Rule 1.6 Discretion and Utility

This document dates back to 1984. Rule 1.6 had only just begun undermining the American Judiciary. The Supreme Courts in each state were without proper authority enacting an unconstitutional 'law' with the full knowledge that Rule 1.6 additionally had serious ethical and moral problems.

ENACTING RULE 1.6 INTO LAW WAS A DELIBERATE ACT OF SEDITION DONE WITH INTENT TO COMMIT INJUSTICE.

The Ethics and Morality issues are well documented. Lawyers, who are the people usually authoring these Legal Reviews, always stopped short of the UNCONSTITUTIONAL label. If they were to write it, they would be violating the'law' and face discipline.

In this article, Rule 1.6 represents two incompatible views. The permissive language of the text of the Rule accomodates the view which favors disclosure. The policy statements accomodates the view which would prohibit disclosure. In the Constitutional Challenge of Rule 1.6, I refered to this incompatibility as a self-nullifying feature of the statements which comprise Rule 1.6.

FORDHAM URBAN LAW JOURNAL
Legal Ethics: Discretion and Utility in Rule 1.6
Charles A. Kelbley
Fordham UniversityNo other professions require practitioners to identify so closely and completely with the interests and confidences of their clients, as in the legal profession. Unlike doctors, preists, rabbis and other professionals, the lawyer is an advisor but also an advocate.

Rule 1.6 is a major flaw in the legal professions history of self-discipline.

The rule fails the test of logic because the concept of discretion which it reflects is self-contradictory.

The rule is a crude form of utilitarianism and should be reformulated to require disclosure whenever clients have no right to confidentiality and their conduct would constitute unjustified aggression or seriously invade the interests of others.

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