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Thompson Hine LLP, a full-service business law firm with approximately 400 lawyers in 11 offices, was ranked number 1 in the category “Most innovative North American law firms: New working models” by The Financial Times and was 1 of 7 firms shortlisted for The American Lawyer’s inaugural Legal Services Innovation Award. The firm has been recognized by the National Law Journal as a Legal Technology Trailblazer and featured by Bloomberg for its innovative service delivery models, which drive accuracy and predictability. The firm’s commitment to innovation is embodied in Thompson Hine SmartPaTHTM – a smarter way to work – predictable, efficient and aligned with client goals. For more information, please visit ThompsonHine.com and ThompsonHine.com/SmartPaTH.

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<img style="max-width: 100%;height: auto;max-width: 100%;height: auto" loading="lazy" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-2339" src="https://www.thelawforlawyerstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/754/2016/02/Money-laundering-300x200.jpg" alt="Money laundering" width="300" height="200">The set-up:&nbsp; Potential client calls you on the phone.&nbsp; He&nbsp;says he is&nbsp;representing a government minister from a mineral-rich West African nation &mdash; he won&rsquo;t say which one.&nbsp; But his (unnamed) principal&nbsp;needs legal help in order to move millions of dollars into the U.S. &mdash; consisting of&nbsp;what the representative&nbsp;candidly describes as &ldquo;tainted money&rdquo; and &ldquo;gray money;&rdquo; actually, bribes the government minister has received in exchange for grants of mineral rights.
Do you take the bait and schedule a meeting to discuss representing the client?&nbsp; Do you accept an engagement?
Secret tapes
That, in fact,&nbsp;was the set-up for the 60 Minutes segment on money-laundering and the U.S.&nbsp;legal system&nbsp;on January 31; you can watch it <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/anonymous-inc-60-minutes-steve-kroft-investigation/">here</a>.
Of course, the &ldquo;representative&rdquo; of the unnamed West Africa government official was in fact an imposter who was working&nbsp;with <a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en/">Global Witness</a>, a&nbsp;British-based public advocacy group.&nbsp;&nbsp;But shockingly,&nbsp;13 law firms scheduled meetings with the supposed client&nbsp;to discuss representing his anonymous principal.&nbsp; That was out of 50 firms the imposter called.
The resulting interviews with the &ldquo;client&rsquo;s&rdquo; representative&nbsp;were secretly videotaped, and some might appear to suggest that the lawyers involved were willing to advise the &ldquo;client&rdquo; in carrying out an illegal money-laundering scheme.
Glass half-full?
So far, so bad.&nbsp; One lawyer, though, rejected the bait, saying that &ldquo;it ain&rsquo;t for me,&rdquo; and raising questions about the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.&nbsp; That&rsquo;s nice, but what about the other 12 firms?
My friend Brian Faughnan, over at <a href="http://faughnanonethics.com/">Faughnan on Ethics</a>, has some interesting <a href="http://faughnanonethics.com/?p=860">comments</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;Among other things, he suggests that the proverbial glass might&nbsp;actually half-full.&nbsp; Yes, 12 firms were potentially on thin ice, ethically speaking, if the &ldquo;client&rdquo; had been real, and if the secret tapes accurately reflected their conduct.&nbsp; But 37 firms wouldn&rsquo;t even meet with the guy.&nbsp; That&rsquo;s a 75 percent score for the smart folks.&nbsp; The American Bar Association&rsquo;s response to the 60 Minutes segment is <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2016/01/statement_of_abapre0.html">here</a>.
I don&rsquo;t think that 75 percent is anything to brag about, necessarily.&nbsp; Lawyers need to be far&nbsp;more responsive to the big red flags that were abundant in the fake scenario portrayed in the videos:&nbsp; unnamed African countries, anonymous principals, and above all, money that was candidly described as &ldquo;tainted.&rdquo;
Ethical duties at risk
Everyone should be aware of the knife edge that your jurisdiction&rsquo;s version of <a href="http://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_1_2_scope_of_representation_allocation_of_authority_between_client_lawyer.html">Model Rule 1.2(d)</a> puts you on.&nbsp; You can never &ldquo;counsel a client to engage, or assist a client, in conduct that the lawyer knows is criminal or fraudulent.&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;You can and should &ldquo;discuss the legal consequences of any proposed course of conduct with a client.&rdquo;
And, as Comment [9] explains, you are not precluded &ldquo;from giving an honest opinion about the actual consequences that appear likely to result from a client&rsquo;s conduct. ... There is a critical distinction between presenting an analysis of legal aspects of questionable conduct and recommending the means by which a crime or fraud might be committed with impunity.&rdquo;
Where the line between these two polarities is located is the ethical challenge that we all face.&nbsp; But a significant minority of the lawyers in the 60 Minutes segment flunked the test.&nbsp; That&rsquo;s a disappointment, and adds&nbsp;to a media&nbsp;image of the legal profession that is sadly too common.

core/freeform

Ethics

Legal Ethics, Professional Responsibility and the Business of Law

60 Minutes segment shows ethics issues in client representation