Ethics Guidance for Attorneys

Informal Ethics Guidance.

As a service to members of the bar, informal guidance on active and pending ethics issues may be provided by bar counsel or counsel’s designees. Such guidance is generally based on unverified information under informal circumstances and assumes that the facts as related are all true and accurate. Informal guidance has no binding legal effect on Courts, the Ethics Committee, the Disciplinary Board or the Board of Governors and cannot be used as evidence in any legal or administrative proceeding. It is intended to provide practical, real-time guidance to practitioners faced with ethics issues. It is not a substitute for an attorney’s duty to be aware of the Rules of Professional Conduct requirements. However, it may be used as a defense or in mitigation of any subsequent ethical action involving the same facts.

Call Bar Counsel Phil Shanahan at 907-272-7469 (fax: 907-272-2932) for informal ethics guidance — get some direction the minute you suspect a problem.

You may also call Kevin Cuddy, Chair, Bar Ethics Committee at 907-277-1900, or an experienced lawyer in your practice area to discuss an ethics question.

View the Alaska Bar Adopted Ethics Opinions.

Additional Resources: (listed alphabetically)