Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Professional responsibility; ethics; inadvertent disclosure; unauthorized disclosure; anonymous disclosure; zealous advocacy
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Risk Of Zealous Advocacy: Litigators Receiving Anonymously Disclosed Documents And The Notification Requirement, Rebecca J. Spendley
The Risk Of Zealous Advocacy: Litigators Receiving Anonymously Disclosed Documents And The Notification Requirement, Rebecca J. Spendley
Fordham Law Review
The American Bar Association (ABA) created the Model Rules of Professional Conduct to provide guidance to lawyers, courts, and the entire legal profession regarding what a lawyer’s ethical duties entail. Model Rule 4.4(b) requires a lawyer to notify opposing counsel once the receiving lawyer knows, or reasonably should know, that the documents received were inadvertently sent. The ABA, however, explicitly left documents disclosed intentionally and without authorization beyond the scope of the rules, thus leaving lawyers who receive these documents with little guidance. Courts have taken varying approaches to handling documents of this type: some analogize unauthorized disclosures to inadvertent …