

DR 5-105 requires a lawyer faced with a potential conflict to engage in a three-step analysis. In New York, a concurrent client conflict - when a lawyer simultaneously represents two clients with differing or potentially differing interests - falls under DR 5-105 of the New York Code of Professional Responsibility.

Co.,, shows just how far reaching these effects can be.īefore describing the Brittany Kay decision and its implications, we will discuss the Disciplinary Rule governing concurrent client conflicts and how that rule generally has been applied in adoption cases. A decision by Family Court Judge Rand, In the Matter of the Adoption of Brittany Kay, Slip Op., N.Y. The consequences are even more severe in an adoption, where a lawyer’s ethical lapse can have an indelible impact on the future of the adoptive parents, the natural parents and, perhaps most poignantly, the adoptive child.

Minkoff Įvery attorney knows the severe consequences of failing to recognize a conflict of interest between two current clients: the attorney may be disqualified from the case, may be denied her fees and may lose one or both of the clients.
