The following proposed changes to the Rules of Professional Conduct reference only those portions of the Ethical Rules that are pertinent to the discussion of multidisciplinary practices. Accordingly, the full texts of the Rules and Comments are not included.
Owner denotes any lawyer holding an equity interest in a firm.
Such writing shall specify what the disclosure or reporting obligations are of the other professionals that could conflict with the lawyer s duty of confidentiality. Further, lawyers are obligated to reasonably ascertain the disclosure and reporting obligations of other professionals in the firm prior to disclosing any information related to the lawyer s representation of a legal client. This portion of the Comments to ER 1.10 was modified to clarify that all clients of the firm must be considered legal clients for conflict purposes. Moreover, the language or are owners of that firm was included to address passive investment by lawyers in another firm. A lawyer shall hold property of his or her clients or third persons that is in a lawyer s possession in connection with a representation separate from both the lawyer s own property and the firm s property .