NEW YORK ―
Anthony E. Davis, a Partner in the
New York office of Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, along with James W. Jones, Senior Vice President of Hildebrandt Baker Robbins, presented to the American Bar Association (ABA) Commission on Ethics 20/20 a proposal requesting the adoption of rules for law firms representing "sophisticated clients." The proposal was submitted on behalf of the Law Firm General Counsel Roundtable, a group representing several large law firms that primarily represent multinational corporate clients. The Commission on Ethics 20/20 was created in 2009 to review the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and the U.S. system of lawyer regulation in the context of advances in technology and global legal practice developments.
The Roundtable wants a separate regulatory regime when lawyers and law firms represent sophisticated clients to deal with the special needs of those clients and the lawyers and firms that serve them, with particular reference to conflicts of interest, limitation of liability and lawyer mobility, among other issues. Currently, each state in the United States has its own regulatory rules governing lawyers and law firms. According to Mr. Davis and Mr. Jones, and as expressed in the Roundtable’s letter to the Commission on Ethics 20/20, the rules as they now exist were “designed protect individual consumers of legal services who may lack the experience or sophistication to protect themselves against unethical or otherwise improper conduct by the lawyers who represent them.” But for “sophisticated” clients, which the roundtable seeks to define, such as multinational corporations, they often prove impractical and economically imprudent by creating conflict- or liability-related barriers that the client would be willing to waive.
The Roundtable’s proposal and the reactions of some of the Commission on Ethics 20/20’s members were discussed in an article published on abajournal.com, entitled, “
Ethics 20/20 Pitch: Law Firms That Serve ‘Sophisticated’ Clients Need Own Regulatory System.”
Founded in 1934, Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP is a national law firm with approximately 500 lawyers in 24 offices spanning 12 states, including
Arizona,
California,
Florida,
Illinois,
Indiana,
Massachusetts,
Minnesota,
Missouri,
New York,
Oregon,
Rhode Island and
Wisconsin.
Hinshaw offers a full-service practice, with an emphasis in litigation, business law and corporate transactions, environmental, intellectual property, labor and employment law, professional liability defense, estate planning and taxation matters. The firm represents a range of for-profit and not-for-profit clients in industries that include alarm and security services, construction, financial services, health care, hospitality, insurance, lawyers and law firms, manufacturing, real estate, retail and transportation. Hinshaw clients also include government agencies, municipalities and schools.