New Jersey Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics Ethics Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of legal ethics opinions issued by the New Jersey Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics, with full citations and source links on every page.
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Can a New Jersey municipal counsel and a county (or county board) counsel of the same county share an office or form a partnership?
No. The opinion held that an association, partnership, or office-sharing arrangement between counsel for a municipality and counsel for the county (or a county board) in which that municipality sits i…
Can a municipal attorney who once advised the mayor about his legal fees defend the township when the former mayor later sues it?
No for the municipal attorney, who had advised the mayor and so has a conflict; but the township's special counsel, who was formerly the township's public defender and never had an attorney-client rel…
Can a municipal prosecutor represent the police department at a departmental disciplinary hearing of charges against a municipal police officer?
No. The opinion held it is a conflict of interest, and unethical, for a municipal prosecutor to prosecute departmental charges against a municipal police officer, because the prosecutor works with the…
If a law firm hires the former assistant municipal attorney who litigated a case for the town, can the firm keep representing the developer on the other side?
No. The opinion held the former assistant township attorney is disqualified under DR 9-101(B), that disqualification is imputed to his new firm, the conflict cannot be cured by firing him or by the to…
Can a nonprofit legal-services project practice under a trade name and list non-lawyer staff on its letterhead and business cards?
No trade name: under DR 2-102(B) the project may not practice under a fictitious trade name, and the responsible attorney must be identified. The opinion allowed a social-service specialist's name on …
After opposing the insured in a coverage declaratory-judgment action, can the insurance carrier's lawyer go back to defending that insured in the underlying negligence case?
Yes, on these facts. Because the declaratory-judgment coverage issue did not require resolving any facts relevant to the negligence suit, the opinion held the carrier's attorney may defend the neglige…
A municipal public defender shares an entrance, waiting room, and library with the town's municipal attorney; can he still privately defend clients in that municipal court?
Not the private client. The opinion held the public defender and municipal attorney are 'office associates' under R. 1:15 because of their shared entrance, waiting room, and library, so the municipal …
Can a firm that represents a public-employee union also provide discounted legal services to the union's individual members under a referral program?
Yes, if the plan is registered with the Supreme Court and the organization does not infringe the lawyer's independent judgment (the member is the client). But the opinion repeated, as a general practi…
Can a lawyer who regularly represents a town's police officers, including the complaining-witness officer, defend a DUI defendant in that town's municipal court?
No. The opinion held it improper, because the lawyer had represented five of the municipality's police officers, including the complaining-witness officer (most recently weeks earlier, with the bill s…
If a foreign attorney collects a contingent fee above New Jersey's limit, calling the excess 'nonlitigation services,' what must the New Jersey local counsel of record do?
The opinion held the over-limit contingent fee violates R. 1:21-7(c), DR 2-106(A), and DR 1-102(A), even though the client was a lawyer who knew the rule; the local attorney of record is responsible f…
Can a part-time municipal solicitor represent a developer operating in the municipality, or buyers and sellers of property there?
The opinion held the solicitor may not represent a developer operating in his municipality, even on unrelated property; he may handle an ordinary sale of a developed single-family house or of commerci…
Can a lawyer offer his corporate clients a prepaid group legal-services plan to provide legal services to their employees?
No. The opinion held the proposed plan violates DR 2-103(C) and DR 2-103(D)(4)(b), treating it as solicitation under Ohralik rather than protected advertising under Bates.
Does serving on a county's nonpaying advisory board bar a lawyer from criminal defense, appearing before county boards, or suing the county?
No. The opinion held that serving on a nonpaying, advisory county board with no binding authority does not prohibit the attorney from defending criminal matters, appearing before county boards or cour…
Can a law firm sue a municipality when one of its partners is the town's part-time municipal court judge?
No. Although no actual conflict existed and the rules did not forbid it, the opinion held the firm should not continue representing clients suing the municipality, because lay persons see the municipa…
Can a lawyer who once represented a client buying a property later foreclose the mortgage on it for a lender against that former client?
No. The opinion held it clearly improper for the attorney to foreclose for a lending institution against his former client, because suing a former client tends to impair the confidence essential to th…
Can a lawyer join a municipal planning board when a partner in the lawyer's firm is the board's attorney, if the lawyer recuses on the attorney's appointment and pay?
