:EDUCATED IN THE WEST

A very fictitious hypothetical for your consideration:

Brenda is an attorney in a major American city who has been nominated by her medium-sized law firm for a very prestigious legal representation award given by a local bar association. The award comes with a generous prize of about $40,000 and winning it would very much boost Brenda’s future career advancement in her firm and beyond. In assembling her nomination dossier, Brenda solicits and receives a glowing letter of recommendation from Bob, one of her former clients. Brenda helped Bob win a wrongful termination case two years earlier and, by all accounts, did a superb and professional job as his attorney. Bob’s letter is one of ten client letters submitted in support of Brenda’s application.

In fact, Bob is just one of a string of satisfied clients as Brenda has a stellar, unblemished record as a trial attorney and as a legal counselor. Given that, it is of no surprise when the bar association’s awards committee selects Brenda for the prize. She is subsequently showered with admiration and accolades from her colleagues.

Not long after the prize is awarded, the bar association’s newsletter publishes a lengthy write-up about Brenda and her legal career. The writer of the piece quotes extensively from interviews with Brenda’s colleagues and from the praise heaped on her by the writers of her letters of recommendation.

Paula is an attorney who also works with Brenda at the same medium-sized law firm. They are colleagues and friends. She is happy for Brenda and the recognition that Brenda receives from winning the award. One morning, Paula stumbles upon the story about Brenda and her award while reading the bar association’s newsletter. After reading half way through the piece, Paula is shocked to discover that Bob had written a letter of recommendation for Brenda.

Paula has first hand knowledge that while Bob and Brenda initially had an attorney-client relationship, once it was over, their relationship had changed from professional to very personal in nature. In fact, Paula knows for certain that when Brenda solicited the letter from Bob and when Bob wrote his letter, Bob and Brenda had an ongoing sexual relationship. In addition, Paula has hearsay knowledge that Brenda has pushed (and perhaps crossed) the bounds of professionalism by having sexual relationships with clients very soon after the end of their attorney-client relationships.

None of this was ever disclosed to the awards committee. More importantly, no one on the committee knew that Bob and Brenda were lovers. Paula believes that if the underlying conflict of interest had been revealed to the committee, they would have chosen another attorney for the prize despite Brenda’s strong record in court.

1) Do we have a problem here?
2) Was it wrong for Brenda to ask Bob for the letter? Was it wrong for him to agree to write it?
3) In hindsight, did either Brenda or Bob have a duty to disclose their relationship to the committee? Did they both have that duty?
4) What should Paula do, if anything?