Washington Lawyer - March/April 2025 - 46

SPEAKING OF ETHICS
continued from page 41
Moving From One Private Law Firm to Another):
" Typically, a lawyer planning to change law firms
will be interested in having the clients to whom
the lawyer has provided professional services
accompany him/her to the new law firm, and
may want to make arrangements to that end
before the actual departure. " (Emphasis added.)
9 See also Rule 1.16(d), pursuant to which a lawyer
terminating a representation must give
" reasonable notice to the client " and allow " time
for employment of other counsel. " As such, if
Departing Lawyer will no longer be representing
the client going forward, this rule requires that
he provide sufficient notice for the client to
secure alternative representation.
10 See, e.g., LEO 333 (Surrendering Entire Client File
Upon Termination of Representation); LEO 357
(Former Client Records Maintained in Electronic
Form).
11 Similarly, Rule 1.16 (and other rules) mandate
that Old Firm expeditiously transfer all client
unearned funds in its IOLTA or other trust account
to the departing client or, at the client's
direction, to Departing Lawyer. See also Rule 1.15
(Safekeeping Property); LEO 293 (Disposition of
Property of Clients and Others Where Ownership
Is in Dispute); Singer, Saul Jay, " In Trust Accounts
We Trust " (Washington Lawyer, March 2010).
12 LEO 372 (Ethical Considerations in Law Firm
Dissolutions).
13 See D.C. Rule 5.6, Comment [2]. See also LEO 325
(Agreement to Distribute Former Firm Profits to
Partners From Former Firm Only as Long as They
Continue to Practice in New Merged Firm: Rule
5.6(a)); LEO 241 (Financial Penalty Imposed on
Departing Lawyer Who Engages in Legal Practice
in D.C. Area); LEO 368 (Lawyer Employment
Agreements - Restrictions on Departing Lawyer
Who Competes With Former Firm).
14 LEO 221 (Law Firm Employment Agreement).
15 Nonetheless, the lawyer is required to take substantive
steps to protect client confidentiality in
these circumstances, including characterizing
the deadbeat client as " John Doe " and filing the
fee claim under seal. See Rule 1.6, comments [26],
[27].
16 See Rule 1.16(i). See also LEO 379 (Attorneys'
Charging Liens and Client Confidentiality). As
per LEO 250 (Duty to Turn Over Files of Former
Client to New Lawyer When Unpaid Fees Are
Outstanding): " It seems clear to us that retaining
liens on client files are now strongly disfavored in
the District of Columbia, that the work product
exception permitting such liens should be construed
narrowly, and that a lawyer should assert
a retaining lien on work product relating to a
former client only where the exception is clearly
applicable and where the lawyer's financial interests
'clearly outweigh the adversely affected
interests of his former client.' "
46 WASHINGTON LAWYER
* MARCH/APRIL 2025
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Washington Lawyer - March/April 2025

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