In August 2024, the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Responsibility issued ABA Formal Opinion 513 providing further guidance on the explicit duty of a lawyer found in Model Rule 1.16 to inquire into and assess the facts and circumstances of each representation to determine whether the lawyer may accept or continue the representation. Although added in 2023 to help lawyers avoid the facilitation of criminal transactions like money laundering and terrorist financing, the duty applies more broadly to any criminal or fraudulent activity.  

In short, this duty requires some level of inquiry and assessment before taking on a representation. A lawyer can no longer (if they ever could) accept a representation without some basic due diligence.  The scope and extent of the analysis will vary depending on the level of risk that the client may be using the lawyer’s services to…