Media Coverage
Source: ABA/BNA Lawyers' Manual on Professional Conduct
Media Coverage
10.22.14
During last month’s Aon Law Firm Symposium in Chicago, a panel of lawyers explored potential problems that can arise from creating co-counsel relationships in the session “Hazards in Co-Counsel, Local Counsel, and Referral Relationships.” Pillsbury Litigation partner David Keyko sat on the panel, which discussed several hypothetical co-counsel scenarios based on factual cases.
For one of the scenarios, panelists were asked about what issues might arise if a Canadian law firm wanted to hired a U.S. law firm to provide tax advice in a confidential acquisition. Because the Canadian firm needs to keep the client name confidential, it proposes hiring the U.S. firm as its own counsel and bill the client for the work as a disbursement.
In addition to the idea that the U.S. firm would need to know the client’s identity in order to clear conflicts, Keyko said the situation would present a liability risk for the U.S. lawyers, since all the information they receive would be coming from the Canadian firm.
“Some piece of information the Canadian lawyer might not think is important might change everything,” he said.
Additionally, Keyko agreed with another panelist that the U.S. firm might risk being exposed to more information about the client than it is essential for them to know, which could create additional conflicts.
“It’s not always possible, especially in an emergency, to limit your exposure to confidential information,” he said. “You’re going to need to know a lot about the details of the transaction to be able to render advice.
Through other hypothetical scenarios, the panel explored additional co-counsel risks such as lead counsel’s responsibility for co-counsel’s actions, local counsel liability and referrals.