MORE ON PRIVILEGE

ABA Board OKs Changes in Ethics Rules Prompted by Corporate Scandals (The Associated Press, Aug. 11, 2003)

Lawyers who learn that a client is cooking the books or looting a company's till could snitch to authorities with a clear conscience under changes to lawyers' ethical rules approved narrowly Monday by the American Bar Association's policy-making board.

The board voted 218-201 to loosen restrictions on when lawyers can reveal suspected fraud by a client. The changes are a departure from the organization's traditional refusal to place society's concern over financial crimes above a lawyer's duty to keep client confidences.

The ABA rejected nearly identical changes two years ago, before revelations about alleged boardroom fraud and accounting flimflams at Enron, Tyco, WorldCom and other companies. Then as now, debate was emotional over what opponents saw as a dimming of lawyers' fundamental mission to be trustworthy confidants and represent those who need help the most.

The middle paragraph contains a surprisingly forthright acknowledgment that the ethics rules are traditionally meant to serve the profession rather than society. In the last, the idea that criminals rather than victims are "those who need help the most" is ridiculous. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 12, 2003 12:09 PM