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Legal ethics

Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility

Pace University

2009

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Shifting Paradigms Of Lawyer Honesty, John A. Humbach Jan 2009

Shifting Paradigms Of Lawyer Honesty, John A. Humbach

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The Model Rules currently contain at least four distinct conceptions of what it means for a lawyer to be honest. Moreover, the levels of honesty that the ethical rules demand have changed markedly in recent times. This article explores why, for the lawyers of today, being “honest” seems to be so complicated.

The exploration begins by reviewing recent changes in the honesty concepts embodied in the Model Rules, particularly the new duty to reveal confidential information that lawyers have under Rule 4.1. Attention then turns to what it means to be “honest” in the context of our modern exaggerated version …