Opinion ID: 4583235
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Duty of Confidentiality

Text: ¶44 Like the attorney-client privilege, a lawyer’s duty of confidentiality is not absolute. It too can be waived. Unable to point to an explicit waiver, Claudine argues that Louis impliedly authorized disclosure of his files to her by naming her as the personal representative. ¶45 “[A] lawyer is impliedly authorized to make disclosures about a client when appropriate in carrying out the representation.” Colo. RPC 1.6 cmt. 5. Therefore, release is appropriate if “the attorney has reasonable grounds for concluding that release of the information is impliedly authorized in furthering the former client’s interests in settling [the] estate.” D.C. Bar, Ethics Op. 324, at 2 (2004). So a decedent’s former attorney may provide the personal representative with confidential information necessary to settle the estate unless the decedent has expressly indicated otherwise. But the attorney cannot provide a decedent’s complete legal files to the personal representative unless the decedent gave informed consent for such broad disclosure in the will or elsewhere. ¶46 To hold otherwise would drastically undermine a lawyer’s duty of confidentiality to a deceased client. It would grant the personal representative authority to request, from every one of a decedent’s former attorneys, the 22 decedent’s entire legal history, regardless of subject matter and the needs of the estate. ¶47 There is no evidence that all of Louis’s legal files were necessary to administer the estate. Thus, Freirich had a professional duty of confidentiality under Rule 1.6 to withhold all unnecessary information related to his representation of Louis. And when Claudine subpoenaed files that she did not need for estate administration, the duty of confidentiality obligated Freirich to make all non-frivolous objections (including the assertion of attorney-client privilege for any confidential communications made for the purpose of obtaining legal advice).