Home > Rule Changes > amendments to Rule 1.11 of the Rules of Professional Conduct regarding special conflicts of interest
Proposed | amendments to Rule 1.11 of the Rules of Professional Conduct regarding special conflicts of interest (pending review by VSB Council)
VSB Standing Committee on Legal Ethics Seeks Public Comment on Proposed Amendments to Rule 1.11 of the Rules of Professional Conduct
view proposed rule (PDF)
Pursuant to Part Six: Section IV, Paragraph 10-2(C) of the Rules of the Supreme Court of Virginia, the Virginia State Bar’s Standing Committee on Legal Ethics (“Committee”) is seeking public comment on proposed amendments to Rule 1.11 of the Rules of Professional Conduct.
RULE 1.11
The amendment to Rule 1.11(d)(1) parallels the existing provision in paragraph (b)(1) and provides that a conflict created by a move from private to public employment can be cured with the consent of both the private client and the appropriate government agency. Currently, a lawyer may represent a private client in connection with a matter in which the lawyer participated personally and substantially as a public employee with the consent of the private client and the government agency, but the reverse conflict cannot be cured with consent from both affected clients. The Committee proposes to address this disparity by providing for waiver of the conflict in both situations.
Second, the proposed amendment moves the definition of “confidential government information” from paragraph (g) to section (c), which is the only place in the Rule where the term is used. The Committee also made minor grammatical changes to that definition. Finally, the proposal adopts ABA Model Rule Comment [3], to explain why paragraphs (b) and (d) are not limited to circumstances in which the lawyer would be adverse to a former client, but rather apply to any matter in which the lawyer was involved prior to her move to or from government employment.
Inspection and Comment
The proposed amendments may be inspected at the offices of the Virginia State Bar, 707 East Main Street, Suite 1500, Richmond, Virginia 23219-2800, between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Copies of the proposed amendments can be obtained from the offices of the Virginia State Bar by contacting the Office of Ethics Counsel at 804-775-0557, or can be found at the Virginia State Bar’s website.
(pending review by VSB Council)
Updated: August 9, 2012