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VIII. Different Roles of the Lawyer (4% to 10%) A. Lawyer as Advisor 1. Duty to Render Candid Legal Advice in representing a client, a lawyer shall exercise independent professional judgment and render candid advice. 2. Advice Beyond the Law in rendering advice, a lawyer may refer not only to law but to other considerations such as moral, economic, social and political factors that may be relevant to the client's situation. 3. Criminal Conduct = NO a lawyer shall not advise a client to engage, or assist a client, in conduct that the lawyer knows is criminal or fraudulent. ! Legal Consequences of Any Proposed Course of Conduct = YES a lawyer, however, may discuss the legal consequences of any proposed course of conduct with a client and may counsel or assist a client to make a good faith effort to determine the validity, scope, meaning or application of the law (e.g. no one has ever been prosecuted for this.).
4. Volunteering Advice in general, a lawyer is not expected to give advice until asked by the client. However, when a lawyer knows that a client proposes a course of action that is likely to result in substantial adverse legal consequences to the client, the lawyer's Duty to Communicate to the client may require that the lawyer offer advice if the client's course of action is related to the representation. B. Lawyer as Evaluator a lawyer may provide an evaluation of a matter affecting a client for the use of someone other than the client if the lawyer reasonably believes that making the evaluation is compatible with other aspects of the lawyer's relationship with the client. 1. Evaluation Materially Adverse to Clients Interests when the lawyer knows or reasonably should know that the evaluation is likely to affect the client's interests materially and adversely, the lawyer shall not provide the evaluation unless the client gives informed consent. C. Lawyer as Negotiator 1. Truthfulness in Statements to Others in the course of representing a client, a lawyer shall not knowingly make a false statement of material fact or law to a third person. ! No Duty to Disclose a lawyer is required to be truthful when dealing with others on a clients behalf, but generally has no affirmative duty to inform an opposing party of relevant facts. o Exception: Criminal or Fraudulent Act By Client a lawyer shall not knowingly fail to disclose a material fact to a third person when disclosure is necessary to avoid assisting a criminal or fraudulent act by a client, unless disclosure is prohibited by the duty of confidentiality.
2. Subjective Statements this rule only refers to statements of fact not subjective statements. Whether a particular statement should be regarded as one of fact can depend on the circumstances. Under generally accepted conventions in negotiation, certain types of statements ordinarily are not taken as statements of material fact. Estimates of price or value placed on the subject of a transaction and a partys intentions as to an acceptable settlement of a claim are ordinarily in this category, and so is the existence of an undisclosed principal except where nondisclosure of the principal would constitute fraud. Lawyers should be mindful of their ! "!
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