Ethics Opinions
Iowa Supreme Court Board of Professional Ethics and Conduct
Date of Opinion:
03/15/2004
Opinion Number:
04-05
Title:
CONFLICTS: REPRESENTATION OF RESPONDENT IN A DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDING BY THE PARTNER OF A MEMBER OF THE ETHICS BOARD
Opinion:
The lawyer/respondent in a disciplinary proceeding has asked you to represent him in a complaint by the Iowa Supreme Court Board of Professional Ethics and Conduct to the Grievance Commission. Your partner served on the Board of Professional Ethics and Conduct.
Iowa Supreme Court Rule 35.2(2) provides in part:
“No member appointed to either the board of professional ethics and conduct or the grievance commission shall undertake to represent, in any state of the investigative or disciplinary proceedings, any lawyer against whom an ethical complaint has been filed.”
Although you are not a member of either the Board of Professional Ethics and Conduct, nor the Grievance Commission, your partner currently serves on the Board. DR 5-105(E) of the Iowa Code of Professional Responsibility for Lawyers provides:
“If a lawyer is required to decline employment or to withdraw from employment, no partner or associate of the lawyer or the lawyer’s firm may accept or continue such employment.”
Your partner, who serves on the Board of Professional Ethics and Conduct, could not accept employment to represent the respondent in a disciplinary proceeding and thus, neither can you.