DESCRIPTION
Negotiation Ethics: Balancing Boasts and Integrity
Lawyers must be truthful. Yet they must be zealous in the representation of their clients. The tension between these two principles is perhaps never as great as when the lawyer is negotiating for a client. The negotiation may be a settlement of litigation or in connection with a transaction. The lawyer may make statements about the law or fact – or simply refrain from making statements because the lawyer knows certain facts or legal precedent are adverse to his or her client’s interest. Lawyers may also “puff” or boast, signaling that a negotiating stance is firmer than a client’s true positon or more substantively valid than the law can reasonably support. At some point, the gray ethical line is tripped and what the lawyer does becomes improper. This program will provide you with a real world guide to ethical issues in lawyer negotiations.
- Ethics and ethical drawing lines – what’s an acceptable level of deception in negotiations?
- Affirmative statements of fact, value or intent in settlements
- Silence about adverse law in negotiations
- Silence about facts unknown to an opponent or counter-party
- Silence about errors in settlement agreements or transactional documents
- Non-litigation work in another state – “temporary” practice
Speakers:
Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a substantial practice advising clients on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections. For more than 30 years he has lectured extensively on legal ethics and professionalism and has written “The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner’s Guide,” a 750 page treatise published by the Virginia Law Foundation. Mr. Spahn has served as a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Legal Ethics Committee.
Anthony Licata is a partner in the Chicago office of Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, where he formerly chaired the firm’s real estate practice. He has an extensive practice focusing on major commercial real estate transactions, including finance, development, leasing, and land use. He formerly served as an adjunct professor at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Mr. Licata received his B.S., summa cum laude, from MacMurray College and his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School.
Disclaimer: All views or opinions expressed by any presenter during the course of this CLE is that of the presenter alone and not an opinion of the Oklahoma Bar Association, the employers, or affiliates of the presenters unless specifically stated. Additionally, any materials, including the legal research, are the product of the individual contributor, not the Oklahoma Bar Association. The Oklahoma Bar Association makes no warranty, express or implied, relating to the accuracy or content of these materials.