伦理意见274

Government Agency Attorneys May Participate in a Public Meeting at Which Claimants Who Are Represented by Counsel Are Present

一个政府机构有一种惯例，为根据该机构的计划提出索赔的人举行公开会议. 这些会议的目的是解释项目, 解释机构政策, 回答问题.

A lawyer who represents a group of claimants cannot prevent the agency from conducting 会议 on the ground that 会议 constitutes an unauthorized contact by the agency’s counsel with represented parties under 规则4.2(a). 不管该机构的澳门赌场官网是否出席，这都是事实, 甚至参与到, 会议.

适用的规则

• 规则4.2(a)(澳门赌场官网与对方的沟通)

调查

The Pension Benefit Guaranty 公司 (“PBGC”) is a corporation owned by the United States Government and established pursuant to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”), 29 U.S.C. § 1302. 除此之外，PBGC还管理着一个养老金计划终止保险项目. 当资金不足的养老金计划终止时, PBGC通常被指定为该计划的法定受托人. 作为受托人, PBGC拥有类似于破产法第704条规定的受托人的权力, 11 U.S.C. §704, PBGC负责根据ERISA第四章的要求支付该计划下的福利. 29 U.S.C. § 1342(d)(3).

在引起这次调查的情况下, PBGC was appointed to be trustee of a Colorado-based plan having approximately 4300 participants at the time of its termination. 根据机构的惯例, PBGC向已知的计划参与者发出通知，邀请他们参加由PBGC召集的会议.

会议的目的是提供有关PBGC保险制度的一般信息, 描述ERISA保证的一般限制, 回答问题. 在这类会议上, PBGC员工讨论申请索赔的程序, PBGC保证的这些类型的利益的性质和范围, 以及机构处理索赔的政策和程序. The meetings are thought to be an efficient method of disseminating information to claimants and of answering recurrent questions that claimants tend to raise with the agency.

在会议开始之前, 300名计划受益人聘请澳门赌场官网协助他们获得某些具体索赔的付款. PBGC有责任在第一时间决定受益人的索赔是否会得到支付.

代表300名受益人/索赔人的澳门赌场官网写信给PBGC，要求该机构不要召开会议. Counsel asserted that the proposed meeting was an attempt to side-step or undermine her representation of her 300 claimant clients in violation of 规则4.2(a). 澳门赌场官网要求PBGC就其客户的索赔直接和专门与她进行交易.

这种类型的PBGC会议由PBGC的非澳门赌场官网员工主持. 然而, a PBGC staff attorney attends 会议 for the purpose of providing advice to the non-lawyer concerning the conduct of 会议. 员工澳门赌场官网通常不会在会议上发言, although it is possible that if a question beyond the legal competence of the non-lawyer PBGC employee who is conducting 会议 were asked, PBGC的专职澳门赌场官网可能会对问题给出部分或全部的回答.

初学的, PBGC的专职澳门赌场官网, 请委员会就规则4的适用发表意见.2(a)适用于上述情况. 具体地说, the Inquirer asks whether: (1) PBGC was obliged to cancel 会议 in response to counsel’s demand; (2) PBGC was required to direct its attorneys not to attend 会议; and (3)PBGC should invite or direct counsel’s 300 beneficiary/claimant clients to leave 会议.

调查人员还请委员会就规则4的适用问题发表意见.2(a)针对PBGC使用承包商履行行政职能的做法. 这些承包商在PBGC没有员工代表的地方担任“现场福利管理员”. The contractors work under the supervision of non-lawyer employees of PBGC and provide most of the front-line services to plan participants. 例如, 这些服务可能包括收集计划记录, 应用程序, 以及索赔人的个人资料，并解释计划条款和PBGC担保限制. 以这种身份, 承包商收到了许多电话咨询和办公室访问的参与者可能, 也可能不会, 由澳门赌场官网代表.

讨论

规则4.2(a)规定:

在代理客户的过程中, 澳门赌场官网不得沟通, 或者导致另一个人交流, 关于与已知在该事项中由另一澳门赌场官网代理的当事人的代理主题, 除非澳门赌场官网事先得到代表该当事人的澳门赌场官网的同意，或法律授权澳门赌场官网这样做.

