Bloomberg Law
April 19, 2018, 3:11 PM UTC

Lawyers Can Delete Old Files on Prospective Clients

Mindy L. Rattan
Mindy L. Rattan
Reporter/Editor

Lawyers don’t usually need to preserve or turn over information about a prospective client who doesn’t become an actual client, the District of Columbia legal ethics committee said in a recent opinion.

The opinion gives a green light to D.C. lawyers who want to dispose of their notes of meetings with prospective clients that never resulted in an attorney-client relationship.

The committee said a lawyer’s obligations change when the parties decide not to form an attorney-client relationship. Before the decision, the committee said, a lawyer must safeguard a prospective client’s property, including intangible property, under DC Rules of Professional Conduct ...

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