According to the facts presented in this case, Paul Jones was the first person to make contact with the attorney concerning his intention to divorce his wife. It was the responsibility of the attorney who was in charge of this to take note and record this intention. These are the records that are necessary for future references in case of conflict of interest arising with future clients. When Melanie Jones makes contact with the supervising attorney to report her intention to divorce her husband no conflict of interests check is run. This is the beginning of all the mess in the case. It is a fact that the failure by the supervising attorney to make records of contact with Paul Jones is itself an ethical issue. Secondly, the failure of the supervising attorney to run a conflict of interests check on meeting with Melanie Jones is unethical. To add to this even if he would have run the check positive results could not have been realized since the records of his husband were not in existence according to the facts presented in this case.
Consequently, these ethical issues led to the violation of one of the rules concerning client-lawyer relationships. By the ABA Model Rules of professional conduct, client and lawyer relationship rule number 1.7 “a lawyer shall not represent a client if the representation involves a concurrent conflict of interest. A concurrent conflict of interest occurs when;”
- “The representation of one client will be directly averse to another”.
- “There is a significant risk that the representation of one or more clients will be materially limited by the lawyer’s responsibilities to another client, a former client or a third person or by a personal interest of the lawyer”.
In this case, it is clear that Paul Jones was the first to report to the supervising attorney on his intentions to divorce his wife. Conflicts of interest arise because Paul Jones is the husband of Melanie Jones therefore in their pursuit for legal services they cannot be represented by the same lawyer. This is because if the lawyer decides to represent Melanie Jones, Her husband who is also a client to the same Lawyer would be affected adversely in his pursuit for a divorce.
The consequence of violating the rule on client verse lawyer relationship the lawyer is subject to disciplinary action according to the ABAModel rules of professional conduct.
The lawyer is under an obligation to observe the rules governing his conduct in the practice of his profession keeping in mind that the umbrella body for the law profession has a code of ethics under which all lawyers operate. Practicing law with disregard to rules of the profession calls for disciplinary action to be administered to the concerned lawyer to maintain the high standards of ethical behavior in the profession. Therefore under the law, the supervising attorney should face a penalty for not observing the required ethical standards when dealing with Paul Jones and Melanie Jones.
What should have been done
To prevent the violation of the rule concerning conflict of interest in the lady lawyer-client ship there are a number of things which ought to have been taken care of.
First of all, it was important that during Pauls Jones first contact with the supervisory attorney, he should have taken note of the case pending the time when Paul would have come to start the divorce procedure. The records of Paul Jones would have been very useful in future cases so as to establish if there is a relationship of any other future client with him. With reference to such records using appropriate tools, it would have been possible to detect the possibility of conflict of interests arising in future as a result of another client seeking the services of the same lawyer. When Melanie Jones makes contact with the same supervisory attorney the correct thing that should have been done is running the conflict of interests check. This would have given positive results therefore it would have been clear that she is the wife to Paul Jones and therefore should seek another lawyer or communicate with her husband concerning the matter. The fact that Paul had made contact first with the supervisory attorney should have been explained to her in a good way for her to understand that proceeding with the case would lead to unethical behavior. This information should also have been conveyed to Paul Jones for him to understand why he was given priority over his wife. The issue of Paul noticing the situation when a lot of things have already happened should not have occurred.
In short, records should have been kept well to prevent the supervisory attorney from quickly forgetting that Paul Jones had initially shown up and informed them of his intention to divorce his wise. Negligence on the part of the attorney by not running a conflict of interest check should not have been there if a lot he is ethical and competent.
Role of technology
Technology plays a very significant role in information and communication. Tools in information systems that are effective in managing information are very essential for preventing such undesirable incidences in the course of practicing law. Microsoft Outlook is one such important tool that could be used to capture the information concerning Paul Jones when he made his first contact with the supervisory attorney. In this application, important personal information of the clients should have been stored for future references. With the coming of Melanie Jones, the supervisory attorney should have treated her as a different entity and therefore captured her personal information using Microsoft outlook. After capturing the information, it is important that a conflict of interest be done using the software. This would bring out the relationship between the two and would therefore indicate that there is a conflict of interest Using Microsoft outlook it is possible to store information in an organized way even using the personal folders. There is an option of finding information or contacts on the menu. This can be used quickly to search for related pieces of information that can detect relationships between the different clients who seek for legal services. Microsoft outlook is therefore an efficient way of organizing client information by lawyers to prevent incidences of conflict of interest from occurring due to the tendency to forget especially when a client reports and disappears only to come back later. Microsoft Outlook can therefore be used as a standard protocol for checking conflict of interests by use of client information.This would be important in improving efficiency and professionalism in the practice of law in the firm.