Virginia State Bar Ethics Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of legal ethics opinions issued by the Virginia State Bar, with full citations and source links on every page.
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Can a furloughed government lawyer keep defending the agency against other employees' furlough appeals while also challenging his own furlough?
No, not on furlough matters if he intends to challenge his own furlough; that personal-interest conflict cannot be waived. He may handle unrelated agency work with the agency's informed consent, and m…
Can a Virginia lawyer run a virtual law office or use a rented executive office suite as a firm location?
Yes. A lawyer may use a virtual office or shared executive suite, but must protect confidentiality when using cloud and third-party vendors, supervise remote lawyers and staff, and not list a shared o…
What must a Virginia lawyer do with settlement funds when a third party such as a medical provider or insurer claims a lien on them?
The lawyer must safeguard funds a third party is actually entitled to (by statute, lien, court order, or a client-signed assignment) and cannot unilaterally release disputed funds to the client. A mer…
When a former client files a habeas petition claiming ineffective assistance, can the defense lawyer give confidential information to the government before any hearing?
Generally no. The self-defense exception in Rule 1.6(b)(2) does not authorize disclosing confidences when the petition is filed, before the court rules on its legal and procedural sufficiency, because…
What ethical duties does a Virginia lawyer have when outsourcing legal or support work to lawyers or nonlawyers outside the firm, including overseas providers?
A lawyer may outsource work to a lawyer or nonlawyer outside the firm if the lawyer supervises the work for competence and to avoid aiding unauthorized practice, protects client confidences, bills app…
Is it an ethics violation for a Virginia lawyer to have a sexual relationship with a current client during the representation?
Virginia has no rule that flatly bans it, but the committee concludes a lawyer should refrain, because a sexual relationship begun during the representation risks violating the rules on competence, in…
Can a guardian ad litem for a child disclose what the child told them, against the child's wishes, to investigate and report suspected abuse?
Yes. A guardian ad litem is bound by Rule 1.6 confidentiality except where the GAL's special duties conflict; the committee concludes the GAL must independently investigate abuse allegations and may d…
Does a lawyer owe a duty of confidentiality, and risk disqualification, when a would-be client sends details through the firm's website or leaves them on voicemail?
It depends on whether the lawyer invited the information. Unsolicited details left on a voicemail or sent to a posted email address create no duty of confidentiality, but a website that invites submis…
When a city attorney represents the city as an organization, does the lawyer owe confidentiality to individual officials like the mayor or council members, and can separate office lawyers be screened from each other?
The city attorney's client is the city, not its individual constituents, so information from one official generally need not be kept from another and may have to be shared to keep the city informed. T…
Can a corporation's in-house lawyer do legal work for a commonly-owned sister corporation, and can the employer charge the sister company for it?
Yes, with consent and safeguards. In-house counsel may represent a sister corporation directly and independently with the employer's consent, preserving each client's confidences; the employer may rec…
Does a Virginia lawyer owe a duty of confidentiality to a prospective client who shared information only with the lawyer's secretary, and may the lawyer still represent the opposing party?
Yes, the duty applies. The opinion concludes information a prospective client gives a lawyer's secretary is protected under Rule 1.6, and the lawyer may continue to represent the opposing party only b…
Can a Virginia lawyer keep a client's file in electronic-only form, destroy the paper originals with the client's consent, and require electronic-only files as a condition of representation?
Generally yes. The opinion concludes the Rules do not dictate the form of a client file, so a lawyer may keep electronic-only files, destroy paper with the client's consent, and even condition represe…
Can a Virginia lawyer disclose a former client's file to a third party because a private agreement seems to require it?
No. The opinion concludes a contract is not 'law' under Rule 1.6(b)(1)'s disclosure exception, so a lawyer holding a former client's confidential file may not turn it over based on a private agreement…
When a client hands a lawyer documents taken from an employer without authorization, must the lawyer return them, notify the other side, and can the lawyer use the information?
