Office of the General Counsel

• Jurisdiction: Georgia,United States
• Citation: Vol. 26 No. 6 Pg. 0046
• Pages: 0046
• Publication year: 2021

Office of the General Counsel Vol. 26 No. 6 Pg. 46 Georgia Bar Journal June, 2021

"She Never Even Hired Me": Duties to Prospective Clients

BY PAULA FREDERICK

"I caught him red-handed," your potential client says. "When I turned on the lights I saw him trying to stuff those pictures into ..."

With a sinking heart, you realize that you have heard this story before—from the other side.

You started offering free consultations as a way of getting clients in the door of your new solo practice. It has really paid off, even though very few of the consultations result in paying clients.

But every now and then after you turn away a potential client with a weak case, their adversary—the one with the better case—also calls for a consultation. You would love to take them on, and but for the one-hour conversation with someone who never paid you a dime, you could!

What duties do you owe to someone who consults, but does not hire you?

The answer is clearer now that Georgia has adopted Rule 1.18, Duties to Prospective Client.

Even without a specific rule, lawyers have always understood that they cannot reveal confidential information obtained from a client during a consultation—the system just wouldn't work if it were otherwise. But under what circumstances can a lawyer decline representation, then later agree to represent the other side?

The new rule prohibits the subsequent representation if the lawyer received "disqualifying information" during the consultation—that is, information that could be significantly harmful to the potential client in the matter.

The comments acknowledge that since the relationship between a lawyer and a prospective client is limited, prospective...