The Rules of Professional Conduct Committee considers and responds to inquiries from WSBA members and the Board of Governors regarding the ethical conduct of lawyers arising under the Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC). The committee issues Advisory Opinions to assist members in interpreting their ethical obligations in specific circumstances. The committee may, upon request, express its opinion concerning proper professional conduct in broader circumstances.
Any member may request a written ethics opinion from the committee. Please direct all correspondence to the committee’s staff liaison.
Before submitting an inquiry, members may wish to search the existing database of Advisory Opinions to see if the question has been posed before.
News
Several new advisory opinions have recently been issued by the Committee. They are accessible on the Advisory Opinions database and CaseMaker.
- 2209 Lawyer Taking a Security Interest in Client Property
- 2210 Using Trust Account Debit Card for Payment of Filing Fees
- 2214 Credit Card Transaction Fees Charged to Client
- 2215 Cloud Computing
- 2216 Metadata
- 2218 Disclosure of Client Information During Department of Revenue (DOR) Audit
- 2219 General Counsel Responsibility for In-house Lawyer
- 2220 Garnishment of Client Trust Account
A proposed amendment to RPC 1.15A has been published for comment by the Washington Supreme Court. The comment period expires April 30, 2012. For detailed information, see Proposed Rules of Court for November 2011.
Recent Amendments
RPC 3.8(g)-(i) became effective on December 13, 2011.
Amendments to the following Rules of Professional Conduct were adopted June 10, 2011 en banc by the Washington Supreme Court and became effective on September 1, 2011.
RPC 1.2, RPC 1.6, RPC 1.8, RPC 1.10, RPC 1.15A, RPC 3.4, and RPC 5.5.
For detailed information on the specific amendments, please see Proposed Rules of Court for February 2011 and December 2010.
Upcoming Meetings
- June 22, 2012
- August 24, 2012
Committee Rules of Procedure
Meeting Minutes
October 28, 2011
December 16, 2011
March 16, 2012
Archived minutes
Contact Us
Chair
J. Donald Curran
jdcvlc2@msn.com
Staff Liaison
Jeanne Marie Clavere
jeannec@wsba.org
Board of Governor Liaison
Marc L. Silverman, District 1
silvermanlaw@earthlink.net