The opinion concludes there is no single answer; the lawyer's duties turn on the documents' nature, how the client got them, whether they contain privileged material, and whether other law or a court …
If a Virginia firm hires the secretary or paralegal from opposing counsel's firm, must it withdraw from the shared case?
No. The opinion concludes the conflict rules (Rules 1.7 and 1.9) apply only to lawyers, so hiring opposing counsel's non-lawyer staff does not automatically disqualify the hiring firm; the firm may st…
Can a Virginia lawyer garnish a former client's unearned fees sitting in the new lawyer's trust account to collect unpaid fees?
The opinion concludes it is not a per se ethics violation to garnish a former client's advanced (unearned) fees held in successor counsel's trust account to collect a fee judgment, because those funds…
Does a Virginia lawyer owe confidentiality after an initial consultation, and can a spouse 'taint shop' to disqualify every divorce lawyer?
The opinion concludes the duty of confidentiality under Rule 1.6 attaches to an initial consultation even when no attorney-client relationship forms and no fee is paid, so a lawyer who received the wi…
Can a lawyer contract with an unrepresented expert witness to keep work-product confidential and to alert the lawyer before responding to a subpoena for it?
The opinion concludes that a lawyer who properly discloses work product to a retained expert may, under Rule 5.3, take reasonable measures to ensure the expert protects that confidentiality, including…
Must (or may) a lawyer tell the bankruptcy court that a former client failed to disclose an inheritance, when the lawyer learned of it only after the representation ended?
The opinion concludes the lawyer is neither required nor permitted to disclose. Rule 3.3's duty to correct false evidence is not triggered because the nondisclosure and the lawyer's discovery both occ…
When legal aid lawyers move to a different legal aid office, may the old office share confidential client information so the lawyers can run conflicts checks?
The opinion concludes yes. Confidential information from intake and representation is imputed to the lawyers who moved, regardless of whether they remember it or formed an attorney-client relationship…
Can a lawyer interview a former employee of an opposing corporation ex parte, and can the lawyer ask about that employee's privileged communications with the company's counsel?
Yes as to the contact, no as to privileged communications. The opinion concludes Rule 4.2 (with Comment 4) lets a lawyer contact an unrepresented former employee of an opposing corporation, but Rule 4…
Can a law firm hire a lawyer through a nonlawyer staffing agency, and how do conflicts, confidentiality, fee-sharing, disclosure, and billing apply?
Yes. The opinion concluded a firm may retain a temporary lawyer through a nonlawyer staffing agency, treating the temp like a lawyer moving between firms: conflicts and imputed disqualification turn o…
Can a lawyer place closed client files in a university archive and let researchers have limited access to them?
Only with client consent or after confirming the files hold no confidences or secrets. The opinion concluded that the duty of confidentiality survives the matter and even the client's death, so a lawy…
When a lawyer asks another lawyer for advice through a bar consultation network, what confidentiality and conflict duties arise between the two lawyers?
The consulting lawyer must get client consent before revealing confidences or secrets, the consulted lawyer must keep the consultation confidential even though no attorney-client relationship forms, a…
Must a lawyer report another lawyer's trust-account misconduct learned during a case when the client orders him not to disclose it?
The committee concluded that although trust-account misconduct is generally a per se reportable violation, the duty to report does not apply here because the information was the client's protected 'se…
When a corporation's lawyer prepares a board member for deposition and the member reveals he caused the harm, must the lawyer warn him to get his own counsel and keep what he said confidential?
The committee concluded that the lawyer had to advise the former board president, an unrepresented person whose interests conflicted with the condominium, to seek independent counsel; could not contin…
Can a firm represent a client suing one division of a bank while another lawyer at the firm represents a different division of the same bank, even with everyone's consent?
