Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Publication

How Far May a Lawyer Go in Assisting a Client in Legally Wrongful Conduct?

Hazard, Geoffrey
Abstract
Professor Hazard discusses the dimensions of the lawyer conduct prohibited by DR 7-102(A)(7) of the Model Code of Professional Responsibility, which provides that a lawyer shall not "[c]ounsel or assist his client in conduct that the lawyer knows to be illegal or fraudulent." After reviewing relevant principles of agency, tort, and criminal law, Professor Hazard concludes by asking whether it is this positive law outside of the Code that defines the scope of conduct prohibited by DR 7102( A)(7), or whether the Code contains its own standard that, because of the nature of the lawyer-client relationship, permits lawyers to engage in otherwise forbidden activity.