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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-4056" src="https://www.thelawforlawyerstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/754/2018/09/Rat-rule-300x250.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="250">In the movie &ldquo;Goodfellas,&rdquo; Robert De Niro <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5Mfs44MhYM">famously advises</a> that the two greatest life lessons are &ldquo;Never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut.&rdquo;&nbsp; Those are good rules&nbsp;if you&rsquo;re in a crime syndicate.&nbsp; But as most lawyers know, our Rules of Professional Conduct can actually require us to &ldquo;rat out&rdquo; our fellow lawyers, under some&nbsp;limited circumstances.&nbsp; <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_8_3_reporting_professional_misconduct.html">Model Rule 8.3(a)</a>, adopted in some version in almost all jurisdictions, says:
&ldquo;A lawyer who knows that another lawyer has committed a violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct that raises a substantial question as to that lawyer&rsquo;s honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer in other respects, shall inform the appropriate professional authority.&rdquo;
Rule 8.3(b) applies the principle to judges.
But do you ever have to, in effect, rat yourself out &mdash; self-reporting your own ethical misconduct?
In almost every jurisdiction&nbsp;(my home state of Ohio is an exception), the answer is &ldquo;No.&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;The Model Rule, as incorporated into almost all the state&nbsp;professional conduct rules and&nbsp;the rules of the District of&nbsp;Columbia,&nbsp;deals expressly with reporting the ethical misconduct of &ldquo;another lawyer.&rdquo;&nbsp; Under that language, there is no ethical duty to self-report your own violation of the professional conduct rules.&nbsp;&nbsp;In some jurisdictions, though, self-reporting might be considered as part of the&nbsp;mitigating factors that can&nbsp;reduce the severity of professional discipline, as a recent&nbsp;Nevada&nbsp;opinion illustrates.
Stayed suspensions for trust fund&nbsp;misconduct
In the Nevada case, two lawyers got one-year fully-stayed suspensions after their employee improperly used more than $1 million in client trust account funds to pay firm business expenses.&nbsp; As described in the state supreme court&rsquo;s <a href="http://filehost.thompsonhine.com/uploads/In_re_Myers_812c.pdf">opinion</a>, the two lawyers admitted they violated Nevada&rsquo;s version of <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_5_3_responsibilities_regarding_nonlawyer_assistant.html">Model Rule 5.3</a>, by failing to properly supervise a non-lawyer assistant, and they agreed to the sanction.&nbsp; The lawyers were not aware of the non-lawyer&rsquo;s actions.&nbsp; And, strikingly, &ldquo;Within fifteen minutes of discovering the non-lawyer assistant&rsquo;s improper trust fund transfers,&rdquo; they &ldquo;self-reported to the State Bar.&rdquo;&nbsp; In accepting the proposed discipline, the supreme court noted the lawyers&rsquo; &ldquo;full and free disclosure to disciplinary authority.&rdquo;&nbsp; It also helped that the lawyers immediately hired a forensic accountant for an audit, and began repaying the trust account shortfall out of earned fees.
... And you might have to self-report crimes and/or other discipline
The general rule excusing you from ratting on yourself is turned upside down in&nbsp;many places, however, when it comes to self-reporting discipline that is imposed on you by a&nbsp;court (for instance a federal court)&nbsp;or by a disciplinary authority in another jurisdiction.&nbsp; In those cases, <a href="https://abaforlawstudents.com/2018/02/01/a-lawyers-duty-to-self-report-disciplinary-misconduct/">many jurisdictions</a> require you to bring the matter to the attention of your home state&rsquo;s disciplinary body.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s not the misconduct itself, but the fact of disciplinary action emanating from somewhere besides your home jurisdiction&rsquo;s highest court&nbsp;that&nbsp;triggers this kind of self-reporting duty.
You also might have a duty to self-report if you are charged with&nbsp;or convicted of&nbsp;a crime.&nbsp; If (heaven forbid) you find yourself in that situation, you should get advice about what your jurisdiction requires of you, including any mandatory time&nbsp;frames on self-reporting.
Carve-out for lawyer assistance programs
Last,&nbsp;a PSA:&nbsp; If you are struggling with a mental health problem, or with substance abuse, be aware that the <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/lawyer_assistance/resources/lap_programs_by_state.html">lawyer assistance program that every jurisdiction has</a> is very likely exempted from reporting to disciplinary authorities misconduct that its staff lawyers learn of in the course of helping you.&nbsp; Check your own state&rsquo;s version of Model Rule 8.3(c), but those I&rsquo;m aware of have some form of the Model Rule&rsquo;s carve-out:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&ldquo;This Rule does not require disclosure of information otherwise protected by Rule 1.6 or information gained by a lawyer or judge while participating in an approved lawyers assistance program.&rdquo;
Here in Ohio, our lawyer assistance program advises that no disciplinary problem is ever made worse by seeking help.

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Ethics

Legal Ethics, Professional Responsibility and the Business of Law

Do you ever have to rat yourself out?  It may sometimes help…