Ethics Opinion 270

下级澳门赌场官网离职后是否必须提醒委托人并报告上级澳门赌场官网的不当行为

Where a subordinate lawyer learns that an employing lawyer has sent a client what purports to be copies of correspondence written on the client’s behalf, 但信在哪里, in fact, never sent, the subordinate lawyer has a duty to assure that the client is informed of the deception and to report the employing lawyer to disciplinary authorities. 在下级澳门赌场官网得知欺诈行为后辞职后，这些职责仍将继续.

Applicable Rules

• Rule 1.4 (Communication)
• Rule 1.16(拒绝或终止代表)
• Rule 5.2(下属澳门赌场官网职责)
• Rule 8.3(举报专业失当行为)
• Rule 8.4 (Misconduct)

Inquiry

Inquirer, a lawyer, 通过临时职业介绍所受雇为某一特定事项的个体执业者工作. 在询问者工作的头几天里, the employing lawyer informed her that his client in the matter had recently insisted that he write an aggressive letter to a third party, 尽管澳门赌场官网劝告说寄这样一封信是不谨慎的. 用人澳门赌场官网进一步告知询问者，过去委托人提出此类要求时, 他的做法是起草一封满足客户意愿的信，但不寄给收件人. Instead, the employing lawyer sent a copy of the letter to the client to make it appear to the client that the letter had been sent to the addressee. The employing lawyer did not explain when these events had taken place and did not ask inquirer to draft a fictitious letter.

询问者告诉雇佣澳门赌场官网，她对这种做法感到不舒服, 在她工作的第一周结束时，她退出了这件事，辞去了这个临时职位. Some weeks later inquirer informed the employing lawyer that she believed that he had committed a serious violation of the 职业行为准则, 并要求告知客户欺诈行为. 作为这些谈话的结果, the employing lawyer informed the client of the falsity of the prior letters and withdrew from representation of the client.

询问者提出了两个问题:1)离开公司后, 询问者是否有责任确保委托人知晓雇佣澳门赌场官网的虚假陈述? 2)离职后，询问者是否有义务向纪律部门报告违规行为? 我们认为，这两个问题的答案都是肯定的.

Discussion

雇佣澳门赌场官网的行为破坏了澳门赌场官网与委托人关系的核心. A client must be able to trust a lawyer and be confident that the lawyer is sharing relevant information and dealing forthrightly and honestly with the client. Deceiving the client about the lawyer’s own actions in the matter destroys this fundamental aspect of the lawyer-client relationship.

根据规则8，不诚实和欺骗是职业上的不当行为.4(c). Rule 1.此外，它还规定了澳门赌场官网与委托人诚实沟通的义务.¹ 它要求澳门赌场官网让客户“合理地了解事情的进展”.” In this case, the failure to keep the client informed took the form of deliberately misleading the client about the lawyer’s actions in the case.

Lawyers sometimes have clients who are obstreperous or demand that the lawyer take actions that are inconsistent with the lawyer’s best judgment. 有一些公认的方法来应对这些客户所面临的困难, 但是，肯定地引导委托人相信澳门赌场官网采取了他实际上没有采取的行动并不在其中. 很容易想象，如果客户收到了一封来自澳门赌场官网的虚假信件，可能会受到怎样的伤害. 但即使没有具体的伤害发生, sending a fictitious letter to the client so damages the professional relationship as to require condemnation of the lawyer’s conduct.

1. 向客户披露

Had inquirer remained in the employ of the offending lawyer and continued to represent the client beyond the mere week she did, she would have had an obligation to assure that the client was represented consistent with the 职业行为准则, 包括第1条规定的公开诚实沟通的义务.4.² 表述的真实性要求是规则1的一部分.4 obligation would have required her to take action to see to it that no further fictitious letters be sent and that the client be informed about the fictitious letters sent in the past.

Inquirer, however, 不再代表客户, 我们必须确定告知的责任, if any, 她退出时欠了委托人的钱. Usually, 退出代理将终止与客户的关系, 只留下有限的剩余义务, 例如保护客户的机密和避免某些冲突. See Rules 1.6(f) and 1.9. 通信义务不在这些剩余义务之列. Inquirer did, however, 在撤诉时是否有责任“在切实可行的范围内及时采取措施以保护客户的利益”, . . .” Rule 1.16(d). 在本案的特殊情况下, 我们相信，其中一个及时和切实可行的步骤是确保客户被告知欺诈行为. The brevity of the representation by inquirer left little time to fulfill the duty to notify the client of the misrepresentation during the course of inquirer’s participation in the representation. The only way to remedy the wrongdoing and prevent disadvantage to the client was to act promptly to assure that the client became aware of the deception.

