Attorneys who represent greenhouse gas emitters are finding themselves battling their own legal and ethical risks, as some states are considering an attorney’s knowledge of greenhouse gas emissions to fall under the confidentiality exception that permits disclosure of confidential information when it could prevent death or substantial bodily danger. Disclosing
While client confidentiality is a well-established part of attorney-client relations, all states either require or permit attorneys to disclose information if that disclosure would prevent reasonably certain death or substantial bodily harm.
Until recently, this exception to the client confidential rule had not been used in a widespread manner because fortunately, there are not many situations where people might risk facing danger based on confidentially-held information. However, it has become more widespread given the expansion of climate change and its deadly nature, with approximately 250,000 to 400,000 deaths each year.
The risk stemming from climate change is especially concerning for the attorneys who represent clients that contribute to it because due to the lack of coordinated federal climate action in the U.S., the responsibility is being placed onto the attorneys. For example, although several states do not stand for the proposition that disclosing previously unknown client emissions could prevent future ones, a majority of environmental enforcement is based on this idea. Therefore, since it is possible to read the ethics rules in a way that requires emission information disclosure, this gives climate activists an incentive to do so. In addition, another incentive for climate activists stems from the fact that if attorneys are concerned about their own legal risks, they will be more likely to influence or abandon their clients that contribute to climate change, which would inevitably put pressure on such contributors to alter their business practices to be more environmentally-friendly.
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