The Ethics of Firing Your Client

• Pages: 20-21
• Date: 01 July 2025
• Published date: 01 July 2025
• Author: Hon. Carl A. Aveni
• Subject Matter: Administrative & Public Law

Published i n Litigation News Volu me 50, Number 4 , Summer 2025. © 2 025 by the Americ an Bar Associa tion. Reprodu ced with permiss ion. All rights r eserved. Thi s information or any p ortion

thereof may not b e copied or dis seminated in a ny form or by any mea ns or stored in a n electroni c database or r etrieval syst em without the ex press writt en consent of th e American B ar Associa tion.

atching attorney-client relationships play

out from the bench, I’m sometimes reminded

of Tolstoy’s observation that “[h]appy families

are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy

in its own way.” As a group, fruitful lawyer-

client relationships are all generally collaborative and trusting,

and they showcase clearly dened, mutually-reinforcing roles—

at least as viewed from the public spaces of the courthouse.

The unhappy relationships, by contrast, are much harder to

pigeonhole. There might be an ongoing power struggle to set

strategy. A failure or refusal to understand the facts. A willing-

ness to disregard rules, norms, or etiquette. A long overdue bill

for services rendered. Sometimes, there’s just a palpable, icy

tension measured in eyerolls and exasperated sighs. Whatever

the cause, it’s clear when the relationship isn’t working. But

often, by the time the problems have burst into open view, the

best moments for terminating the relationship have long since

passed.

In most jurisdictions, the lawyers need judicial permission

to withdraw from ongoing litigation after entering their initial

appearance. Thus, ABA Model Rule 1.16(c) directs that “[a]

lawyer must comply with applicable law requiring notice to

or permission of a tribunal when terminating a representation.

When ordered to do so by a tribunal, a lawyer shall continue

representation notwithstanding good cause for terminating

the representation.” And while courts are generally loath to

forcibly perpetuate unwilling attorney-client relationships,

The Ethics of Firing Your Client

By Hon. Carl A. Aveni, Litigation News Asso ciate Editor

© Getty Image s

permission to withdraw is no sure thing, particularly when

rst sought on the eve of trial over the client’s objection. If the

basis for withdrawing is primarily nancial, with a long over-

due account receivable, but rst raised on the cusp of a previ-

ously continued trial where the burden of further delay would

also be borne by other litigants, the lawyer may well end up

trying the case as scheduled—whether they ultimately get paid

or not.

Is Withdrawal M andatory?

Of course, in some instances, the lawyers simply have no

choice and must terminate the relationship. ABA Model Rule

1.16(a) provides a laundry list of those circumstances where a

lawyer “shall” withdraw—the most common being where the

client has proactively red the lawyer (presuming the client’s

competency to make that decision and excepting indigency

appointments in criminal cases). The other frequently recurring

basis for mandatory withdrawal is where “the representation

will result in violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct

or other law”—typically because of unwaived or unwaivable

conicts of interest proscribed in Model Rules 1.7 and 1.9.

Likewise, lawyers must withdraw if changes in their own physi-

cal or mental health have impaired their ability to continue

the representation, per Model Rule 1.16(a)(2).

Finally, Model Rule 1.16(a)(4) requires the lawyer to with-

draw if the client “seeks to use or persists in using the law-

yer’s services to commit or further a crime or fraud, despite

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