The ABA has released an advisory opinion on the steps lawyers and their former firms should take when attorneys move to a new law firms.
This issue has become particularly relevant for Big Law attorneys whose clients may follow the attorney to the new firm.
The duty of diligence requires an attorney to notify clients in a timely manner when he or she is switching firms. While the attorney should cooperate with the firm to notify clients of his or her departure, the attorney need not wait to notify clients, so long as the firm is notified simultaneously.
Other duties include ensuring that client files are turned over, either to the client or the new firm, in an “orderly and timely” manner and that firm property is returned.
The opinion also advises that departing attorneys must ensure that client files are current, and that confidentiality is maintained for clients who remain at the prior firm. This requires “returning or deleting all confidential information in the lawyer’s possession.” However, a departing attorney may keep client names and contact information to conduct conflict checks at the new firm.
A law firm also has responsibilities during the attorney’s transition to the new firm.
For example, a firm is prohibited from refusing to allow departing lawyers access to “adequate firm resources needed to competently represent the client” during the transition period.
Moreover, Rule 5.6(a) provides that employment agreements may request a reasonable notification period, but “these notification periods cannot be fixed or rigidly applied without regard to client direction, or used to coerce or punish a lawyer for electing to leave the firm,” according to the opinion.
Read the full ABA opinion here.
