Ethics Opinions
Iowa Supreme Court Board of Professional Ethics and Conduct
Date of Opinion:
03/07/2002
Opinion Number:
01-07
Title:
CONFLICT: LAWYER/ABSTRACTOR
Opinion:
You ask if there is a conflict of interest for an attorney to represent the seller of real estate if the attorney prepares the abstract of title to that real estate.
Prior ethics opinions, and particularly Opinion 98-22, recognized that Iowa lawyers provide abstracting services in either of two ways. Some lawyers prepare abstracts as a part of their law practice. A lawyer who prepares abstracts as a part of his or her law practice does so subject to the Iowa Code of Professional Responsibility for Lawyers including those provisions with respect to confidentiality, conflicts, fees and advertising.
An Iowa lawyer can also own and operate an abstract office separate and apart from his or her law practice. If the abstract office is operated separate and distinct from the law practice, DR 2-102(E) of the Iowa Code of Professional Responsibility for Lawyers applies. DR 2-102(E) states:
“A lawyer who is engaged both in the practice of law and another profession or business shall not so indicate on the lawyer’s letterhead, office sign, or professional card, nor shall the lawyer be identified as a lawyer in any publication in connection with the lawyer’s other profession or business.”
In the normal real estate transaction it is the seller’s obligation to provide the buyer with an abstract of title certified to date. Thus, the lawyer-abstractor would represent the seller in the preparation of the abstract. There would be no conflict of interest in the lawyer’s concurrent representation of the seller in the real estate transaction generally, as the lawyer’s client, both as to preparation of the abstract and the sale, is in each instance, the seller.
A question remains as to the lawyer-abstractor’s obligation to the buyer for errors or omissions in the preparation of the abstract. That, however, is a legal question.