'Essential Conflicts of Interest Rules' examined

American Law Institute Continuing Legal Education (ALI-CLE) will present the webcast  “Essential Conflicts of Interest Rules” on Wednesday, April 13, from noon to 1:30 p.m.

In order to provide the loyalty, confidentiality, and independent judgment at the heart of every lawyer’s relationship with a client, he or she must be able to identify and resolve potential conflicts of interest that arise at the commencement of and throughout representation.

Attorneys shouldn’t risk disqualification, discipline, or malpractice claims when they can learn the different scenarios in which conflicts are present and how to handle them.

This program will address the conflicts of interest rules every lawyer should know, including:

• The general rule governing adversity regarding current and former clients

• Definition of “client” for conflicts purposes (including corporations, associations, estates, and others)

• Definition of “adversity” for conflicts purposes (including business adversity, adverse financial impact, discovery of clients, and positional adversity)

• The complex rules governing joint representations

• Determining the status of an attorney client relationship

• Application of the “substantial relationship” standard

• A lawyer’s ability to withdraw from a representation to cure a conflict (including the “hot potato” rule)

• Consents that can cure a conflict (including the revocability of consents and prospective consents)

• Courts’ approach to disqualification motions based on conflicts of interest

Written materials will be provided to all registrants as a resource for their practice.  

Cost for the webcast is $199. To register, visit www.ali-cle.org.