TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Jan 9, 2025

The American Bar Association (ABA) Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility has released Formal Opinion 514 to provide guidance on a lawyer’s obligations when advising an organization about conduct that may create legal risks for the organization’s constituents. According to the opinion, lawyers should advise organizations’ constituents — employees, officers or board members — about the lawyer’s role early and often during the relationship. “When an organization’s lawyer provides advice to the organization about proposed conduct that may have legal implications for individual constituents, the constituents through whom the lawyer conveys advice may misperceive the lawyer’s role and mistakenly believe that they can rely personally on the lawyer’s advice,” according to the opinion. It cites Rules 4.1, 4.3 and 1.13(f) that require an organization’s lawyer to take reasonable measures to avoid or dispel constituents’ misunderstandings about the lawyer’s role. Read more in a release from the association.