Ethics for Environmental Lawyers

Environmental lawyers routinely face ethical questions in their practice. Some of the more common issues relate to the need for balancing client confidentiality with various statutory and regulatory duties to report. Conflicts of interest, in terms of clients, use of experts and positions taken on issues, are also common. Pamela Esterman, Principal at Sive Paget Riesel, and Fern Fleischer Daves, General Counsel of the Thermostat Recycling Corporation, examine how best to manage these and other unique challenges faced by environmental lawyers. They also present various hypothetical scenarios, and highlight the applicable Model Rules of Professional Conduct (MRPC) as well as the resources available to lawyers who are faced with questions.

The Model Rules discussed will include MR 1.1(competency), 1.6 (client confidences), 1.7, 1.8, 1.9 (conflicts), 1.13 (organization as the client), 1.16 (declining or terminating representation), 3.3 (candor to the tribunal), 4.1 (truthfulness in statements to others), 4.4 (respect for third persons), and 8.4 (conduct involving dishonesty).

Learning Objectives: 

1. Understand the ethical obligation of technological competence, including guidelines for handling metadata and inadvertently transmitted e-mail communications
2. Identify challenges to a lawyer's duty of confidentiality and ethical considerations in working with experts
3. Recognize and address conflicts of interest
4. Assess practicalities associated with "Legal Holds"