2003-03

Communication with represented government officials permitted

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Communication with represented government officials permitted

QUESTION:

My law firm has been employed to defend employees and officials of the State Board of Education who have been sued by a County Board of Education. The lawsuit appears to be amenable to settlement and I would like to negotiate settlement possibilities directly with the members of the County Board of Education. My question is whether I may communicate with the members of the County Board without the consent or approval of the Board’s attorney.

ANSWER:

You may, as attorney for the State Board of Education, communicate directly with the members of the County Board of Education to discuss settlement of the pending lawsuit without obtaining the consent or approval of the attorney representing the County Board of Education.

DISCUSSION:

Communications with persons represented by counsel are governed by Rule 4.2 of the Rules of Professional Conduct, which provides as follows:

“Rule 4.2 Communication With Person
Represented by Counsel

In representing a client, a lawyer shall not
communicate about the subject of the
representation with a party the lawyer
knows to be represented by another
lawyer in the matter, unless the lawyer
has the consent of the other lawyer or
is authorized by law to do so.”

The Comment to Rule 4.2 expands upon the “authorized by law” exception:

“Communications authorized by law include,
for example, the right of a party to a controversy
with a government agency to speak with
government officials about the matter.”

Since members of the County Board of Education conclusively appear to be “government officials” within the meaning of the above-quoted Comment, communications with the members are permitted pursuant to the “authorized
by law” exception quoted above.

Most authorities find justification for the exception in the “petition for redress of grievances” clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In The Law of Lawyering, Professors Hazard and Hodes provide
the following analysis:

“… a lawyer for a private party who is
in litigation with the government may
seek ex parte interviews with relevant
government officials. If the normal bar
of Rule 4.2 were applied stringently, the
government agency’s lawyer could veto
discussions between private parties and
government officials, which is questionable
policy, and might raise questions under the
‘petition for redress of grievances’ clause
of the First Amendment.”

The Law of Lawyering, Hazard & Hodes, Second Edition, Prentice Hall (1990) §4.2:109.

A similar analysis is found in Modern Legal Ethics by Charles Wolfram, Charles Frank Reavis Sr. Professor of Law at Cornell Law School:

“Requiring the consent of an adversary
lawyer seems particularly inappropriate
when the adversary is a government
agency. Constitutional guarantees of
access to government58 and statutory
policies encouraging government in the
sunshine seem hostile to a rule that
prohibits a citizen from access to an
adversary governmental party without
prior clearance from the governmental
party’s lawyer.

________________________________________

58

U.S. Const., amend 1 (‘Congress shall make
no law respecting . . . the right of the people
peaceably . . . To petition the Government
for a redress of grievances.’).”

Modern Legal Ethics, Charles W. Wolfram, West Publishing Co. (1986), §11.6.2, p. 614, fn 58.

The Annotation to Rule 4.2 in the Fourth Edition of the ABA’s Annotated Model Rules of Professional Conduct also references the First Amendment, viz.:

“When a governmental agency is the
represented party, the Comment to Rule
4.2 recognizes that a party may ‘speak
with governmental officials about the
matter’. The First Amendment right of
petition brings such communications
within the ‘authorized by law’ exception
to Rule 4.2.”

Annotated Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Fourth Edition, American Bar Association (1998) p. 411.

After the Model Rules were amended by the Ethics 2000 Committee, the ABA employed slightly different language
to reaffirm its interpretation of the “authorized by law” exception. The Fifth Edition of the Annotated Model Rules
addresses the issue as follows:

“When a governmental agency is the
represented party, paragraph [3] of the
Comment, as amended in 2002, recognizes
‘the possibility that a citizen’s constitutional
right to petition and the public policy of
ensuring a citizen’s right of access to
government decision makers may create
an exception to this Rule’.”

Annotated Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Fifth Edition, American Bar Association (2002) p. 427.

Both state and federal courts have uniformly recognized the right of an attorney suing a governmental entity to communicate directly with the government officials involved in the lawsuit concerning the disposition or resolution thereof.

The United States District Court of Maryland has concluded definitively as follows:

“Insofar as a party’s right to speak with government
officials about a controversy is concerned, Rule 4.2
has been uniformly interpreted to be inapplicable.
See 2 Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr. & W. William Hodes,
The Law of Lawyering § 4.2:109 (2d ed. Supps. 1991
& 1994); Charles W. Wolfram, Modern Legal Ethics
§ 11.6.2 (1986).”

Camden v. State of Maryland, 910 F. Supp. 1115, 1118,
(D. Md. 1996).

In another representative case, American Canoe Ass’n, Inc. v. City of St. Albans, 18 F.Supp.2d
620 (S.D. W.Va. 1998), defense counsel attempted to prohibit plaintiff’s attorney from discussing settlement with the members of the city governing body. The Court concluded as follows:

“… generally, communications with a represented
adverse party should proceed through that party’s
lawyer, pursuant to Model Rule 4.2.

Here, however, both Defendants are government
agencies. Government remains the servant of the
people, even when citizens are litigating against it.
Thus, when citizens deal with government agencies,
several sorts of direct contact are ‘authorized by
law’ and permissible. Official comment to Rule
4.2 notes:

‘Communications authorized by law
include, for example, the right of a party
to a controversy and a government
agency to speak with government officials
about the matter.’

As interpreted in an American Bar Association Formal
Ethics Opinion, this right to speak with government
officials about a matter in controversy refers to the
constitutionally protected right to petition the government
and the derivative public policy of ensuring a citizen’s
right of access to government decision makers. ABA
Formal Op. 97-408.” 18 F. Supp.2d at 621-622.

See also, Norfolk S. Ry. Co. v. Thompson, 430 S.E. 2d 371 (Ga. Ct. App. 1933);

Wilkerson v. Brown, 995 P.2d 393 (Kan. Ct. App. 1999). See generally, Lidge, Government Civil Investigations and the Ethical Ban on Communication with Represented Parties, 67 Ind. L.J. 549 (1992); Baker, Ethical Limits on Attorney Contact with Represented and Unrepresented Officials, 31 Suffolk U.L. Rev. 349 (1997).

The American Bar Association and numerous State Bar Associations have authored opinions permitting attorneys to contact employees and officials of a government agency without the consent of the agency’s attorney. See, e.g.,
ABA Formal Ethics Opinion 95-396; ABA Formal Ethics Opinion 97-408 (cited in American Canoe Association, supra); North Carolina State Bar Association Ethics Committee Opinion 219 (1995); Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Opinion 1988-8; Kentucky Bar Association Ethics Committee, Opinion E-332 (1988).

Additionally, at least one state, California, has codified the exception and expressly included it in California’s version of Rule 4.2, as follows:

“This rule shall not apply to communications with a
public officer, board, committee or body.” Calif. R.
7-103.

Based upon the above, it is the opinion of the Disciplinary Commission of the Alabama State Bar that you, as attorney for the State Board of Education, may communicate directly with the members of the County Board of Education to discuss settlement of the pending lawsuit without obtaining the consent or approval of the attorney representing the County Board.

LGK/vf

9/18/03

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