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ETHICS SPOTLIGHTAn Attorney’s Ethical Duties in His or Her Own Divorce Case Laura W. Morgan,Senior Attorney for Family Law, National Legal Research Group Executive Editor, Divorce Litigation This month we’ll take another look at an attorney’s ethical duties
in his or her own divorce case.
We looked at this issue before, in the May 1998 Ethics Spotlight. See also Louis Parley, The
Ethical Family Lawyer 161-167 (1995). In Vickery v. Commission for Lawyer Discipline, No.
14-97-00586-CV (Tex. Ct. App. 14th Dist. July 29, 1999),
Glenn W. Vickery persuaded his wife Helen to go along with a divorce in
order to shield some of their assets from a possible legal malpractice
judgment. Vickery arranged
for a colleague, Dianne Richards, to represent Helen. Unbeknownst to Helen, Vickery
and Richards were acting in concert to deprive Helen of as much
community property as possible and have Helen waive as many rights as
possible. He misrepresented
some of the facts needed for the divorce and omitted valuable assets from the
property division. As soon as the divorce was final, Vickery married one of Helen’s close
friends, and then tried to evict Helen from the marital residence. When Helen retained new counsel
to overturn the divorce decree, Vickery asked another colleague, Allyn
Hoagland, to convey to Helen a proposed settlement agreement, even
though Vickery knew Helen was represented by counsel. Hoagland told Helen if she
didn’t settle, Vickery might have her prosecuted for an alleged
burglary of his townhouse. After Helen obtained a judgment against Vickery, she complained to the disciplinary committee. The court found that Vickery committed multiple ethical violations, including: (1) causing Hoagland to communicate with Helen despite the knowledge she was represented by counsel; (2) threatening Helen with criminal charges to gain an advantage in a civil matter; (3) inducing Richards to represent to violate the rule against representing opposing parties; (4) misrepresentation of factual matters in the divorce pleadings. Laura W. Morgan is a Senior Attorney in Family Law at the National Legal Research Group, in Charlottesville, Virginia, a firm that writes memoranda and briefs for attorneys nationwide. Ms. Morgan is the author of "Child Support Guidelines: Interpretation and Application," and is currently Chair of the Child Support Committee of the American Bar Association Family Law Section. She can be reached at: goddess@supportguidelines.com, or phone 1-800-727-6574 or 1-804-977-5690 © 1999 National Legal Research Group FAM-LAW-LIT:
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