joint or former clients, and what disclosures and potential waivers need to sought
  5. Potential personal conflicts of interest
  6. Over extensive outside counsel guidelines
  7. Hot potato rule

Benefits

The panel will discuss these and other key issues:

  • How do you identify potential conflicts and navigate those?
  • What are the requisite disclosures that need to be made when a conflict is identified?
  • What potential conflicts can arise when representing concurrent or joint clients, and when do you have to advise joint clients those potential conflicts preclude further potential joint representation?
  • When do an attorney's relationships create a potential conflict requiring disclosure to the client and informed consent?
  • Is attacking a attorney’s prior work, or cross-examining a former client a material adverse representation?
  • Can an attorney voice opposition or adversely advocate on a social or community issue that even partially relates to representation of a former client?
  • Can or should an attorney represent a client with whom the attorney disagrees on a public issue? Can a lawyer advocate a position in one case contrary to the one advocated previously?