Hybrid Lawyer-Cop Can’t Defend Clients In Local Traffic Court

A New York lawyer who is also a police officer can’t defend clients in traffic court in the county where the police department is located because of the risk of conflicts, a state bar opinion said.

“No matter how earnest and complete a defense the lawyer provides, there is an obvious danger that a convicted defendant will believe that his defense was inadequate because of the lawyer’s bias as a police officer,” the New York State Bar Association’s ethics committee’s May opinion advised.

There’s also a risk that the public will see the lawyer as trying to use his position as a police officer to get a better deal for his client and lose faith in the criminal justice system, it said.

The lawyer-cum-officer posed the question to the committee, also asking whether it was O.K. to represent defendants in other counties. While noting the unnamed officer works for a village police force, the committee omitted reference to what village and in which county he or she works.

Ethics rule 1.7 on conflicts of interests for current clients prohibits taking one on if there’s a “significant risk” that representation will be “materially limited” by the duty to others, the opinion said. In this case, the lawyer-officer has financial and personal interests in conflict with the client, it said.

For example, while representing a traffic court defendant, the lawyer-officer might be inhibited from arguing that a police officer witness is lying in order to stay in the good graces of the force, the opinion said.

And this conflict isn’t subject to informed consent, it said.

An ethics rule on conflicts for public officers also prohibits this representation because it’s subject to rule 1.7, the opinion said.

Furthermore, there are risks of a lawyer trying to use the public position to try to influence, for example, a judge in favor of a client, the opinion pointed out.

However, if the facts show that the lawyer can provide competent and diligent representation, the lawyer may be able to represent a defendant in another county, the opinion added.

The opinion is N.Y.S. Bar Ass’n Comm. on Prof’l Ethics, Op. 1187, 5/6/20.