Rules of Professional Conduct Committee

At the September 2012 Board of Governors meeting, the Board voted to sunset the Rules of Professional Conduct Committee, effective October 1, 2012. The Committee will continue its current work on member inquiries received through September 30, 2012 and is expected to complete all work by December 31, 2012.

A work group chaired by former Governor Marc Silverman of District 1, will analyze alternative approaches to issuing ethics opinions in Washington. The work group will submit its recommendation to the BOG at an upcoming meeting. In the meantime, members with ethics questions may contact the Ethics Line at (206) 727-8284 or 1-800-945-WSBA, ext. 8284.  Members can also search the existing database of Advisory Opinions for revelant opinions.

Further questions or comments may be directed to the Committee Chair or Staff Liaison below.

New Advisory Opinions

The following are new Advisory Opinions issued by the RPC Committee for 2012.  Search the Advisory Opinions database or CaseMaker for additional opinions.

  • 2230 Contingency Fees in Probate Matters
  • 2229 Reporting Client to Authorities and Client Confidentiality
  • 2227 Lawyer Advertising and Referrals with National Bar Association
  • 2225 Attorney Withdrawal in Immigration Matters
  • 2223 Lawyer-Mediator Preparing Legal Documents for Unrepresented Parties
  • 2222 Deposit of Flat Fees and Costs
  • 2220 Garnishment of Client Trust Account
  • 2219 General Counsel Responsibility for In-house Lawyer
  • 2218 Disclosure of Client Information During Department of Revenue (DOR) Audit
  • 2217 Email Security
  • 2216 Metadata
  • 2215 Cloud Computing
  • 2214 Credit Card Transaction Fees Charged to Client
  • 2210 Using Trust Account Debit Card for Payment of Filing Fees
  • 2209 Lawyer Taking a Security Interest in Client Property

Proposed RPC Amendments

A proposed comment to RPC 4.4 has been published for comment by the Washington Supreme Court. The comment concerns the lawyer's use of information about a person's immigration status to intimidate, coerce, or obstruct that person from participation in a civil matter.  The comment period expires April 30, 2013. For detailed information, see Proposed Rules for Comment for June 2012.  

Meeting Minutes

August 24, 2012
June 22, 2012 
April 20, 2012
March 16, 2012   
December 16, 2011
October 28, 2011   

Archived minutes    

Contact Us

Chair
J. Donald Curran
jdcvlc2@msn.com

Staff Liaison
Jeanne Marie Clavere
jeannec@wsba.org

Advisory Opinions

Search for an advisory opinion

Professional Responsibility Program

Get ethics advice, assistance, resources

Rules of Professional Conduct

Link to the official RPCs, published by the Washington Supreme Court