This entry covers ...
I. Legal Ethics Opinions
II. Ethics Codes & Rules
A. ABA Model Codes and Rules
B. Rules for U.S. Judges
C. State codes and rules
D. Other ethics codes
See also "Attorneys," which includes information on disciplinary records, and "Bar Admission."
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I. Legal Ethics Opinions
A. ABA Opinions: The ABA originally published the Formal and Informal ethics opinions of its Committee on Ethics & Professional Responsibility separately. Formal Opinions 1-315 were compiled in Opinions of the Committee on Professional Ethics, while Informal Opinions 1-1284 were compiled in Informal Ethics Opinions, Volumes I and II.
Starting in 1967, the ABA started publishing all of the opinions together. Formal and Informal Ethics Opinions includes Formal Opinions 316-348 and Informal Opinions 1285-1495. Recent Opinions is a looseleaf that covers F.O. 349 and I.O. 1496, with periodic updates include new opinions.
Formal and Informal opinions are now also available from the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility, the ABA/BNA Lawyers' Manual on Professional Conduct, and they're available through Lexis (ETHICS;FOPIN for formal opinions; ETHICS;INFOP for informal opinions) and Westlaw (ABA-ETHOP for all opinions).
These sources are generally a few months behind. To get recent opinions, contact the ABA's Service Center (800-285-2221) and/or the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility (312-988-5326).
All of these opinion books include indexes so you can look up the opinions by subject and by section of the Model Code or Model Rules.
References to cases and law review articles that cite the Formal and Informal opinions are listed in the front of Shepard's Professional and Judicial Conduct Citations (see "Shepardizing"). You can get more cases by searching a key number in a West digest (get key numbers either from case headnotes or look up the topic in CJS).
B. State Opinions: If you don't have published ethics opinions for a particular state in your library, you can get state ethics opinions by (1) searching a relevant Lexis or Westlaw database (xxETH-EO), (b) getting copies from a bar association or law school library (perhaps in that state) or (c) finding the opinion posted on the Internet. To find posted opinions, try the links in Cornell's American Legal Ethics Library. If that doesn't work, try calling the relevant state or bar association library.
Following is more detailed information on getting ethics opinions for a few selected states.
California: You can get selected California Ethics Opinions from the State Bar of California Web site , where they are posted by the State Bar of California Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct. Westlaw has California ethics opinions (CAETH-EO) back to 1977; Lexis has them also (ETHICS;CABAR), though I'm not sure how far back. Selected ethics opinions are published in the State Bar's Compendium on Professional Responsibility. The Los Angeles County Bar publishes their ethics opinions in The Los Angeles Lawyer.
District of Columbia: D.C. ethics opinions are published in Opinions of the D.C. Bar Legal Ethics Committee Interpreting the D.C. Rules of Processional Conduct, which has opinions, a Shepard's-like citator (citing to other D.C. opinions), a Table of Other Ethics Opinions Cited by D.C. Bar Opinions (citing to opinions from other jurisdictions) and a Table of Rules Cited in Opinions. In addition, recent opinions are posted in the "Professional Resources" section of the D.C. Bar Web site (www.dcbar.org).
Illinois: The Illinois Bar posts its Advisory Opinions on Professional Conduct on its Web site back to 1980, but only for members (www.isba.org/EthicsOpinions/). Westlaw has Illinois Bar opinions back to 1993, plus opinions of the Illinois Judicial Ethics Committee back to 1993 (ILETH-EO).
Maryland: Advisory opinions of the Maryland State Ethics Commission are included at the end of Title 19A of the electronic version of the Maryland regulations, COMAR Online. Ethics Opinions of the Maryland State Bar Association are published in Opinions on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and posted in the members-only section of the Association web site.
For ethics opinions concerning Maryland Judges, see the Judicial Ethics section of "Maryland - Judicial Branch."
