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Fiduciary Duty: A New Ethical Paradigm For Lawyer/Fiducaries, Paula A. Monopoli

Missouri Law Review

The modern academic trend, as embodied in the Uniform Probate Code (“UPC”) and the new Uniform Trust Code (“UTC”), has been to move from a interventionist model of probate toward a minimalist approach to judicial intervention. That model may not be working when it comes to lawyers acting as fiduciaries. The ethical issues and monitoring problems inherent in the confidential relationship that characterizes the attorney/client/fiduciary relationship may warrant more, rather than less, intervention. These monitoring problems and the underlying issues of conflict of interest are particularly acute when the lawyer acting as fiduciary drafted the instrument in which he or …