All opinions of the Committee on Professional Ethics are available online here. To locate a specific opinion or opinions, enter the opinion number or keyword in the appropriate search box below. Licensed attorneys may also call 877-953-5535 for access to opinions
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Canon:
Opinion #: 599
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committee For the State Bar of Texas
Date: July 2010
Under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, may a lawyer who serves as bail bondsman for his client in a criminal prosecution add to the court’s form of bond a provision in which the client agrees that, if the client fails to appear in court, the attorney is authorized to enter a “no contest” plea that will result in a fine and may result in the issuance of a warrant for the client’s arrest?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 598
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committee For the State Bar of Texas
Date: July 2010
May a law firm continue to represent a client in a suit after the firm hires a lawyer who had previously represented the adverse party in another matter?
STATEMENT OF FACTS
Prior to seeking employment as an associate with a law firm, a lawyer personally represented a person (“Former Client”) in several breach of contract suits. The law firm currently represents a client who is suing Former Client in a breach of contract action. The matter involved in the current lawsuit is not the same as the matters in which the lawyer being considered for employment had represented Former Client. If the lawyer is hired by the law firm, the law firm proposes to screen the new associate from all matters involving Former Client.
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Canon:
Opinion #: 597
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committee For the State Bar of Texas
Date: May 2010
Under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, may a Texas lawyer practice law as a partner or shareholder in a Texas office of a law firm that includes partners or shareholders who are licensed to practice law only in jurisdictions other than Texas and who work principally in offices of the law firm outside of Texas but who from time to time perform legal services in the law firm’s Texas office?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 596
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committee For the State Bar of Texas
Date: April 2010
Is it permissible under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct for a lawyer to accept an assignment of the proceeds of an insurance policy in payment of legal fees and expenses?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 595
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committee For the State Bar of Texas
Date: February 2010
Under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, may a lawyer use, for the lawyer’s benefit, information in the public record about a former client that the lawyer acquired during the course of representing the former client?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 594
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committee For the State Bar of Texas
Date: February 2010
Is it permissible for a lawyer to recoup from a client an amount greater than the amount actually paid by the lawyer for an expense incurred in connection with the representation of the client?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 593
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committee For the State Bar of Texas
Date: February 2010
Is it permissible under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct for a lawyer to enter into an agreement with a client, who is not represented by independent counsel, for the settlement of the client's malpractice claim against the lawyer?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 592
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committee For the State Bar of Texas
Date: January 2010
Under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, may a lawyer share or promise to share legal fees with a suspended lawyer?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 591
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committee For the State Bar of Texas
Date: January 2010
Is it permissible under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct for three law firms with different names to advertise cooperatively using the name of one of the law firms followed by the word “Group”?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 590
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committee For the State Bar of Texas
Date: December 2009
Under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, may a law firm seek to enter into an agreement with a member of the firm that would require, if the lawyer later left the firm, that the lawyer would not solicit the firm's clients and would pay to the firm a percentage of any fees collected by the lawyer from the firm's clients for work after the lawyer left the firm?
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