Nevada: The ethics opinions of the Nevada Bar Association are published in the Nevada Lawyer. They are included in the Nevada Lawyer Online section of the Nevada Bar Web site.
New York: Ethics opinions issued by the New York State Bar Association, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the New York County Lawyers' Association and the Nassau County Bar Association are published in Opinions: Committees on Professional Ethics, etc. (Oceana Publishing) from their first opinions through about early 1995. Ethics opinions of those same Associations are published in Mary Daly's The New York Code of Professional Responsibility: Opinions, Commentary & Caselaw (also Oceana) from 1990 to almost current.
You can find most ethics opinions bu the New York State Bar Association and the New York County Lawyers' Association on their respective Web sites. For opinions not available online, call ABCNY (212-382-6713) or NYCLA (212-267-6646, ext. 205).
Westlaw's NYETH-EO database has opinions by the NY State, City & County Bars (back to 1977, 1986 and December 1979, respectively), and Lexis has opinions from New York State (ETHICS;NYBAR) and City (ETHICS;NYCBAR) Bars. You can get copies of opinions from the books from the www.abcny.org/Library/index.htm or NYCLA libraries; members can get copies from the New York Law Institute (212-732-8720) for cheaper.
Ohio: Attorney discipline in Ohio is handled by the Ohio Supreme Court. The Court's disciplinary orders are reported in the "Disciplinary Docket" section of the advance sheets to Ohio Official Reports.
Advisory Opinions of the Ohio Supreme Court's Board of Grievances and Discipline are published in the National Reporter on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility and posted on the Court's Web site back to 1986 (www.sconet.state.oh.us/boc/Advisory_Opinions/). The Web site includes a helpful subject index but, for more complex research, the Board's opinions are searchable on Lexis (OH;OHGRIE) and Westlaw (0H-ETH-OH) back to 1987, and on the subscription-based HANNAH Online/Ohio Capital Connection (www.ohcapcon.com/cgi-bin/foxweb.exe/seca?/olis/olin.htm) back to 1986. You can also get opinions by calling the Board (614-644-5800).
Formal Opinions of the Ohio State Bar Association are published in the Ohio State Bar Association Report. The Bar's Informal Opinions are summarized in the Ohio Lawyer and the ABA/BNA Lawyers Manual of Professional Conduct, but I believe full-text is available only from the Bar (800-282-6556).
The ABA/BNA Lawyers Manual of Professional Conduct also offers summaries of the State Bar's Formal Opinions and opinions of the Board of Grievances and Discipline, the Cleveland Bar Association and the Columbus Bar Association.
Special rules apply for Ohio public officials and employees. The rules are administered by the Ohio Ethics Commission. The Commission's Advisory Opinions are posted on the Commission's Web site (www.ethics.state.oh.us/ethicshome.html) back to 1974. The Commission's Advisory Opinions are searchable on Westlaw (0H-ETH) back to 1977 and on HANNAH Online/Ohio Capital Connection back to 1987.
You can learn more about Ohio Ethics Opinions from the Ohio Legal Research Guide by Melanie K. Putnam and Susan M. Schaefgen.
Texas: Texas ethics opinions, including Judicial ethics opinions, are posted on the Internet by the University of Houston's Texas Ethics Reporter (www.law.uh.edu/ethics/). For more sophisticated searching, try Westlaw's TXETH-EO database, which goes back to 1977.
Other states: The New York County Lawyers' Association (212-267-6646, x204 or x205) library will copy and fax opinions from Delaware, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan (formal only), Minnesota, Nevada & New Jersey. Colorado opinions are available from the University of Denver (see "Colorado").
C. Committee on Codes of Conduct Opinions: The Committee on Codes of Conduct publishes Advisory Opinions "on issues frequently raised or issues of broad application." The first 26 opinions interpret the Canons of Judicial Ethics of the American Bar Association; later opinions interpret the Code of Conduct for United States Judges and other judicial branch Codes of Conduct. The opinions are posted in the Library section of the U.S. Courts Web site (www.uscourts.gov/guide/advisoryopinions.htm).