我们承认规则1.16(d)似乎意在处理澳门赌场官网或整个事务所终止代理客户的常见情况, 在同一案件中，两个或两个以上的澳门赌场官网中有一人回避的情况除外. Nevertheless, both the language and what we discern as the underlying purpose of the rule—to assure that the client is not disadvantaged by the lawyer’s departure—apply equally in both instances. 规则评论[10]指出，即使澳门赌场官网被委托人不公平解雇, 澳门赌场官网仍然必须采取“一切合理措施减轻后果”.” Surely, then, 因另一澳门赌场官网的不当行为而离职的澳门赌场官网也有类似的义务予以减轻. 这里的缓解意味着确保客户了解虚构信件的真相.

但是，询问者应根据规则1履行其义务.16(d)以对现有澳门赌场官网-委托人关系破坏性最小的方式. Here, inquirer acted appropriately by approaching the employing lawyer and securing his commitment to disclose his acts to the client. If the employing lawyer had refused to inform the client or raised substantial doubt in inquirer’s mind whether he would do so, 询问者有责任直接通知客户.

2. 向纪律当局报告的义务

The next question is whether inquirer has any additional obligation to report the employing lawyer’s misconduct to Bar Counsel. Rule 8.3 requires reporting of violations of the 职业行为准则 “that raise a substantial question as to that lawyer’s honesty, 值得信赖或适合做澳门赌场官网 . . .” In Opinion 246, we adopted the four-part test adopted by other jurisdictions for determining whether this standard is met: (l) whether the reporting lawyer has knowledge of the violation; (2) whether reporting can be accomplished without disclosure of client confidences or secrets; (3) whether the violation involves a disciplinary rule; and (4) whether the violation raises a substantial question as to honesty, 可信赖或适合从事法律工作.

在这种情况下，所有四个元素都满足. The first element—whether a lawyer has “actual knowledge” of a violation—turns on two factors: a “clear belief” that misconduct occurred and “actual knowledge of the pertinent facts.” Opinion 246. 毫无疑问，询问者清楚地相信发生了不当行为. The fact that inquirer left the temporary placement after just a week because of her discomfort with the employing lawyer’s conduct confirms that she believed the employing lawyer had in fact engaged in serious wrongdoing.

We also conclude that inquirer had “actual knowledge” of the violation through the admissions the employing lawyer made directly to her. One might argue that inquirer did not have “actual knowledge” in the sense of witnessing firsthand the behavior of the employing lawyer whom she would be reporting. 她没有看到那些信，也不知道信是什么时候写给谁的，也不知道信上说了些什么. 但我们不解释规则8中“实际知识”的要求.(三)要求直接观察构成侵权的基本事实. 规则8的目的之一.三是要求澳门赌场官网在受害者无法发现的情况下报告不当行为. Rule 8.第3条并不要求澳门赌场官网报告所有关于不法行为的预感. 但它也不应该要求澳门赌场官网进行独立调查. The frank and unambiguous admission by the employing lawyer that he had sent multiple fictitious letters to this client in connection with this litigation is sufficient.

测试的其余要素很容易满足. 很明显，下级澳门赌场官网可以在不泄露客户机密的情况下举报违规行为. 这里唯一的“秘密”是雇佣澳门赌场官网欺骗了委托人. 第三和第四次测试, 涉及违反纪律规则，影响澳门赌场官网诚信的, trustworthiness, 或者适合练习, are also clearly met. 雇佣澳门赌场官网同意将虚假信件通知委托人并不改变这一结论, 因为违规行为涉及故意对客户撒谎的严重罪行. 因此询问者必须向澳门赌场官网公会澳门赌场官网报告雇用澳门赌场官网.

Conclusion

In Opinion 246, 我们认识到，判断另一位澳门赌场官网的行为是否会对该澳门赌场官网的诚实提出实质性问题, 诚信或健康是一项“庄严而不令人羡慕的任务”.” Here, 询问者对严重不当行为的了解不仅要求作出这样的判断, 但对她征收了额外的关税.

Inquiry No. 96-3-9
通过:1997年3月19日

1. 澳门赌场官网对重要事实不作虚假陈述的义务也适用于第三方. See Rule 4.1.
2. Rule 5.2约束下属澳门赌场官网即使在另一名澳门赌场官网的指导下也必须遵守本规则.