ABA Opinion Says Lawyers Can Drop Clients if No ‘Adverse Effect’

Lawyers may drop clients to take on new ones if their withdrawal doesn’t cause an adverse impact on the dropped clients, including when lawyers need to do so to avoid creating a conflict of interest, a new American Bar Association ethics opinion says.

The ABA ethics opinion issued Wednesday—which included a rare partial dissent—addresses potentially gray areas for lawyers who unilaterally seek to end client relationships when withdrawal either isn’t mandatory or isn’t disallowed, as is the case under different parts of the ABA’s model rules.

According to the ABA’s Model Rule of Professional Conduct 1.16(b)(1), lawyers are permitted to ...