Professional Responsibility

Question 1

Duty to Supervise Subordinate Attorney

Answer 1

Under ABA Rules and CA law, partners and supervising attorneys must make reasonable efforts to establish internal policies and procedures to provide reasonable assurance that subordinate attorneys comply with ethical rules. Those policies and procedures should include procedures for:

1. detecting and resolving conflicts of interest;
2. identifying deadlines in pending matters so deadlines are not missed;
3. accounting for client funds and property; AND
4. ensuring proper supervision of inexperienced lawyers.