D. ACTEC Commentaries: Commentaries on the Model Rules of Professional Conduct from the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel are posted on the ACTEC Web site.
II. Ethics Codes & Rules
A. ABA Canons, Model Code and Model Rules: In 1908, the American Bar Association adopted the Canons of Professional Ethics. These were replaced by the ABA the Model Code of Professional Responsibility, which was adopted in 1969 and effective January 1, 1970. The Model Code was replaced by the Model Rules of Professional Conduct in the 1983.
The ABA publishes an annual paperback called Model Rules of Professional Conduct and, every few years, an Annotated Model Rules of Professional Conduct. In addition, the Model Rules are published in the current Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, with "Model Code Comparison" comments after each section, and in Volume 2 of Hazard & Hodes' The Law of Lawyering: A Handbook on The Model Rules of Professional Conduct (Aspen Law & Business). Finally, electronic versions of the Model Rules are posted free on the ABA Web site www.abanet.org/cpr/mrpc/mrpc_toc.html; they are searchable on Lexis (ETHICS;CODES), and Westlaw has an online version of the latest edition of the ABA's Annotated Model Rules book (ABA-AMRPC).
Proposed changes to the Model Rules are posted by the ABA's Center for Professional Responsibility (www.abanet.org/cpr/ethics2k.html).
The ABA apparently no longer publishes a version of the Model Code of Professional Responsibility. Many law libraries have kept copies of their old editions, and you can find a copy in Hazard & Hodes' The Law of Lawyering: A Handbook on The Model Rules of Professional Conduct (Aspen Law & Business). Also, the final edition of the Code should still be searchable in the file of ethics codes (ETHICS;CODES).
Martindale-Hubbell publishes a correlation table cross-referencing between the Code and the Rules. This table is also available on Lexis (ETHICS;CODES -- search: "title(correlation)").
Hazard & Hodes' The Law of Lawyering: A Handbook on The Model Rules of Professional Conduct (Aspen Law & Business) is a 2-volume treatise explaining the Rules in prose.
The ABA publishes two books on the legislative history of the Model Rules: The legislative history of the model rules of professional conduct: Their development in the ABA House of Delegates and A legislative history: The development of the ABA model rules of professional conduct, 1982-1998 and
The date each state adopted the Code and/or Rules is listed in Appendix 4 of Hazard & Hodes' The Law of Lawyering, the Martindale-Hubbell Law Digest for each state, as well as in each state's statutes.
ABA Model Code of Judicial Conduct: The ABA's Model Code of Judicial Conduct is published in Martindale-Hubbell, and the latest version is free on the U.S. Courts Web site and searchable on Lexis (ETHICS;CODES). Search Shepard's Professional and Judicial Conduct Citations to find cases and law review articles that discuss sections of the Model codes and rules (and ABA opinions) in paper or on Lexis. See "Shepardizing."
B. Rules for U.S. Judges: U.S. judges are governed by the Code of Conduct for United States Judges. Each edition of the Code and any amendments are published
in Federal Rules Decisions (150 F.R.D.307, 175 F.R.D., etc.). The Code is re-printed in a multi-volume set called Administrative Office of the United States Courts, Guide to Judiciary Policies and Procedures (volume 2); a free version is posted at http://www.uscourts.gov/guide/vol2/ch1.html. The Code is searchable on Westlaw (FEDRDTP).
The Code of Conduct is amended periodically, so these versions may or may not be current. You can generally find new rules posted on the United States Courts' Judicial Ethics and Conduct page, or you can order current copies from the Judicial Conference Committee (202-273-1100). Note: You can also search Westlaw's FEDRDTP database for the latest version and amendments ("code of conduct for united states judges"), but the database runs about six months behind.
