[arin-discuss] Status of Investigations

[Dean Anderson]

On Wed, 2 Jan 2008, Jay Hennigan wrote:

> For the attorney to avoid professional misconduct, he would have to
> believe that they were true at the time, regardless of whether they
> were in fact true.

No; An attorney has to do more than merely 'believe the statements
true'.  I suggest you re-read this, and read the references.

=============
I am aware of that. However, lawyers are bound by Model Rules of
Professional Conduct. A corporate counsel have to abide by Model
Professional Rules of Conduct rule 1.6 and 1.13, which in some cases,
cause them to disclose information about their corporate clients. The
Model Rules 1.6 and 1.13 can be found at
http://www.abanet.org/cpr/mrpc/mrpc_toc.html

Corporate counsel is counsel to the corporation, not the employee. The
rules of conduct of lawyers were changed in response to Enron and
Worldcom, etc.  For those of you who are interested, there is a very
interesting discussion in "Enron, WorldCom, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
of 2002.  Corporate Governance, Financial Disclosure, Auditing and Other
Issues"  ALI-ABA course of study materials.  I also found interesting
Section III, "Recomendations Regarding the Conduct of Lawyers", page
107:

 "The ABA has long advised that lawyers providing transactional opinions
  that may be relied on by third parties cannot blindly accept facts 
  posited by a client; they must question and investigate the factual 
  predicate for their advice,[...]"

Note 33 on the same page states: "The lawyer who accepts as true the
facts which the promoter tells him, when the lawyer should know that a
further inquiry would disclose that these facts are untrue, also gives a
false opinion."
=============



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