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A lawyer can make an agreement for, charge, or collect any fee in a family law matter, if the payment is contingent upon the amount of spousal or child support or representation of a defendant in a criminal case.

A lawyer’s responsibilities in a matter are owed to the client, except where the lawyer also represent the payor in the same matter.

Pertaining to Declining or Terminating Representation, if the lawyers mental or physical condition renders it unreasonably difficult to carry out his representation effectively he can still represent his client for up to a six month period.

Rule 4.3, Communicating with an Unrepresented Person, is intended to protect unrepresented persons whatever their interests, from being misled when communicating with a lawyer who is acting for a client.

Attorneys must be able to provide, at any time, a client with a full and accurate accounting of all money they have received from the client.

A lawyer shall not engage in sexual relations with a current client who is not the lawyer’s spouse or registered domestic partner unless a consensual sexual relationship existed between them when the lawyer-client relationship began.

A client can always be solicited by their lawyer to make a “substantial” gift to the lawyer. This includes a testamentary gift.

Laura Lawyer’s client Curtis brought a check for $2000 to Laura as an advance payment retainer. Laura instructs you to include the payment in Curtis’s fee agreement and put this money in the firm’s General Operating Account. Under California’s ethics rules, you:

A lawyer shall not present a claim of defense in litigation that is not warranted under existing law, unless it can be supported by a good faith argument for an extension, modification, or reversal of the existing law.

Additional duties of the lawyer when representing both client and payor include an oral consent from both parties.