* Confidentiality and Inquiry Restrictions. All communications between ethics counsel and any lawyer requesting advice or opinion shall be confidential. Ethics counsel shall not disclose the content of any such discussion without the express written consent of the lawyer to whom ethics counsel provided such advice or opinion. No lawyer shall withhold consent if the lawyer is claiming, in the course of a disciplinary investigation or hearing, that the lawyer relied on the advice of ethics counsel.

Ethics counsel provides guidance to an inquiring lawyer regarding his or her own conduct as an attorney. Accordingly, ethics counsel will NOT render an informal opinion as to whether a) another lawyer has a conflict of interest; b) another lawyer’s conduct constitutes ethical misconduct; or c) the inquiring lawyer has a duty to report alleged ethical misconduct of another lawyer pursuant to Rule of Professional Conduct 8.3. Please note that Part 6, Section IV, Paragraph 10-5.D. of the Rules of the Supreme Court of Virginia provides that the “informal advice of ethics counsel shall not be used, admitted, introduced, argued or cited in any litigation or before any judicial or administrative tribunal for the purpose of seeking disqualification of a lawyer or law firm.”

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