Brooks Pierce partner Daniel Adams will present a Continuing Legal Education program (CLE) on the ethical rules, privilege issues and potential conflicts of interest that arise when a lawyer becomes a witness, subject or target of a federal investigation involving a client. The CLE is sponsored by the American Bar Association’s White Collar Crime Division of the Criminal Justice Section and will be held May 11 at 1 p.m.
The presentation, “Navigating the Ethical Minefield: When Lawyers Become Witnesses, Subjects, or Targets of Investigations,” will evaluate a subpoena or search warrant directed at a law firm and formulate a strategy for protecting client confidences and preserving the attorney-client privilege, as required by RPC 1.4, 1.6, and 1.9; assess when a lawyer’s work becomes sufficiently material to an investigation of the client that there develops a “significant risk” that continued representation will be “materially limited” by the lawyer’s personal interests, under RPC 1.7(a)(2); judge how to resolve a conflict between the lawyer’s duty to preserve client confidences, under RPC 1.6(a), and the lawyer’s ability to reveal such confidences in order to defend against criminal charges based on conduct in which the client is implicated, under RPC 1.6(b)(5) and the applicable privilege doctrines; and describe the circumstances under which a lawyer may and may not continue representing a client in relation to conduct under investigation, where the lawyer’s role also may be at issue.
Adams represents individuals, small businesses and large corporations facing white-collar criminal prosecution, government investigations and complex business litigation. Having served as a public defender in the Bronx and litigated for years in Manhattan with a major global law firm, he brings significant trial experience when confronting clients' most pressing legal challenges.
