Disir
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- Sep 30, 2011
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Ethical standards for lawyers in California allow them to have sex with their clients, but probably not for much longer.
State Bar trustees voted Thursday to adopt a rule, in effect in most other states, making lawyer-client sex a disciplinary violation unless the couple’s personal relationship preceded their professional relationship. It was part of an overhaul of ethical regulations for California’s 247,000 lawyers that now goes to the state Supreme Court for approval.
“Lawyers have bargaining power over their clients,” James Fox, the State Bar president and former San Mateo County district attorney, said Friday. “A client may feel subtle pressure, or perhaps not-so-subtle pressure, to acquiesce to sexual conduct.”
The trustees heard from lawyers who opposed the change as an invasion of privacy. But the bar’s Office of General Counsel said a dismal record under the current rule showed the need for a prohibition: Out of 205 complaints filed with the office involving lawyer-client sex since the rule took effect in 1992, only one resulted in disciplinary action.
Under the current California standard, a lawyer can have consensual sexual relations with a client as long as the lawyer does not make the sexual relationship a prerequisite for legal representation.
The new rule would prohibit lawyer-client sex except between spouses or a couple who had been in a sexual relationship before becoming lawyer and client. The rule is based on American Bar Association guidelines that most states have adopted.
Sex between lawyer and client: State Bar sets narrow limits
I'm surprised that this was even allowed in California.
State Bar trustees voted Thursday to adopt a rule, in effect in most other states, making lawyer-client sex a disciplinary violation unless the couple’s personal relationship preceded their professional relationship. It was part of an overhaul of ethical regulations for California’s 247,000 lawyers that now goes to the state Supreme Court for approval.
“Lawyers have bargaining power over their clients,” James Fox, the State Bar president and former San Mateo County district attorney, said Friday. “A client may feel subtle pressure, or perhaps not-so-subtle pressure, to acquiesce to sexual conduct.”
The trustees heard from lawyers who opposed the change as an invasion of privacy. But the bar’s Office of General Counsel said a dismal record under the current rule showed the need for a prohibition: Out of 205 complaints filed with the office involving lawyer-client sex since the rule took effect in 1992, only one resulted in disciplinary action.
Under the current California standard, a lawyer can have consensual sexual relations with a client as long as the lawyer does not make the sexual relationship a prerequisite for legal representation.
The new rule would prohibit lawyer-client sex except between spouses or a couple who had been in a sexual relationship before becoming lawyer and client. The rule is based on American Bar Association guidelines that most states have adopted.
Sex between lawyer and client: State Bar sets narrow limits
I'm surprised that this was even allowed in California.