No. The opinion held it improper for an associate to accept appointment to a planning board for which his firm's partner is the board attorney; disqualifying himself from the attorney's appointment an…
If a firm's partners are the municipal attorney and the municipal prosecutor, does the wife of a third partner joining the zoning board create a conflict of interest for the firm?
No. The opinion found no conflict where the firm already recognized it could not appear before any municipal body, including the zoning board; and it declined to weigh whatever inference the public mi…
Can a former township attorney who drafted a zoning ordinance amendment and defended it in court later represent the property owner who opposed it, in a variance application against that same amendment?
No. The opinion concluded the former township attorney had substantial responsibility, as a public employee, in a matter so closely related to the variance application that representing the applicant …
Are New Jersey lawyers 'office associates' just because they have separate offices in the same building one of them owns, and does a past office-sharing relationship keep them associated after they fully separate?
No on both. The opinion held that lawyers in separate suites in the same building, with no shared facilities, are not office associates under the court rule, and that a prior office-associate relation…
Can a city law department attorney represent both the city and its city-subsidized municipal medical center in the same premium dispute with an insurer?
Yes. Because the city subsidized the medical center and made up its operating deficits, the opinion found their interests in fact identical and allowed the dual representation under the consent provis…
Does serving as legal advisor to a local police benevolent association prevent a lawyer from also being appointed attorney for the municipal board of education?
No. The opinion saw no inherent conflict in a local PBA's legal advisor also serving as municipal board of education attorney, while noting he would have to disqualify himself in particular situations…
After a real estate closing where all parties approved the closing statement, may the buyer's attorney stop payment on his trust check to the seller because the buyer later claims defects in the building?
No. The opinion concluded it is ethically improper to stop payment on the attorney's trust check to the seller once all parties have approved the closing and agreed the funds shall be paid; closing fu…
When a lawyer takes over a deceased attorney's files and wills, may he publish a newspaper notice telling the deceased attorney's clients how to reach him?
Yes. The opinion concluded that a lawyer who takes over a deceased attorney's files has an obligation to contact those clients so their matters are properly handled, and that the proposed newspaper no…
Can a Deputy Attorney General who had substantial involvement in a suit against the State join the law firm representing the plaintiffs while that suit is pending, if he is screened and the Attorney General consents?
No, not while the litigation is pending. The opinion concluded the Supreme Court's Notice to the Bar bars representing conflicting interests in a matter involving the public interest even with consent…
Can a former deputy attorney general who helped draft an agency's rules later represent a private client appealing or challenging those same rules?
No. The opinion concluded that because the lawyer, as a deputy attorney general, had substantial responsibility in drafting the agency's rules, DR 9-101(B) bars him from later representing a private a…
Can a law firm represent an ex-wife on a post-divorce motion when one of its partners once worked at the opposing firm, and the ex-wife once worked there as a legal secretary?
Yes. The opinion found no conflict for either firm, because the post-divorce motion was a new matter unrelated to the prior representations of the husband or wife and involved only facts arising after…
If a lawyer is appointed and paid by a municipality to defend its individual police officers in criminal matters, may he or his firm still appear before that municipality's other agencies for private clients?
Yes. The opinion concluded that because the appointed lawyer represents the individual police officers and not the municipality, like a municipal public defender, he and his firm may appear before mun…
May a municipal magistrate and the solicitor of the same town's type II board of education share office space, and may the magistrate's partner represent that board of education?
Yes. The opinion found nothing unethical per se in the office-sharing, and held that because a type II board of education is autonomous and not an agency of the municipality under the magistrate-confl…
Is there a conflict when a municipal prosecutor tries cases before a municipal court judge whose law partner is the prosecutor's brother?
No, not for the prosecutor. The opinion concluded this is not a conflict situation for the municipal prosecutor; whether the judge may sit is a question of judicial qualification governed by the statu…
Can an attorney who serves on a municipal environmental commission represent private clients before that municipality's planning board, board of adjustment, board of health, and municipal court?
