Outside Counsel Guidelines: Their Use And Tension With The Ethical Rules

Today, outside counsel guidelines are the norm, yet there are many questions about them that have not been answered and some simply highlight the ethical tension between the guidelines and the Rules of Professional Conduct. This program will address some of these questions and more:

• Do you review outside counsel guidelines to identify deviations from your firm’s engagement policies? 
• Are there potential risk for firms accepting guidelines without fully understanding their terms and then failing to comply with those guidelines? 
• Do outside counsel guidelines have the same binding effect as traditional attorney-client engagement letters? 
• Who is the “client” as defined in the outside counsel guideline? 
• Are respective team members working on a particular matter educated about the specifics of the client guidelines? 
• Does the guideline require that you get consent to represent a competitor? 
• When will advance waivers be effective?
• Can one client audit lead to breach of another client’s confidentiality? 
• What does the guidelines say about billing, cybersecurity, conflict of interest and diversity?