Disir
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- Sep 30, 2011
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The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is taking up an unusual case spurred by a lawyer who tried to expose a nonprofit client she believed had illegally steered charitable funds into private pockets.
One side argues that attorneys for nonprofits should be allowed to leak information to law enforcement when they suspect illegal activity such as theft, based on the premise that charitable funds are held in trust on the public's behalf.
The other insists such behavior is an unethical deviation from the Rules of Professional Conduct, and that permitting it could decimate attorney-client relationships for every nonprofit organization in Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania Bar Association “has attempted to follow what's going on in the case,” said Thomas G. Wilkinson Jr., a Philadelphia attorney and co-editor of the Pennsylvania Ethics Handbook.
That attempt has been stymied by a major obstacle: The court won't disclose the facts of the case, or the identities of the feuding parties.
...The case before the state Supreme Court Middle District centers on one question: When counsel for a nonprofit corporation believes that charitable assets are being unlawfully diverted, may counsel disclose this information to the Attorney General's office?
Pa. justices to consider murky case on charities TribLIVE
That's rather interesting. I love how whistle-blowers are first cast as "disgruntled".
One side argues that attorneys for nonprofits should be allowed to leak information to law enforcement when they suspect illegal activity such as theft, based on the premise that charitable funds are held in trust on the public's behalf.
The other insists such behavior is an unethical deviation from the Rules of Professional Conduct, and that permitting it could decimate attorney-client relationships for every nonprofit organization in Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania Bar Association “has attempted to follow what's going on in the case,” said Thomas G. Wilkinson Jr., a Philadelphia attorney and co-editor of the Pennsylvania Ethics Handbook.
That attempt has been stymied by a major obstacle: The court won't disclose the facts of the case, or the identities of the feuding parties.
...The case before the state Supreme Court Middle District centers on one question: When counsel for a nonprofit corporation believes that charitable assets are being unlawfully diverted, may counsel disclose this information to the Attorney General's office?
Pa. justices to consider murky case on charities TribLIVE
That's rather interesting. I love how whistle-blowers are first cast as "disgruntled".
