Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar Ethics Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of legal ethics opinions issued by the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar, with full citations and source links on every page.
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Can a settlement agreement require a Maine lawyer to keep all case information, including publicly available information, confidential?
A settlement agreement may require that the settlement terms and other non-public information stay confidential, but it may not require a lawyer to keep publicly available information confidential or …
When a former client files an ineffective-assistance claim, what may a Maine lawyer disclose, and to whom?
A former lawyer's duty of confidentiality survives the representation. An ineffective-assistance claim may waive privilege only to the extent of the claim, so the opinion's best practice is to make no…
What must a Maine law firm and a lateral hire do about conflicts, screening, and client files when an attorney changes firms?
The opinion walks through the lateral-move duties: limit conflicts disclosures to what Rule 1.6 allows, screen any disqualified lateral and give notice to affected former clients to avoid imputed disq…
Can a Maine lawyer donate old, inactive client files of historical significance to a library or archive?
Generally no. The duty of confidentiality under Rule 1.6 survives the death of both client and lawyer, so old files may be donated only after a document-by-document review confirms the material is not…
If a deceased client's personal representative waives the attorney-client privilege and asks for confidential information, must the lawyer disclose it?
Not automatically. The opinion concludes the lawyer cannot rely solely on the personal representative's waiver but must independently assess the confidentiality duty; if disclosure would harm the dece…
If a paralegal or secretary moves to a new firm carrying confidences from the old firm, can the new firm screen them instead of being disqualified?
Yes. The opinion concludes the imputed-disqualification rules apply only to lawyers, so a firm may screen a nonlawyer rather than be disqualified, by shielding them from the matter and barring disclos…
If a former-client conflict bars a lawyer from taking a case, can she still refer it out and share in the other lawyer's fee?
The opinion concluded no; a compensated referral is itself representation in the matter, so the same former-client conflict that bars the case bars sharing the referred lawyer's fee.
When may a lawyer who served on a state administrative agency board later represent clients before that board?
The opinion concluded the lawyer, and the lawyer's firm, are disqualified only from specific matters the board adjudicated on the merits during the lawyer's tenure, not from every party or matter that…
Must a real estate lawyer tell a new buyer-client that he once drafted the broker's standard purchase-and-sale form?
The opinion concluded no; the lawyer's past authorship of the broker's form and occasional unrelated advice to the broker were not connections he should reasonably have known would influence the clien…
Can a firm represent a wife in collecting child support from her ex-husband when the firm earlier drafted a will for the husband?
The opinion concluded the firm must disclose the prior relationship with the husband to the wife, and if the will work may have produced confidential information bearing on the support matter, the fir…
Does a lawyer who previously represented intervenors before the Public Utilities Commission have to be disqualified from serving as counsel to (or as) the Public Advocate in cases where those former clients are also intervenors?
The opinion concluded that Maine Bar Rule 3.7(i)(3) and (4), which bar a government lawyer from conducting a case 'against' a person he represents or has represented, did not disqualify Attorney A, be…
If a bank's collection lawyer later does unrelated deed work for the very person the bank once asked him to collect from, can he take a new collection case against that person for the bank?
The opinion concluded that the lawyer's later deed work created an ongoing attorney-client relationship with the debtor, so the new collection suit was against a present client, not a former one. The …
When a law firm has lobbied for one client, can it switch sides and lobby for an opposing interest group, and how broadly does the former-client conflict reach?
The opinion concluded that lobbying by a lawyer is the practice of law and is governed by the former-client conflict rule (Bar Rule 3.4(e)), but that the bar reaches only particular legislative matter…
Can a lawyer's firm sue a former client in a matter that may overlap with the firm's earlier representation of that client?
The opinion concluded that the Commission could not resolve, in an advisory opinion, the disputed factual question of whether the new suit shared subject matter with the firm's earlier representation …
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Legal ethics opinions from the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar interpret the rules of professional conduct for working lawyers, in response to inquiries from members and committees. They are not binding like court discipline decisions, but courts and discipline boards treat formal opinions as substantial guidance on how the rules apply. Every opinion above has a plain-English question and short answer, plus a link to the original source on the bar's site.