Determining Whether Legal Advice to Violate the Law Is Ethical
This article was written by guest authors Jon Reidy, a Houston-based litigator; Michael J. Stephan, Law Clerk on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; and Guha Krishnamurthi, Law Clerk on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. They are all graduates of The University of Texas School of Law, class of 2010. It is a well-known maxim that a lawyer shall not advise his client to violate the law.[i] At the same time, the ground reality is that lawyers often tell their clients to engage in conduct that, at least technically, violates the law.[ii] These lawyers likely characterize such communication not as advising their clients to engage in illegal conduct, but rather as merely informing their clients as to the consequences of such…