98-01 A lawyer may represent a spouse in a divorce proceeding and that spouse’s parents in a guardianship proceeding in which they seek guardianship of their grandchild so long as the lawyer can adequately represent the interests of both the spouse and the grandparents and they consent to the representation after full disclosure.
96-04 An attorney who contracts with a state office to provide representation for the office may not represent private clients in other cases in which the office is a party unless both parties consent after full disclosure of the possible effect of such representation on the exercise of the attorney’s independent professional judgment.
96-01 An attorney who represents adult children who have been appointed as co-administrators of their parent’s estate and has brought a wrongful death action should not represent any of the heirs of the decedent in a distribution action pursuant to 14 V.S.A. § 1492, unless all the heirs are in agreement as to the distribution and give consent to the representation.
95-19Where an attorney learns through a client confidence that one of several jointly represented clients has committed a fiduciary crime against one of the other joint clients, the attorney may not breach the confidence by alerting law enforcement authorities or third parties or by alerting the other clients, but the attorney must immediately withdraw from further representation of any of the clients.
92-15 A lawyer may not represent a client whose interests are adverse to those of another current client. This applies even if the two representations are unrelated. Multiple representation for matters in litigation is allowed only in limited instances where each client consents after full disclosure and there is a clear showing that either clients’ respective interests will not be adversely affected by the representation of the other client.
91-04 An attorney may represent private parties in separate proceedings even though each party may be called as a witness in the other’s case, where there is no reasonable likelihood of conflict between the two parties and where each consents to the dual representation after full disclosure of relevant facts.
90-08 An attorney may not provide simultaneous representation to a borrower and a lender. An attorney may furnish the lender with title insurance and a proposed mortgage deed or comply with other similar loan requirements on the buyer’s behalf so long as the attorney does not enter into an attorney-client relationship with the lender.
90-07 A lawyer who represents simultaneously Client A and Client B in separate and unrelated matters should discontinue multiple employment under DR 5-105 (b) when the lawyer likely would cross-examine Client A, expected to be a principal witness for Client B’s ex-spouse in a divorce modification proceeding brought by the lawyer on behalf of client B.
90-06 In the course of representing an adoption agency and with the agency-client’s consent, an attorney may assist both the relinquishing parents and the adopting parents with counseling and by preparing routine legal documents, provided that she first fully discloses areas of potential conflict between the agency-client and either or both sets of parents and that she receives no additional fee for the service from either or both sets of parents.
87-19 The rule permitting multiple simultaneous representation only when it is obvious that an attorney can adequately represent the interests of more than one client does not permit an agency of state government to avoid resulting conflicts arising from simultaneous representation by having the Agency subordinate its interests to those of individual clients; other issues are also addressed.
87-10 DR 5-105 prohibits a law firm from representing two clients in litigation in which one client is a party and the other client’s employees will testify, and the potential exists that their testimony will provide the basis for future litigation between the clients.
87-03 Because the attorney “represents” both the title insurance company and the prospective purchaser of insurance, the rules relating to representation of multiple clients determine when and if such representation is permissible.
87-01 No ethical issue arises where a lender requires a borrower to pay attorney’s fees incurred by the lender in a loan transaction
81-08 The representation of opposing state agencies by Assistant Attorney General in the resolution of disputes, whether by negotiation or by litigation before administrative tribunals or courts, violates DR 5-105 (A) unless such representation is authorized under DR 5-105 (C)