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
-
Canon:
Opinion #: 604
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committee For the State Bar of Texas
Date: January 2011
Under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, may a lawyer communicate privately with the members of a board of a state agency about their consideration of a regulation that would require the lawyer’s client to apply for and obtain a permit? If the regulation is adopted, may the lawyer communicate privately with members of the board about the client’s planned permit application? May the lawyer’s client communicate privately with members of the board when the lawyer is prohibited by the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct from doing so?
Read More
-
Canon:
Opinion #: 603
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committee For the State Bar of Texas
Date: November 2010
Do the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct require or permit a lawyer to reveal to a corporation’s creditors the lawyer’s advice to the corporation that the person who owns and manages the corporation has engaged in conduct that constitutes a breach of the person’s fiduciary duty to the corporation?
Read More
-
Canon:
Opinion #: 602
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committee For the State Bar of Texas
Date: October 2010
Under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, may a lawyer deliver to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, and file related reports concerning, funds or other property held in the lawyer’s trust account for which the lawyer is unable to locate or to identify the owner?
Read More
-
Canon:
Opinion #: 601
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committee For the State Bar of Texas
Date: August 2010
Under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, may a lawyer employed by a city as an assistant city attorney refuse to withdraw from legal representation of the city because the lawyer is protected from termination of employment by civil service employment provisions of the city charter?
Read More
-
Canon:
Opinion #: 600
Cite: The Professional Ethics Committee For the State Bar of Texas
Date: August 2010
Under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, is a lawyer for a Texas governmental agency required to ensure that the agency's enforcement officers do not communicate directly with a regulated person who is represented by a lawyer except with such lawyer’s consent?
Read More
-
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?
Read More
-
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.
Read More
-
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?
Read More
-
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?
Read More
-
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?
Read More