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 #: 619
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committee For The State Bar of Texas
Date: June 2012
Do the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct permit a prosecutor to require and defense counsel to agree that documents the prosecutor produces to defense counsel may be shown to the defendant but that copies of the documents may not be given to the defendant?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 618
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committee For The State Bar of Texas
Date: June 2012
Do the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct permit lawyers to organize a law firm as a limited partnership in which the general partner is a corporation that is not a professional corporation?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 617
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committe For The State Bar of Texas
Date: May 2012
Under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct may a lawyer, who is licensed to practice law in Texas and in North Carolina, practice law in North Carolina, without soliciting or representing persons in Texas, under a law firm name that is not permitted under the Texas Disciplinary Rules but that is permitted under the applicable rules of North Carolina law governing the practice of law in North Carolina?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 616
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committee For The State Bar of Texas
Date: April 2012
Under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, may a law firm agree with a for-profit legal service contract company to provide legal services at discounted rates to persons who have contracted with the legal service contract company? May a law firm having such an agreement with a for-profit legal service contract company accept referral fees from lawyers to whom the law firm refers matters that initially come to the firm under the agreement with the company?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 615
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committee For The State Bar of Texas
Date: April 2012
Under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, may a district attorney take responsibility for the investigation and possible prosecution of a local elected official in a criminal proceeding or a civil removal proceeding when the district attorney previously represented and advised the official on matters relating to the official’s performance of public duties?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 614
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committee For The State Bar of Texas
Date: April 2012
Is a lawyer prohibited from conditioning the settlement of a civil lawsuit upon the receipt from the other party in the lawsuit of an affidavit that is acceptable to the lawyer’s client?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 613
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committee For the State Bar of Texas
Date: December 2011
Under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, may a lawyer, who has been retained by an insurance company to represent an insured person in a case that is settled based on the insurance company’s transfer of funds to the lawyer for the other party, provide, without the consent of the other party’s lawyer, written notice to the other party of the settlement payment as strongly encouraged by the Texas Department of Insurance?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 612
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committee For the State Bar of Texas
Date: November 2011
Under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, is it permissible for a lawyer to participate in a local bar association program, established in conjunction with local courts, in which lawyers cease to be subject to regular appointment to represent indigent persons in certain family court matters by paying an annual fee which is used to supplement payments made by the county to court-appointed lawyers who handle such matters?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 611
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committee For the State Bar of Texas
Date: September 2011
Is it permissible under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct for a lawyer to include in an employment contract an agreement that the amount initially paid by a client with respect to a matter is a “non-refundable retainer” that includes payment for all the lawyer’s services on the matter up to the time of trial?
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Canon:
Opinion #: 610
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committee For the State Bar of Texas
Date: August 2011
Under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, is a lawyer permitted to acquire, by agreement with his client, a security interest in the subject matter of litigation that the lawyer is conducting for the client in order to secure payment of the lawyer’s fee with respect to the litigation?
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