Professional Documents
Culture Documents
[Law] Firm
Problem Areas in Legal Ethics
2015-2016
Negligence of clerks in
a law firm
Time and again the Court has admonished law firms to
adopt a system of distributing pleadings and
notices, whereby lawyers working therein receive
promptly notices and pleadings intended for them, so
that they will always be informed of the status of their
cases.
Their Court has also often repeated that the negligence
of clerks which adversely affect the cases handled by
lawyers, is binding upon the latter. - B.R. Sebastian
Enterprises, Inc. v. CA, G.R. No. L-41862 [1992]
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Ethical obligations of
departing lawyers
In addition to the ethical obligations departing lawyers
have, they also must avoid interfering with the
contracts the firm has with existing clients.
However, the caution to avoid stealing clients must be
balanced against the departing lawyers ethical
obligation to notify clients that an attorney is
departing.
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Phones
It is ethically inappropriate to have the receptionist tell
callers who are looking for a lawyer who recently left the
firm we dont know where he is. That game is not
professional and not acceptable.
Assure that all staff are instructed to provide the departed
lawyers phone number and mailing address.
Also, assign a partner to answer any client inquiries.
Moreover, mail should be forwarded to the departed
lawyer.
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