Not both. The opinion concluded that an attorney must choose: serving the municipal environmental commission precludes him and his firm from appearing before the town's other bodies for private client…
Can one attorney represent both a husband-driver and his wife-passenger suing a third party for a crash, and also handle the estate of their child who died in the same accident?
The opinion concluded the wife need not have separate counsel, because the multiple-employment exception applies where adult clients give informed consent and the wife will not claim against her husba…
Can a township's municipal solicitor serve as defense counsel for people charged with motor vehicle offenses that occurred in his township, if the cases were transferred to a neighboring town's municipal court?
No. The opinion concluded there is a conflict of interest: it is unethical for a municipal solicitor, as the municipality's chief legal officer, to defend those accused of offenses that occurred withi…
Can an attorney who serves as a township committeeman represent a client suing the township's board of education when his wife is an elected member of that board?
No. The opinion concluded the proposed representation would be improper; neither the board of education's autonomy from the municipality nor the separate identity of the attorney's spouse cured the co…
Is there a conflict of interest if an assistant county prosecutor appears before a juvenile and domestic relations court where his mother is the chief clerk?
No. The opinion concluded that because the prosecutor handled only adult matters (child-support cases against absconding fathers) and not juvenile proceedings, his appearances before the court where h…
Can a law firm sue a person in an unrelated matter when a partner of the firm had earlier consulted with that person about a different, declined case?
Yes. The opinion concluded there was no conflict where the prior consultation involved a wholly unrelated malpractice matter the firm declined to take, and no confidential information from that consul…
Can an attorney serve as municipal prosecutor in a town where his law partner is the attorney for the zoning board of adjustment?
No. The opinion concluded it is improper for a municipal prosecutor to be the law partner of the zoning board of adjustment's attorney, because a municipal prosecutor is a municipal attorney, a statut…
Must a lawyer disclose to a welfare agency or prosecutor that a client on public assistance has an undisclosed asset or personal-injury claim?
Not on these facts. The opinion concluded the meager facts presented fell short of clearly establishing that the clients had perpetrated a fraud, so the rule requiring a lawyer to reveal a client's fr…
Can an attorney appear before a municipal planning board when one of the board's voting members is a current or former client?
Yes. The opinion concluded the attorney may ethically appear before the planning board even though a voting member is a present or past client; the responsibility falls on that board member not to sit…
Can a law firm represent defendants who were investigated or indicted while one of the firm's associates was working on the county prosecutor's staff?
No. The opinion concluded a firm may not represent defendants who were investigated or under indictment during the time an associate of the firm served on the county prosecutor's staff, even if that a…
Can a lawyer known as a PBA attorney represent an individual PBA member in a matter where another PBA member is expected to testify?
Only outside criminal-type matters. The supplement narrowed Opinion 320 so the bar reaches only criminal, quasi-criminal, and disciplinary matters in which another PBA member may testify, not civil ma…
Can an attorney appear before local boards and the municipal court when his father, as mayor, appoints those bodies and sits on the planning board?
Yes. The opinion concluded the attorney and his associates may appear before local boards whose members are appointed by his parent, because that relationship alone does not call for an inference of i…
Can a lawyer who handled an estate's administration then sue that estate, with the administrator he represented as the nominal defendant, to reach the decedent's insurance?
The opinion declined to approve it. Although the conflict might be more apparent than real where insurance covers the claim, the Committee was unwilling to hold the lawyer could accept the representat…
Can one attorney represent both an injured plaintiff and the plaintiff's own insurance carrier, which is subrogated for medical payments, in the same tort action?
Yes, with informed consent. The opinion concluded a lawyer may represent both the insured plaintiff and his subrogated carrier where the conditions of DR 5-105(C) are met, because their interests on t…
Can a lawyer accept appointment as assistant county counsel when his law partner is an elected member of the county board of freeholders that makes the appointment?
No. The opinion concluded it would be improper for the lawyer to accept appointment as assistant county counsel from the freeholder board on which his law partner serves as an elected member.
Can a lawyer who serves as a deputy surrogate act as a paid probate-law consultant to other attorneys, even if he does not appear in court or associate with them?
No. The opinion concluded that a court rule barring a deputy surrogate from practicing in any estate or trust matter prohibits him from acting as a probate consultant to other lawyers, because doing s…
Can a planning board's attorney advise the board on a matter in which he has a personal or financial interest if the board and the applicant both consent?
