ABC NY Affirms Prior Opinion Allowing Lawyers to Opine on Medical Marijuana Law
1.31.2020
JD Supra mentioned NYSBA’s NYSBA’s Committee on Professional Ethics Opinion 1024
States have struggled with advising lawyers admitted to their bars as to whether and to what extent they can advise their clients on cannabis-related issues knowing that federal law still forbids the possession, distribution, sale, or use of marijuana. The concern is that under the Rule of Professional Conduct 1.2(d) “A lawyer shall not counsel a client to engage, or assist a client, in conduct that the lawyer knows is illegal or fraudulent except that the lawyer may discuss the legal consequences of any proposed course of contact with a client.”