When I leave my law firm, can I notify clients and ask them to come with me, and which clients can I contact before I resign?

Plain-English summary

The committee set out the duties a lawyer and her firm owed to clients when the lawyer moved to a new firm. Because the lawyer's impending departure was information affecting the status of a client's matter, Rule 1.4 required that current clients be told she was leaving and where she would practice, so the client could decide whether the matter stayed with the firm, moved with the lawyer, or went elsewhere. As the committee put it, "informing the client of the lawyer's departure in a timely manner is critical to allowing the client to decide who will represent him."

Notice to current clients was not prohibited solicitation. "Because she has a present professional relationship with her current clients, a departing lawyer does not violate Model Rule 7.3(a) by notifying those clients that she is leaving for a new affiliation." But Rule 7.3(a) still barred in-person contact with firm clients with whom the lawyer had no prior professional or family relationship; for those, she could use written communication under the advertising rules. The committee identified the preferred course as a joint notice: "far the better course to protect clients' interests is for the departing lawyer and her law firm to give joint notice of the lawyer's impending departure." Any pre-resignation notice had to be limited to current clients, make clear "the client has the ultimate right to decide who will complete or continue the matters," and not disparage the former firm.

The committee also located duties beyond client notice: protecting client interests on transition under Rule 1.16(d), avoiding conflicts under Rules 1.7, 1.9, and 1.10(a), safeguarding confidential information under Rules 1.6 and 1.9, and avoiding dishonesty under Rule 8.4(c). It cautioned that other bodies of law (agency, partnership, property, fiduciary duties to the former firm) also governed the timing and content of client communications and which files the lawyer could take. The committee rejected "any implication of Informal Opinions 1457 or 1466 that the notices to current clients ... must await departure from the firm."

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1999, before the American Bar Association's adoption of the 2002 (Ethics 2000) revisions to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Subsequent rule amendments or later opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current guidance. Verify against current rules before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or requirement mentioned here.

Common questions

Q: Could a departing lawyer tell clients she was leaving before she resigned?

A: Yes, as to current clients. The opinion concluded that notifying current clients was not improper solicitation and rejected any implication that such notice had to wait until after departure.

Q: Which clients could the lawyer contact in person before leaving?

A: Only those with whom she had a current professional relationship (or a family relationship). For firm clients she had no prior professional or family relationship with, Rule 7.3(a) barred in-person solicitation, though she could write to any firm client after leaving.

Q: What did the notice have to say?

A: It had to make clear the client's ultimate right to decide who would continue the matter, and it could not disparage the former firm. The opinion called joint notice by the lawyer and firm the better course.

Q: What else did the departing lawyer have to do?

A: Protect client interests on transition under Rule 1.16(d), check for conflicts under Rules 1.7, 1.9, and 1.10(a), safeguard confidential information, and avoid dishonesty under Rule 8.4(c).

Background and rules framework

The opinion interpreted Rule 1.4 (keeping the client informed), Rule 7.3 (direct contact and solicitation) with reference to Rules 7.1 and 7.2, Rule 1.16(d) (protecting client interests on termination), and the conflict and confidentiality rules (1.6, 1.7, 1.9, 1.10(a)), along with Rule 8.4(c) (dishonesty). Because the opinion predated the 2002 revisions, it applied these provisions as they then stood, and it noted that law outside the Model Rules also governed a lawyer's departure.

Citations and references

Rules of Professional Conduct:

• ABA Model Rule 1.4 (communication; informing the client of the departure)
• ABA Model Rule 7.3 (direct contact with prospective clients; solicitation)
• ABA Model Rule 1.16(d) (protecting client interests on termination)
• ABA Model Rule 1.9 (duties to former clients), with Rules 1.6, 1.7, 1.10(a), and 8.4(c)

Other opinions cited:

• ABA Formal Op. 96-400 (job negotiations with adverse firm or party)
• ABA Informal Ops. 1428 (1979), 1457 (1980), and 1466 (1981)

Cases:

• Graubard Mollen v. Moskovitz, 86 N.Y.2d 112, 653 N.E.2d 1179 (N.Y. 1995)
• Siegel v. Arter & Hadden, 85 Ohio St. 3d 171, 707 N.E.2d 853 (Ohio 1999)

See also

• ABA Formal Op. 489: Notice When Lawyers Change Firms
• ABA Formal Op. 99-415: Representation Adverse to a Former Employer by a Former In-House Lawyer
• ABA Formal Op. 501: Solicitation

Source

• Landing page: ABA Formal Ethics Opinions index
• Original PDF: 99-414.pdf