LEO: Conflict of Interest - County Attorney -  LE Op. 1128

 

Conflict of Interest - County Attorney - Multiple Representation:

Commission Attorney Representing Plaintiff Against Defendant,

Member of Commission.

 

October 14, 1988

 

You have advised that a newly appointed member of the County Planning

Commission is the defendant in a lawsuit in which the county attorney

represents the plaintiff. The county attorney is also the attorney for the

Planning Commission. The lawsuit against the newly appointed member

concerns a matter unrelated to his membership on the Planning Commission.

 

You wish to know whether the county attorney may continue to represent

the plaintiff in the lawsuit wherein the newly appointed member of the

Planning Commission is the defendant, while continuing to represent the

Planning Commission.

 

Disciplinary Rule 5-105(B) states: "A lawyer shall not continue multiple

employment if the exercise of his independent professional judgment on

behalf of a client will be or is likely to be adversely affected by his

representation of another client, except to the extent permitted under

DR:5-105(C)." Disciplinary Rule 5-105(C) permits a lawyer to represent

multiple clients "if it is obvious that he can adequately represent the

interest of each and if each consents to the representation after full

disclosure of the possible effect of such representation on the exercise

of his independent professional judgment on behalf of each."

 

Whether or not the individual members of the Planning Commission are the "

clients" of the county attorney, as opposed to the Planning Commission as

a whole, is a legal question which this Committee has no authority to

answer. If the individual members are the clients of the attorney, then,

in the situation you described, the county attorney would violate DR:5-

105(B) by continuing multiple representation, unless the attorney could

comply with all of the requirements of DR:5-105(C). If the Planning

Commission as a whole is the only client of the county attorney, the

county attorney would have to determine whether continued multiple

employment would adversely affect the exercise of his independent

professional judgment under DR:5-105(B). If the county attorney

concludes that his professional judgment is likely to be adversely

affected under these circumstances then he would have to comply with DR:

5-105(C) in order to continue multiple representation.

 

Committee Opinion October 14, 1988

 

CROSS REFERENCES

 

See also LE Op. 1393.