Opinion ID: 2977404
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Lemon’s Expert Testimony

Text: It is elementary that a wrongdoer may not steal from another and escape criminal liability because his lawyer did not tell him that stealing is wrong. Geiger sought to call Lemon to testify that Geiger’s transactional attorneys should have warned him about the potential illegality of his conduct. Specifically, Geiger argues that Lemon’s testimony shows that the performance of Geiger’s attorneys fell below the applicable standard of care. Although he never expressly raised an “advice-ofcounsel” defense at trial, we will assume that Geiger’s arguments rest on such a defense. The prima facie elements of an advice-of-counsel defense are (1) full disclosure of all pertinent facts and (2) good faith reliance on the advice of counsel. United States v. Lindo, 18 F.3d 353, 356 (6th Cir. 1994) (citing United States v. Duncan, 850 F.2d 1104, 1116 (6th Cir. 1988)). Thus, to rely on an advice-of-counsel defense, Geiger would have had to establish that he fully disclosed all pertinent facts to attorneys Seaton and La Faille and that he acted in good faith reliance on their advice that his actions were not objectionable. The district court refused to admit Lemon’s testimony on the ground that it would invade the province of the jury. The court reasoned: As I understand it, what this witness is going to do is to state that there are certain standards of care that bind lawyers. That is a legal matter, and that requires him to state a legal conclusion. And pursuant to the law that the Court has relied upon, he could not give such testimony. 5 I also understand that the witness would give an opinion that the performance of certain witnesses in certain instances fell below the applicable standard of care. That is a legal conclusion which the rule would also prohibit this witness from giving. . . . [T]he Court finds that this witness is not in a position to give expert testimony on the law pursuant to Rule 702. (Trial Tr., Joint Appendix (“JA”) 307.) Geiger now argues that rather than bar Lemon’s testimony completely, the district court should have at least allowed Lemon to testify as to the discrete fields of legal ethics and legal malpractice. The Government counters that the district court’s ruling complies with the applicable law and that regardless, where Geiger failed to meet his burden to establish an advice-of-counsel defense, Lemon’s testimony was irrelevant. It is well-settled that only the trial judge may instruct a jury as to the law. See United States v. Zipkin, 729 F.2d 384, 386-87 (6th Cir. 1984). But our case law also suggests that expert testimony as to legal conclusions may be appropriate in certain limited circumstances. See Berry v. City of Detroit, 25 F.3d 1342, 1353 (6th Cir. 1994) (implicitly recognizing the admissibility of expert testimony where an expert’s credentials demonstrated that he had specific expertise on a relevant issue); Champion v. Outlook Nashville, Inc., 380 F.3d 893, 908 (6th Cir. 2004) (allowing expert to testify on a discrete area in which he had specialized knowledge); United States v. Monus, 128 F.3d 376 (6th Cir. 1997) (expert could testify as to whether defendant would be liable for taxes according to the circumstances alleged by the Government); United States v. DeClue, 899 F.2d 1465, 1473 (6th Cir. 1990) (allowing witness testimony where she “did not give her opinion about whether appellant was guilty or not; she gave her opinion regarding whether tax was due and owing for the years in question in order to assist the jury in determining a fact in issue”). Thus, we have held that an expert witness may opine on a legal conclusion so long as his testimony would not determine an ultimate issue before the jury. 6 Geiger’s counsel attempted to qualify Lemon as an expert in the field of legal ethics, and defense counsel argues that Lemon would have opined that Geiger’s attorneys were ethically obligated to warn him that his transactions were potentially illegal. An essential element of an advice-of-counsel defense is that the defendant relied in good faith on his attorney's advice. Lindo, 18 F.3d at 356. Lemon’s expert testimony regarding the nature of the attorney-client relationship and the ethical duties of Geiger’s attorneys bore upon Geiger’s legitimate expectations as a client and, as such, may have assisted the jury in evaluating his state of mind. Although such testimony directly relates to whether Geiger’s attorneys violated their ethical and legal obligations, because their potential legal violations were not before the jury, we conclude that the testimony was proper under Rule 702. See Monus, 128 F.3d at 386; Declue, 899 F.2d at 1473. Thus, the district court could have allowed Lemon’s testimony on the limited issue of the nature of an attorney-client relationship and the duties of Seaton and La Faille. Regardless, the district court did not err in excluding Lemon’s proffered testimony because he presented no evidence that Geiger made a full disclosure to his attorneys concerning all his dealings with Combs and the SCT pension funds. Given the complete absence of such evidence, Lemon’s testimony was irrelevant conjecture about Geiger’s interactions with Seaton and La Faille. This Court addressed a similar situation in United States v. Blackwell. 459 F.3d at 753-54. There, a defendant convicted of insider trading was denied the admission of expert testimony from an economist that inside information often reaches outsiders through “leakage” rather than tipping. Id. On appeal, we held that given the absence of independent corroborating evidence that such “leakage” actually occurred, the district court properly excluded the expert’s testimony as irrelevant. Id. at 754. As in Blackwell, the relevance of Lemon’s expert testimony depends on the existence of 7 corroborating evidence that Geiger made a full disclosure to his attorneys. The record is devoid of any such evidence. Lemon lacked personal knowledge of what Geiger actually said to his attorneys and was incompetent to testify in that regard. See Blackwell, 459 F.3d at 754 (“While the existence of other sources of tipping surely was relevant to Defendant’s case, [the expert witness] was not qualified to testify about these sources inasmuch as he lacked personal knowledge of them.”). Seaton (Geiger’s only attorney to take the stand) testified only that Geiger made the $315,000 interest prepayment directly to SCT rather than to the pension funds, and that he had told Geiger that the loan seemed proper from a contract perspective. Further, given hearsay limitations, evidence of full disclosure could only have come from Geiger himself, and Geiger did not testify. See United States v. Hatchett, 918 F.2d 631, 658 n.8 (6th Cir. 1990) (upholding district court’s exclusion of attorney’s testimony about tax advice he gave to defendant where, given defendant’s own refusal to testify, the jury would have been induced to accept the truth of the matters disclosed by the attorney). Therefore, though Lemon’s testimony was potentially admissible under Rule 702, the district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding it as irrelevant under Rule 401.