Aggregate Settlements Need Client Consent, N.Y. City Bar Says

New York City lawyers shouldn’t broach the topic of an aggregate settlement with opposing counsel without client consent, the city bar said.

A state ethics rule does not “merely restrict the ‘making’ of an aggregate or interdependent settlement, but also ‘participation’ in the making of such settlement,” which includes negotiation, the New York City Bar Association’s ethics committee said in an opinion.

The opinion is the first time the committee “addressed squarely” what an aggregate settlement is and what lawyers have to be wary of when entering into them.

An aggregate settlement can include “a settlement of claims of multiple ...