Rules for Judicial Conduct and Judicial Disability Proceedings: These Rules provide procedures for disciplining U.S. judges. A current copy is available through the United States Courts' Judicial Ethics and Conduct page.
Court-specific rules: Some Federal courts have their own professional responsibility rules. You can get them from the court, and sometimes they are posted on the Internet (e.g., the Seventh Circuit's rules are posted on Web sites maintained by the Court (www.ca7.uscourts.gov/) and the Chicago-Kent College of Law (www.kentlaw.edu/7circuit/).
C. State codes/rules: You can find each state's code or rules for professional conduct somewhere in the state's codified statutes (see "State Statutes"). Often the professional responsibility rules are published with other types of court rules in the last hard cover volumes or in paperback volumes kept at the end of the set (see "State Court Rules.") Alternatively, the professional ethics codes of all states are published in the National Reporter on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility.
In addition, many states post their ethics rules on the Web, either as part of their codified statutes or as part of their court rules or separately. Internet links to most state ethics codes/rules are posted in the American Legal Ethics Library, but be sure you've linked to a current version.
State codes and rules of judicial conduct are usually published next to the state's code of professional conduct.
The date each state adopted its Code and Rules is listed in Appendix 4 of Hazard & Hodes' The Law of Lawyering, the Martindale-Hubbell Law Digests, as well as in each state's statutes.
Following is more detailed information for a few states:
California: The State Bar of California posts the California Rules of Professional Conduct (www.calbar.org/pub250/crpc.htm) on its Web site. Alternatively, the Rules are published in the Bar's Compendium on Professional Responsibility, the "Rules of Court" volume at the end of Deering's California statutes and volume 23 of West's California statutes.
New Jersey: New Jersey's Rules of Professional Conduct are published: (a) in West's paperback "Rules" pamphlet, which is generally kept at the end of the codified statutes (b) as an appendix to Part I of Current New Jersey Court Rules by Sylvia B. Pressler and (c) on the Internet by New Jersey Law Network (http://njlawnet.com/nj-rpc/index.html).
New York: An unannotated version of the Code is posted by the New York State Bar (http://www.nysba.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Attorney_Resources/Lawyers_Code_of_Professional_Responsibility/CodeofResponsibility.pdf). A print version is available in Mary Daly's The New York Code of Processional Responsibility: Opinions, Commentary & Case Law (Oceana Publishing), followed by proposed amendments. An annotated version of the Code is published in the appendix at the end of McKinney's Judiciary volume (Volume 29, sections 500 to end).
In addition, the "Operating Procedures and Rules of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct" are published in the paperback McKinney's New York Rules of Court near the end of the "State Courts" section.
New York disciplinary procedures are published in the NYCRR:
1st Department ...... 22 NYCRR Part 603
2nd Department ...... 22 NYCRR Part 691
3rd Department ....... 22 NYCRR Part 806
4th Department ....... 22 NYCRR Part 1022.17+
Ohio: Unannotated versions of the Ohio Code of Professional Responsibility, the Ohio Code of Judicial Conduct and the Supreme Court Rules for the Government of the Bar (which includes disciplinary procedures) are posted on the Web site of the Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline (www.sconet.state.oh.us/boc/). They are also published in the Ohio Legal Directory and Ohio Rules of Court (State). The Codes of Professional Responsibility and Judicial Conduct are published in the National Reporter on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility.
Annotated versions of all three Codes are published at the end of the "Rules of Court: Miscellaneous" pamphlet accompanying Baldwin's Ohio Revised Code Annotated and at the end of the "Court Rules" section following Title 19 in Page's Ohio Revised Code Annotated. They will also be available in the electronic versions of these sets (discussed in the separate entry for "Ohio").
Special rules apply for Ohio public officials and employees. The rules are posted by the Ohio Ethics Commission.
D. Other Ethics Codes: There are special ethics codes for arbitrators, discussed in the "Arbitrators" entry. For other professional ethics codes, see "Professional Ethics."