首先值得注意的是这里讨论的规则的目的. 规则4.第2(a)条旨在防止澳门赌场官网与对方澳门赌场官网的客户直接沟通. 它的主要目的之一是保护对抗制度. A client who receives a communication from opposing counsel without the participation of his own counsel may not be able to evaluate the correctness of statements of law made by opposing counsel. 没有澳门赌场官网的参与, 未受保护的当事人可以在对方澳门赌场官网的诱导下认罪, 放弃保密, or taking positions detrimental to the client’s interest without the client’s realizing it because the client’s lawyer is not aware of, 不参与, 的通信. 看到 D.C. 酒吧Op. 258(1995)，特别是nn的文本. 5-10. 规则4.2(一个), 就其本身而言, 可由澳门赌场官网(且仅由澳门赌场官网)放弃，因为, 在适当的情况下, 澳门赌场官网可以授权对方澳门赌场官网在没有澳门赌场官网参与的情况下与其当事人联系.

有若干理由说明委员会为什么认为规则4.2(a)并不妨碍PBGC在本调查中存在争议的行为. 首先, 询问者所描述的会议是由PBGC自己发起的，作为其受托人职能的一部分, PBGC的专职澳门赌场官网的出席是偶然的. There is no indication that PBGC’s staff attorneys are using non-lawyer employees of the agency to accomplish indirectly anything that the staff attorneys would themselves be prevented by 规则4.2(a)直接完成.

The rule does not 通过定义 apply to non-lawyers and therefore by extension does not apply to the clients of lawyers unless there is some indication - not present here -that lawyers are using non-lawyers to circumvent the rules. 在这种情况下，PBGC是其内部澳门赌场官网的客户, 澳门赌场官网的道德规范不会阻止该机构的非澳门赌场官网雇员进行这类会议.

调查, 从这个角度看, resolves into a question of whether the non-lawyer employees of PBGC who conduct these meetings can be accompanied to 会议s by the agency’s counsel when some (but probably not all) members of the audience may 由澳门赌场官网代表. We discern no valid reason why PBGC’s non-lawyer employees should be deprived of the advice of the agency’s counsel in these circumstances.

最后, when the lawyer representing the claimants is aware in advance of 会议—which she undoubtedly was in this case—the lawyer representing the claimants has a number of choices: she can consent to her clients’ attendance at 会议; she can attend 会议 with her clients; or she can counsel her clients not to attend. 原告的澳门赌场官网, 然而, 试图改变预防规则, 防止对方澳门赌场官网在未经同意的情况下与她的客户接触, 成为澳门赌场官网阻止PBGC举行公开会议的攻击性武器.

PBGC不会在此类会议上讨论个别索赔人的事实和情况. 而, 按照我们的理解, the purpose of these meetings is to give general information concerning the outlines of the agency’s program and the types of benefits that the agency guarantees and to answer general questions along these lines. The rules of ethics for lawyers should not interfere with the right of non-lawyer employees and staff attorneys for a government agency from communicating this kind of useful information to the interested public absent a very clear reason to do so.

It may be possible to imagine circumstances in which a question from the floor was so specifically idiosyncratic to the questioner in a particular case where the agency staff attorney knows that the questioner is represented by counsel, that prudence would dictate deferring a response to such a question to the ordinary course of the claims adjudication process.

然而, 只要会议的重点仍然是向感兴趣的公众提供一般信息, 规则4中没有.2(a)对该机构非澳门赌场官网雇员行为的影响, and lawyer employees of the agency can participate in the process unless they know that they are being drawn into a discussion of an individualized subject as to which a potential claimant is represented by counsel.

至于第二个分支的调查涉及领域利益的管理者, 这些承包商是, 通过定义, 不是澳门赌场官网, 因此规则4中没有任何内容.(a)妨碍其行为的. Only in a circumstance where an agency attorney sought to communicate with a represented client through the intermediary of a field benefit administrator with the purpose of circumventing the claimant’s attorney would 规则4.2(a)生效. 然而, 根据向我方提出的调查事实, 没有迹象表明这里存在这种行为.

调查没有. 94-8-33
通过:1997年9月17日