Attorney Need Not Alert Opposing Counsel To Error Where Lawyer Didn’t Induce Mistake

A transactional attorney has no ethical duty to alert opposing counsel to a mistake in contract language that the attorney did not induce, the California bar’s ethics committee concluded (California State Bar Standing Comm. on Professional Responsibility and Conduct, Formal Op. 2013-189).

In certain circumstances, however, the lawyer may be required to withdraw if the client refuses to let the lawyer raise the matter with the other party’s counsel, the committee added.

The committee’s advice was framed by a discussion of hypothetical scenarios involving the sale of a company and one lawyer’s discovery of an error that presents ...