2010-08.

• Case Date: November 16, 2010
• Court: Rhode Island

Rhode Island Ethics Opinions 2010. 2010-08. Rhode Island Supreme CourtEthics Advisory PanelOpinion No. 2010-08Issued November 16, 2010FACTS The inquiring attorney is a former lawyer for the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (andquot;DEMandquot;). While employed by the DEM, he/she participated in the DEM's investigation of and enforcement and legal proceedings against the parties who owned and the parties who operated a gasoline station on certain land that was contaminated by underground storage tanks. The inquiring attorney left the DEM in 2007 and is now in private practice. He/she is asking the Panel whether he/she may now represent a buyer of the same land. The inquiring attorney represented the DEM in administrative enforcement proceedings, in a Superior Court action, and in bankruptcy actions. The matters related to the DEM's efforts to identify the source of and persons responsible for gasoline contamination on the property, to compel the owners and operators to clean up the contamination on and emanating from the property, and to reimburse the DEM for cleanup costs that it incurred as part of its emergency response to the contamination. During the pendency of the proceedings, the owners of the contaminated property abandoned the property in bankruptcy. The property was subsequently sold at a tax sale. The DEM has not pursued clean-up on the property with the current owner. The inquiring attorney's prospective client will buy the property from the new owner. The inquiring attorney informs the Panel that the prospective buyer of the land will be required by Rhode Island's brownfield statute to present the DEM with a planned project for the property and will work with DEM on a plan for clean-up of residual contamination to the extent necessary for the project. The inquiring attorney proposes to represent the buyer in the purchase of the property as well as in negotiating and securing agreements with the DEM relating to the buyer's project and remediation. The inquiring attorney provided the Panel with additional facts which are set forth in the Panel's discussion that follows. ISSUE PRESENTED Having participated in the DEM's investigation of and enforcement and legal proceedings against the parties who owned and the parties who operated a gasoline station on certain contaminated land, the inquiring attorney asks whether he/she may now represent a prospective buyer of the same land. OPINION It is not a conflict of interest under Rule 1.11 for a former DEM lawyer who participated in the...