Shearman & Sterling Litigation partner James Tallon wrote an article for the Ethics Corner in Business Law Today titled “When Conflicts Rules Conflict.” The article discusses issues that arise from the lack of clarity in New York Rules of Professional Conduct 1.10(a) and 8.5(b), which relate to situations in which attorneys are conflicted out of taking on certain representations. To make his point, Tallon uses a hypothetical as a way to show the vagueness of the two New York Rules of Professional Conduct in their application to lawyers not admitted to practice in New York. Tallon notes that in 2010, the New York City’s Bar Committee on Professional Responsibility proposed that Rule 1.10 should be amended, but this has not yet occurred. As a result, both Rules 1.10(a) and 8.5(b) can be construed to regulate lawyers in multinational firms—even those not practicing in New York—which can be problematic. Amending the rules is necessary to address this lack of clarity, Tallon writes.

View full article, “When Conflicts Rules Conflict.”