North Carolina Administrative Code › Title 27 - STATE BAR › Chapter 01 - RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR THE NORTH CAROLINA STATE BAR › Subchapter D - RULES OF THE STANDING COMMITTEES OF THE NORTH CAROLINA STATE BAR › Section .0100 - PROCEDURES FOR RULING ON QUESTIONS OF LEGAL ETHICS › Section 01D .0103 - ETHICS ADVISORIES

Current through Register Vol. 39, No. 2, July 15, 2024
(a) The
				  executive director, assistant executive director, or designated staff counsel
				  may honor or deny a request for an informal ethics advisory. Except as provided
				  in Rule .0102(b), an attorney requesting an opinion concerning another
				  attorney's professional conduct, past conduct, or matters of first impression
				  shall be asked to submit a written inquiry for referral to the committee. An
				  attorney requesting an opinion involving matters of widespread interest to the
				  Bar or particularly complex factual circumstances may also be asked to submit a
				  written inquiry for referral to the committee.
(b) The Bar's program for providing informal
				  ethics advisories to inquiring attorneys is a designated lawyer's assistance
				  program approved by the Bar and information received by the executive director,
				  assistant executive director, or designated staff counsel from an attorney
				  seeking an informal ethics advisory shall be confidential information pursuant
				  to Rule 1.6(c) of the Revised Rules of Professional Conduct (2003); provided,
				  however, such confidential information may be disclosed as allowed by Rule
				  1.6(b) and as necessary to respond to a false or misleading statement made
				  about an informal ethics advisory. Further, if and attorney's response to a
				  grievance proceeding relies in whole or in part upon the receipt of an informal
				  ethics advisory, confidential information may be disclosed to Bar counsel, the
				  Grievance Committee or other appropriate disciplinary authority.
(c) An ethics advisory issued by the
				  executive director or assistant executive director shall be promulgated under
				  the authority of the committee and in accordance with such guidelines as the
				  committee may establish and prescribe from time to time.
(d) An ethics advisory shall sanction or
				  disapprove only the matter in issue, not otherwise serve as precedent and not
				  be published.
(e) Ethics advisories
				  shall be reviewed periodically by the committee. If, upon review, a majority of
				  the committee present and voting decides that an ethics advisory should be
				  withdrawn, the requesting attorney shall be notified in writing of the
				  committee's decision by the executive director or assistant executive director.
				  Until such notification, the attorney shall be deemed to have acted ethically
				  and in good faith if he or she acts pursuant to the ethics advisory which is
				  later withdrawn or modified.
(f) If
				  an inquiring attorney disagrees with the ethics advisory issued to him or her,
				  the attorney may request reconsideration of the ethics advisory by writing to
				  the committee prior to the next regularly scheduled meeting of the
				  committee.
Authority
					 G.S.
					 84-23;
Readopted Eff. December 8,
					 1994;
Amended Eff. February 5, 2004; March 5,
					 1998.