061120 NYEO, ETH 1195

• Case Date: June 11, 2020
• Court: New York

ETH 1195 Ethics Opinion 1195 New York Ethics Opinion New York State Bar Association Committee on Professional Ethics June 11, 2020          Topic: Attorney’s obligation to accept client files from prior law firm.          Digest: A lawyer has no duty to represent clients who were clients of a former law firm and have not engaged the lawyer to represent them at a new firm, no matter whether the lawyer did work on behalf of those clients at the former firm.          Rules: 1.6, 19, 116          FACTS          1. The inquirer recently left employment with a law firm in which the inquirer had practiced for some years. Several partners left the firm during the inquirer’s last two years at the firm. The inquirer took on a number of matters these lawyers had handled, and settled several of them. In one matter, the inquirer reached a compromise of a lien but then later discovered that another lien existed, at which point the inquirer wrote the client to advise of the outstanding lien and the client’s responsibility to pay the lien or negotiate a reduction. The inquirer left the law firm shortly thereafter and started a new firm. Several of the clients from the old firm retained this new firm.          2. Following the inquirer’s departure, the former firm began sending files for matters that the inquirer had handled before departure. The inquirer returned the files to the old firm with notice that the inquirer did not represent the affected clients. Nevertheless, the old firm resent the files to the inquirer and, we are told, advised those clients in writing that the inquirer was now handling their matters.          QUESTIONS          3. The inquirer asks:

(a) Is a lawyer who leaves a law firm responsible for representing clients represented by the inquirer at the prior firm but who have not retained the lawyer’s new firm?

(b) Is a lawyer who advised a client about lien prior to departure from a prior firm still responsible for advising the onetime client about the lien?

(c) Is it ethical for a law firm an employee of which has left the firm to advise firm clients that the former employee

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