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The Standing Committee on Legal Ethics was established to issue advisory opinions interpreting and applying the Rules of Professional Conduct. Published opinions are incorporated into an optional volume of the Code of Virginia and may also be found in issues of the Virginia Lawyer Register and on the Internet at the VaCLE website. The nine (9) committee members are appointed by the President of the Virginia State Bar and serve three-year terms. This committee meets regularly to review and consider formal requests for advisory opinions by members of the bar seeking guidance on legal ethics matters. Due to the high number of legal ethics opinions (LEOs) already published, the committee issues new opinions only if prior opinions are not dispositive of the inquiry, or if the committee believes a prior opinion needs reconsideration. If prior opinions address the inquiry, the Ethics Counsel and staff send an informal letter to the requesting party making reference to specific prior opinions that appear dispositive.
The Ethics Counsel and staff support the committee by conducting the necessary research and preparing initial draft opinions for discussion at meetings. Some requests involve controversial issues that require discussion over more than one meeting before a consensus can be reached. If an opinion needs the imprimatur of the Council and Supreme Court, the committee may request review and approval by those bodies.
The committee also serves as a clearing house for receiving comments on or proposals for amendments of the Rules of Professional Conduct. The committee may study a proposal to amend the Rules of Professional Conduct and make recommendations to the Executive Committee and Council regarding such a proposal.
The committee's work may include other specific assignments or requests in its area of general responsibility from the bar's officers, the Executive Committee or Council.
The full text of the LEOs beginning with LEO 1360 (1990) to the most recent opinions may be found by clicking on this link at the Virginia CLE Home Page. This site includes a search engine to research LEOs by topic and allows the user to look up an LEO by its number as well. Thomas E. Spahn, Esquire, of the law firm of McGuire, Woods, Battle & Boothe, LLP has undertaken a massive project to summarize all of the legal ethics opinions in a user-friendly database. Tom has organized these summaries under a list of eighty-six (86) different topics. Click here to access Tom's LEO Summaries. Thanks to Tom Spahn's tireless efforts, the bar now has an extremely useful resource on the Internet for researching legal ethics opinions.
Legal Ethics Opinions are written informal advisory opinions issued by the Standing Committee on Legal Ethics. A member of the bar may request a LEO by completing the "Legal Ethics Opinion Request Form," which is available for download from this Web site,* or you can contact Michelle Townsend at (804) 775-0557 or and arrange to have the form faxed or mailed to you.
Legal Ethics Opinions and Unauthorized Practice of Law Opinions are published in two separate unnumbered volumes of the Michie Code of Virginia (1991 and 1996 added volumes) and are supplemented annually with a pocket part. In addition, the opinions are published as they are issued in the Virginia Lawyer Register. The Geronimo Case Finder and Michie's Law on Disk also include the LEOs in their CD-ROM libraries. The Virginia LEOs are included in WestLaw's database. All information identifying the requesting party is redacted prior to publication and such information is kept confidential.
Any member of the bar can seek an informal ethics or UPL opinion over the telephone from one of the Legal Ethics staff attorneys by calling the Ethics Hotline: (804) 775-0564. Your inquiry and identity will be kept confidential. Due to the high volume of calls, you may get a voice mail message instead of a live person, however, the staff strives to return these calls promptly. The Legal Ethics Hot Line is a consultation service for lawyers and judges only. Members of the public who have inquiries about the conduct or ethics of an attorney may file an inquiry with the Virginia State Bar or contact the Complaint Line at (804) 775-0570. more information
LEOs are written based on a hypothetical set of facts presented by the requesting attorney and reflect the judgment of the committee. The opinions are not binding on any judicial or administrative tribunal. A legal ethics opinion applies ethics rules to a hypothetical set of facts and states whether the activity or conduct complies with or violates such ethics rules. The committee will not decide questions of law nor make any factual determinations. Also, the committee will not issue an opinion if a prior LEO is dispositive of the inquiry. Finally, the committee may decline to issue an opinion if the issue or question raised is the subject of collateral litigation or a pending bar complaint.
Downloadable Request Form for Legal Ethics Opinion: This form is in Adobe pdf format. You may need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print this document. Once you have downloaded and installed the Acrobat Reader, you can download the form and print or view it.
Request for Legal Ethics Opinion (13.5 K PDF file)
Virginia State Bar’s Standing Committee on Legal Ethics is seeking public comment on proposed advisory Legal Ethics Opinion 1843, Whether a Member of the Virginia State Bar Who Practices Patent Law Can be a Partner with a Non-Lawyer Patent Agent? (Comments due by April 14, 2008.) (228 K PDF file)
See Committee Roster for a current list of members of the Virginia State Bar’s Standing Committee on Legal Ethics.