California has new Rules of Professional Conduct for lawyers. Understanding and following the rules isn't easy, so we have published a detailed guide to help you out. This Fourth Edition to TEXCOM's long-standing ethics guide is specialty-specific and directed to trusts and estates practitioners - both planners and litigators. Dozens of California's most experienced practitioners who specialize in estate planning, trust and estate administration, and probate litigation have contributed their insights into the day-to-day ethical dilemmas that attorneys face in this field. The result is a book that is as accurate and as practical as some of the best trusts and estates practitioners in California can make it.
In the Guide, you will find a discussion and an analysis of rules and ethical issues that commonly arises in a trusts and estates practice. Your journey of discovery will be enhanced by generous excerpts from the ACTEC commentaries on the ABA's Model Rules, by references to cases and opinions rendered by local, state, and national bar associations. The Guide includes sample letters and forms that you can adapt as required by the your practice and the circumstances of a particular case.
This edition of the Guide includes a new chapter dedicated to the ethical issues of a litigation practice and an expanded chapter on Ethics and Technology. As in prior editions, annotations to the discussion of each ethical issue direct the practitioner to updated statutory and case law, ethics opinions, and other primary sources for further study. The Guide will assist you in practicing in accordance with the highest ethical standards.
Look for guidance on your questions: How can I best comply with the ethical duty to avoid conflicts of interest, either between my clients or with my own personal interest? What ethical duties do I have as an estate planner to spouses and to other family members in joint, concurrent or successive representations? To what extent do I have an ethical duty to understand the technology I work with or that a client may work with? What provisions should I consider including in my standard estate planning or litigation fee letter? When does a blog or podcast become an advertisement subject to ethical rules? What can I do to preserve client confidentiality on the cloud, in my home office or on my phone? What duties of an ethical practice should I consider when I appear before the court? How do ethical duties inform my communications