No. The opinion concluded that the consent that can cure a personal-interest conflict between private parties is unavailable where the required consent is that of a public body, so the attorney should…
Can a lawyer sue a former client in an unrelated case, and can a lawyer who currently represents a married couple later handle a divorce for one spouse?
Mixed. The opinion concluded the lawyer could sue a former client in an unrelated accident case where the prior representation had ended, but he could not, even with consent, turn from representing a …
Can a municipal attorney defend a town police officer at a probable-cause hearing in the same municipal court the attorney serves?
No. The opinion concluded the municipal attorney should not represent the police officer at the probable-cause hearing in his own municipal court; the officer has a statutory right to independent coun…
Can a lawyer who once drew reciprocal wills for a husband and wife later represent the husband in a divorce against the wife?
Yes, on these facts. The opinion concluded the lawyer could represent the husband in the divorce because all of his information for the wills came from the husband and the wife gave him none, so there…
Can a lawyer continue a private client's appeal from a municipal court conviction while he is also retained by that same township to defend it in civil litigation?
No. The opinion concluded it would be improper for the attorney to appear for the private client on the appeal while he simultaneously represents the township in litigation against it; moving the case…
Can a lawyer who drafted and witnessed a will charge a legal fee to appear before the surrogate's probate clerk to testify as a witness to that will?
No. The opinion concluded a lawyer is acting simply as a fact witness when testifying to a will before a surrogate or probate clerk, so no legal fee may be charged for that appearance; the matter fall…
Can a lawyer in a civil case threaten or help bring criminal charges, such as for perjury by the opposing side, to pressure a settlement?
No. The opinion concluded a lawyer must not, while the civil action is pending, threaten criminal action or participate in filing criminal charges to force a settlement; that conduct violates DR 7-105…
Can a board of education attorney serve as the board's labor negotiator with the teachers' union when his own wife is a full-time, non-tenure teacher employed by that board?
No. The opinion concluded it would be improper for the attorney to serve as the board's labor negotiator, because his wife's personal and financial interest in the negotiations could impair his judgme…
Does the rule barring a municipal judge from political activity also bar his law partners and associates, and is the judge's dual role as school board attorney an ethics question for the committee?
The opinion concluded the dual-office question was for the judiciary, not the ethics committee, and held that the rule barring a municipal judge from political activity does not automatically extend t…
Can a lawyer who is sued by a former client over his own apartment rent represent himself and his wife pro se, or must he hire independent counsel?
Yes, he may appear pro se. The opinion concluded that an attorney sued by a former client may represent himself and his wife in the action, because he has the same fundamental right to self-representa…
Can a lawyer who worked on a malpractice suit against a physician at his old firm later represent that physician in an unrelated divorce after moving to a new firm?
No. The opinion concluded it would be improper for the former associate and his present firm to represent the physician in the matrimonial action, because the physician's interests are hostile to the …
Can a lawyer's partners or associates represent a party to a real estate deal that earns the agency a commission when the lawyer's commission-paid wife works there but did not handle that deal?
Yes. The opinion concluded there was no conflict of interest where the attorney's wife, paid by commission, had no connection with the transaction and would receive no financial benefit from it, becau…
Can a law firm keep handling a case against the State after hiring the former deputy attorney general who had substantial responsibility for that same matter, if he works in a separate office?
No. The opinion concluded the firm could not continue to oppose the State, because the former deputy attorney general had substantial responsibility for the matter, his disqualification is imputed to …
Can a lawyer take collection suits referred by a commercial collection agency that handles the lawyer's retention and fees, where the agency is only the assignee of the creditors' claims?
Only on conditions. The opinion concluded that where the agency is merely the assignee, the creditor is the client, so the lawyer may be engaged only with the creditor's consent after full disclosure,…
Can a township's municipal attorney review and approve deeds and easements that a developer must deliver to the township as a condition of planning board subdivision approval?
Yes. The opinion concluded that a municipal attorney's review, revision, or preparation of a deed of easement to the municipality required by the planning board incident to subdivision approval is not…
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Legal ethics opinions from the New Jersey Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics 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.