I. Introduction

• Library: Professional Responsibility in Litigation (ABA) (2016 Ed.)

I. Introduction

Co-counsel relationships between attorneys in different law firms are quite common. Corporations often engage national or coordinating counsel to work with local or regional counsel in various types of litigation. Lawyers asked by clients to handle cases in foreign jurisdictions affiliate with local counsel, with those relationships often becoming reciprocal. Two law firms may collaborate to land business from a corporate client that neither could obtain alone. Lawyers who lack experience or expertise in some aspect of the law align with specialized co-counsel or veteran practitioners to achieve competence while preserving client relationships. Lawyers refer clients to attorneys with specialized practices while maintaining a broader concurrent relationship with those clients and ostensibly overseeing the work of the lawyers to whom the referrals are made. Given the prevalence of co-counsel and referral relationships, it should surprise no one that co-counsel may find themselves actually or potentially adverse to one another, or that co-counsel relationships may have significant professional responsibility components. Indeed, co-counsel and referral relationships between lawyers are so common and widespread that controversies are inevitable, whether linked to tactical disagreements, alleged errors by one of the lawyers, client-centered disputes, or fights over fees.

Consider, for example, the experience of Maine lawyer Terrance Duddy. His client, Albert Wooster, was injured in a collision on a Wyoming highway in which the other party's driver was at fault.¹ The other party was clearly capable of satisfying any...