Board of Professional Responsibility of the Supreme Court of Tennessee Ethics Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of legal ethics opinions issued by the Board of Professional Responsibility of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, with full citations and source links on every page.
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Does a Tennessee prosecutor's ethical duty to disclose favorable evidence to the defense go beyond the constitutional Brady obligation?
Formal Ethics Opinion 2017-F-163, since vacated by the Tennessee Supreme Court, concluded that a prosecutor's ethical duty under RPC 3.8(d) to disclose information favorable to the defense is separate…
What may a lawyer licensed in another state do in Tennessee while waiting to be admitted to the Tennessee bar?
Formal Ethics Opinion 2012-F-91(c), since vacated by the Board, concluded that a lawyer licensed elsewhere and applying for Tennessee admission by comity or examination generally may not commence law …
In Tennessee, must a lawyer who prepares a pleading for a pro se litigant disclose that involvement on the document?
Vacated. As originally issued, Formal Ethics Opinion 2007-F-153 concluded that a lawyer could prepare a single 'leading' pleading needed to toll a statute of limitations or other deadline for a pro se…
What may a Tennessee firm's out-of-state lawyer do while awaiting Tennessee admission, including non-court 'law business' like drafting documents?
Vacated. As originally issued, Formal Ethics Opinion 2002-F-91(b) updated the Board's guidance on employing lawyers admitted elsewhere while their Tennessee admission was pending: their names could ap…
Can a Tennessee firm employ a lawyer licensed in another state who is awaiting Tennessee admission, and list that lawyer on its letterhead?
Vacated. As originally issued, Formal Ethics Opinion 2002-F-91(a) concluded that a firm could employ a lawyer admitted elsewhere while the lawyer's Tennessee admission application was pending; the law…
Does a lawyer listing practice areas in an online directory have to include Tennessee's specialization-certification disclosures?
Vacated. As originally issued, Formal Ethics Opinion 2001-F-144(b) concluded that lawyers listing areas of practice on the Internet, including law directories and other public websites, had to comply …
What specialization-certification disclosures did a Tennessee lawyer advertisement have to include, and for which practice areas?
Vacated. As originally issued, Formal Ethics Opinion 2001-F-137(b) explained that under DR 2-101(C) a lawyer advertising a practice area had to include the precise certified, not-certified, or not-ava…
Did a lawyer who listed practice areas in an online directory have to include Tennessee's specialization-certification disclosures?
Vacated. As originally issued, Formal Ethics Opinion 99-F-144(a) (a December 1999 reissue of 99-F-144) concluded that lawyers listing areas of practice on the Internet, including law directories or ot…
Did a lawyer who listed practice areas in an online directory have to include Tennessee's specialization-certification disclosures?
Vacated. As originally issued, Formal Ethics Opinion 99-F-144 concluded that lawyers listing areas of practice on the Internet, including law directories or other public websites, had to comply with t…
After Tennessee added Estate Planning as a certifiable specialty, what specialization-certification disclosures did lawyer advertising have to include?
Vacated. Formal Ethics Opinion 95-F-137(a) reissued the specialization-advertising disclosure rules of 95-F-137 to reflect that the Supreme Court had made certification available in Estate Planning ef…
What specialization-certification disclosures did a Tennessee lawyer have to include when advertising a practice area, and for which areas?
Vacated. As originally issued, Formal Ethics Opinion 95-F-137 explained that under DR 2-101(C) a lawyer advertising any area of law had to include the precise certified, not-certified, or not-availabl…
What must a Tennessee lawyer do when the client has committed perjury during an ongoing court proceeding and refuses to recant?
Vacated and superseded. As originally issued, Formal Ethics Opinion 93-F-133 concluded that when a client commits perjury in an ongoing proceeding, the lawyer must ask the client to recant; if the cli…
Can an insurance company use its own salaried in-house lawyers to represent and defend the company's individual insureds?
Vacated. As originally issued, Formal Ethics Opinion 93-F-132 concluded it was improper for in-house attorney employees of an insurance company to represent individual insureds in matters arising unde…
Can lawyers participate in a for-profit lawyer referral service that is not operated or approved by a bar association?
