[WSBAPT] PR discretion - charitable gift in will

[Douglas Bratt]

If PC shared some confidences with Gus, and if he is then considered to
have been Gus' client, methinks that the WSBA RPC authorities might take
issue with Gus saying anything, no matter how bad PC's acts were,
buttressed by his new relationship with the new uninformed attorney.

 

A possible analogous situation:

 

Several years ago, I represented "Young Birth Mother" (hereinafter YBM) in
an adoption of her soon-to-be-born child, through the time of the birth
and the termination of parental rights, with adoptive parents, of course,
being represented by their own counsel.  

 

As sometimes happens, the potential adoptive parents, with court
permission, forwarded funds to me, via their attorney, to be disbursed to
YBM towards her living expenses, both pre-birth and post-birth.  At times
I issued my office's operating checks to YBM for expenses (if her need was
urgent - per her), and was reimbursed from trust funds that had been
forwarded to me, from the attorney for the adoptive parents, for YBM's
expenses.

 

Banks these days do not carefully look at issued checks, presented for
payment, and YBM was able to add an important digit to one of the checks I
gave her, increasing the check amount by $1,000.00. In addition, I had
given her a check made payable to the local electric company, because
"(her) power is about to be turned off."  She very sloppily wrote her name
over the printed name of the utility, and endorsed it, but the bank people
did not even check the "Pay to the Order" section of the check very
carefully and they cashed the check.  (This bank' personnel had seen YBM
with me, in the bank branch, on several occasions when she needed cash, so
I think she might have gained some credibility by being with me, and maybe
the bank people dropped their guard and were taken in by what was a lively
personality and her seemingly innocent way of dealing with things.)  

 

Per the bar's Ethics Hotline, I could not turn her into the local
authorities, given confidentiality rules.  It was even intimated that to
stop payment on the checks might well also be a breach of confidentiality,
because that would be revealing YBM's name.  

 

Thankfully, my job was done and I discharged her as a client, with no more
checks going to her.

 

My lesson from all of that is that confidentiality is at the top of the
Bar's list of important principles.  That, and care with trust accounts. 

 

Based upon my experience, I am not sure the Bar people would have patience
with Gus reporting the "client" or the "former client" to the court for
this falsehood, but maybe others have different opinions.

 

Regards,

 

Doug Bratt

 

 

From: wsbapt-owner at lists.wsbarppt.com
[mailto:wsbapt-owner at lists.wsbarppt.com] On Behalf Of Doug Schafer
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2014 1:45 PM
To: wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com
Subject: Re: [WSBAPT] PR discretion - charitable gift in will
[auto-ip][senderbase]

 

Ponder this.  Gus refers to the personal representative as "PC", that I
interpret as "potential client."  Assume that the PC was named in the will
as personal representative, but has not yet been appointed by the court.
Assume that at the face-to-face meeting, the PC, having sole possession of
the original will, declines to engage Gus, but later engages another
lawyer and becomes the court-appointed PR after swearing that no will has
been found. So in an intestate distribution, the charity would receive
nothing.

If Gus learns of this fraud, could Gus report anything to anybody
consistent with the RPCs?

Doug Schafer 

On 1/30/2014 11:54 AM, G. (Gus) Benjamin Lindsey III wrote:

=======================
- To contact the list administrator, send a message to:
webmaster at wsbarppt.com

- To unsubscribe, send a new email addressed to: imail at lists.wsbarppt.com,
with the following in the body of the message: unsubscribe wsbapt - OR -
send a message to webmaster at wsbarppt.com asking that you be removed from
the wsbapt list.

Information provided on this list should not be considered legal advice.
As with all lists - let the reader beware! No warranties or
representations are made as to the accuracy of any information provided.
All opinions and comments in this message represent the views of the
author and do not necessarily have the endorsement of the Washington State
Bar Association nor its officers or agents. 

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: winmail.dat
Type: application/ms-tnef
Size: 7982 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20140130/09a460c6/winmail-0001.dat>