The committee concluded that simultaneously representing a borrower against one bank division while representing another division of the same bank was improper, because the two divisions are part of o…
Can a former government lawyer who worked on an early version of an agency rule later represent a private party challenging the final rule?
On reconsideration of clarified facts, the committee concluded the lawyer's substantial responsibility ended when the agency adopted a later draft he had no part in, so representing a private party ch…
Does a lawyer's duty to protect a client's confidences end when the client dies?
The committee concluded that the duty to protect a client's secrets and confidences survives the client's death, so a lawyer may not reveal a deceased client's confidences unless he reasonably believe…
Can a lawyer who is joining the bench sell a collection practice, including its forms and systems, to another lawyer?
The committee concluded that selling a law practice as a going business or selling work in progress is improper, but selling the physical assets (forms, manuals, automated systems) is permissible only…
Must a local government attorney reveal or report a false closed-meeting certification under the Freedom of Information Act?
The committee concluded that, absent a statute requiring disclosure, the government attorney's revelation of a client's fraud under DR 4-101(C)(3) is permissive and must be tempered by the heightened …
If a lawyer learns in discovery that opposing counsel advanced money to a client against a settlement, must the lawyer report it, and does a protective order excuse the duty?
The committee concluded that advancing money to a client (not for litigation expenses) violated DR 5-103(B), the unprivileged knowledge of it raised a substantial question of fitness so it had to be r…
If a co-counsel learns the trial lawyer told the client to lie on the stand, must he report it to the court and to the lawyer's other bar?
The committee concluded that if the client committed perjury, the trial lawyer was bound by the fraud-on-a-tribunal disclosure rule, and that the co-counsel who learned of the misconduct had a duty un…
Must a Virginia lawyer report another lawyer's crime when there is no showing that the crime affected that lawyer's ability to practice law?
The committee concluded that knowing of a crime that does not raise a substantial question about the other lawyer's fitness to practice does not trigger the duty to report under DR 1-103(A); moral cul…
What can a former in-house lawyer do after learning the company issued a prospectus with false financial information, given the duty of confidentiality to that former client?
The committee concluded that DR 4-101(C)(3) permitted the lawyer to reveal the former client's fraud on third parties related to the representation, and that DR 4-101(D)(1) required the lawyer to advi…
Must a prosecutor report lawyers who admitted, sometimes under immunity, to using or possessing cocaine, when that admission says nothing else about their practice?
The committee concluded that a lawyer's admission to using or possessing cocaine while licensed violated DR 1-102(A)(3) and raised a substantial question as to fitness, so under the facts presented th…
Must a lawyer who thinks a client is mentally disabled seek a guardian, and must the lawyer tell the client about a confidential affidavit?
The committee concluded that a lawyer who believes her client is mentally disabled is not obligated to petition for a committee or personal representative, though she may if she deems it in the client…
After a firm breaks up, can a former partner take a matter adverse to a client the other partner handled, when the matter is closely related?
The committee concluded that a former partner may not represent the decedent's family against a client whose related hit-and-run matter the other partner had handled, because partnership imputes the f…
Is it ethical to run a program that refers less experienced lawyers to experienced lawyers for guidance on their clients' matters?
The committee concluded that a lawyer-to-lawyer program, in which less experienced attorneys are referred to attorneys experienced in particular areas to assure adequate legal service to the less expe…
Must a lawyer report another attorney's misconduct to the bar when the lawyer learned of it from a client in confidence and the client refuses to consent to disclosure?
The committee concluded it is improper to report another attorney's unethical conduct to the bar when the information was obtained from a client in confidence and the client refuses to consent to the …
If a lawyer defending another attorney in a bar disciplinary proceeding learns the client misrepresented material facts to the committee, must the lawyer disclose it, and may the lawyer withdraw?
The committee concluded it is improper for the lawyer to fail to disclose the client's misrepresentation of material facts to the committee, and it is not improper to withdraw from the representation …
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Legal ethics opinions from the Virginia State 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.