Vacated. As originally issued, Formal Ethics Opinion 90-F-122 concluded that it is improper for lawyers to participate in the lawyer referral service promoted and operated by PITLA, U.S.A., Inc., a pr…
Could a Tennessee lawyer advertise using a phone number or address in a distant city without disclosing that the lawyer had no local office there?
Vacated. As originally issued, the opinion concluded that DR 2-101 was violated when a lawyer advertised in a city away from the lawyer's actual office, such as a Knoxville lawyer advertising in Chatt…
Does the reporting-immunity for lawyer-assistance committee members extend to volunteer participants, and to similar programs run by other Tennessee bar associations?
Vacated. As originally issued, the opinion expanded Formal Ethics Opinion 83-F-48's reporting immunity beyond officially elected Nashville Bar Association Alcohol and Drug Abuse Committee members to a…
Could a law firm avoid disqualification by screening a paralegal who had performed substantive work on pending matters for the opposing party's former counsel?
Vacated; overruled in part by Opinion 89-F-118. As originally issued, the opinion concluded that screening and isolation procedures could not avoid an attorney's ethical disqualification when the atto…
Could a city alderman, city judge, city attorney, city prosecutor, or county sheriff's-department lawyer, or their law partners, represent private clients in courts or matters where officers of their governmental employer were witnesses?
Vacated; set aside the next year by Opinion 86-F-107(a). As originally issued, the opinion adopted strict per se prohibitions: lawyers serving as city alderman, city judge, city attorney, city court p…
Could a Tennessee criminal defense lawyer secretly record a conversation with a witness or another party if one party to the conversation consented?
Vacated. As originally issued, the opinion rescinded Formal Ethics Opinion 81-F-14 (which had adopted ABA Formal Opinion 337's rule that secret recording is dishonest conduct under DR 1-102(A)(4)) to …
Could a Tennessee law firm mail brochures to clients and prospective clients without a request, and could lawyers or staff personally hand-deliver them?
Mail yes, hand-delivery no. The opinion, clarifying 83-F-49, concluded a firm could distribute or mail brochures to regular and prospective clients even without a request, provided DR 2-101(C) and DR …
Could a Tennessee law firm produce and distribute a brochure listing its practice areas and lawyer bios to clients and prospective clients on request?
Yes, with the disclaimer. The opinion concluded, under the rules as they stood in 1983, that a firm could produce and distribute a practice-areas brochure to regular or prospective clients on request,…
Are members of a bar association's lawyer-assistance committee excused from the duty to report ethical violations they learn about while helping an impaired attorney?
Vacated. As originally issued, the opinion concluded that officially elected members of the Nashville Bar Association's Alcohol and Drug Abuse Committee (Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers) were relieved o…
Can a Tennessee lawyer secretly tape record a discovery deposition for later voice stress analysis without telling the witness or opposing counsel?
No, as originally decided. Adopting ABA Formal Opinion 337, the opinion concluded that secretly recording conversations, including a deposition taped for undisclosed voice stress analysis, is unethica…
Can an attorney who is under contract to prosecute paternity cases for the state also accept court appointments to defend indigent putative fathers in other paternity cases?
Generally yes, with safeguards, as originally decided. The opinion concluded there is no inherent conflict of interest barring the arrangement per se, but Canon 5 required the attorney to explain the …
Can a lawyer represent an heir contesting a will when the lawyer and his secretary will be material witnesses on the testator's mental competence?
No, as originally decided. The opinion concluded that where an attorney had earlier determined, along with his secretary, that a client was not competent to make a will, and the client later executed …
If a lawyer who has been prosecuting personal injury cases joins a defense firm that is defending those same cases, is the new firm disqualified even if the lawyer takes no part in the cases?
Yes, as originally decided. The opinion concluded that when an attorney who had been prosecuting seven personal injury and workmen's compensation cases joined the defense firm handling those same case…
Browse Board of Professional Responsibility of the Supreme Court of Tennessee opinions by topic
Legal ethics opinions from the Board of Professional Responsibility of the Supreme Court of Tennessee 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.