Quote:
Originally Posted by JMurder3
Clients move around for whatever reason whenever. In Nevada we always do a Substitution of Attorney executed by the client. No idea about there.
Word, maybe we didn't **** up after all. My mentor pretty much said, "this may be the first time you lose a client, but it certainly won't be the last." So that seemed to sum it up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Karak
this is the sort of thing i might call for an ethics opinion for, but imo there's no way im shipping over client files without a direct order from the client. absolutely no way.
this is all just imo and not advice etc.
kind of had an odd situation myself recently where i was appellate counsel for a client, and the client was in the process of replacing the firm representing them at the district court level. (this was an interlocutory appeal in federal court, so both courts kept moving along independent of each other).
got pretty awkward, but was very clear with client that i couldnt communicate on anything with their new counsel until they explicitly told me they had been hired and authorized it. always play it safe with stuff like this.
Right? I thought that was wild that the OC got upset I wouldn't just ship out random client files to a different attorney. Guy has been practicing 41 years, so it's not like he's new to this either.
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Originally Posted by CohibaBehike
NY is similar to Nevada. There is a document called "consent to change attorney" it must be signed by the incoming attorney, the outgoing attorney, the client, and the client's signature must be notarized.
I would just research it in your jurisdiction what is the proper procedure. I can't believe the practice and custom in your area is just getting a letter from some random attorney and it's like okay here you go, here's all my clients confidential information. Do you work along side a mentor figure? Surely he/she been fired before, every attorney has.
That's also just clients being clients. My dad lost an institutional client (a private high school) because one of the administrators of the school played poker with some random attorney. The random attorney sucked and they came running back within a year.
Yeah, I wasn't sure what to make of it tbh. Seemed so informal and just like, no signature, no consent, nothing. Just a random letter saying ship over docs to us or else.
My mentor pretty much said that the other guy is a dick (They graduated law school together in the 70's) and said to do what I had mentioned, i.e. get the CL signature+ OC signature on OC letterhead and could even get it notarized to be safe.
Fwiw, these guys are bigboys in town. Probably the second biggest family law firm with like 15 attorneys or so. Their billing rate is like 3x ours lol, so I understand if our CL had more money, she would drop the new guys and hire the big guns. It's just a random time to do it and it really came out of nowhere. Couldn't help but feel like I was missing some signs along the way or something.