2009

• Opinion 09-04
  Summary:  An attorney who wishes to offer social gifts and other hospitality to judges and court personnel must consult both the Rules governing lawyers’ conduct and the rules governing judges’ conduct and then must engage in a delicate balancing of many factors before concluding that any particular activity is permissible or prohibited.                                                                                                       
  
• Opinion 09-03
  Summary: In the circumstances of this inquiry, a lawyer representing both a foreign worker and his employer in obtaining employment authorization must inform the employer when the government revokes the employment authorization, even though the worker instructs the lawyer not to do so and the lawyer believes that the employer would rather not know.
• Opinion 09-02
  Summary: A lawyer may enter a contingent fee agreement to collect past due child support following entry of a divorce judgment. The lawyer should disclose to her client the availability of free collection services from the Child Support Enforcement Division of the Massachusetts Department of Revenue and may not base any of her fee on any amounts collected through the use of the Department’s services.
• Opinion 2009-01
  

  Summary:  An attorney may not accept a second appointment as guardian ad litem of an incompetent if the appointment would require the attorney to approve prior payments made by the incompetent’s estate for previous services rendered by the attorney as guardian ad litem. The availability of other arrangements for reviewing the attorney’s prior invoices, however, may make it possible for the attorney to accept the appointment.