The time has come for the legal profession to say a clear no to sexual misconduct by attorneys who prey on emotionally or financially vulnerable clients, according to one of the state`s larger lawyer groups.
The Chicago Bar Association has proposed to the Illinois Supreme Court a tough new rule that would prohibit lawyers from coercing clients into having sex with them.
The proposed rule also would prohibit lawyers from having sex with a client whose decision to enter into such a relationship is influenced by feelings of emotional or financial dependency.
There are no reliable statistics on how often lawyers attempt to trade legal representation for sex. But reports of sexual misconduct by lawyers have surfaced here in several court cases in recent years. A state Appellate Court judge has described such allegations as the legal profession`s ”dirty little secret.”
”A lot of this type of behavior is going on. We know that the problem exists; we also know it`s something that`s difficult to report,” said Mary C. Ambrose-Gerak, the lawyer who chaired a bar association subcommittee that studied the problem and developed the proposed rule.
The subcommittee`s report, released Monday, says the new rule is needed
”to provide a clear statement by the Illinois legal profession that sexually exploitive relationships between lawyers and clients, just like financially exploitive relationships between lawyers and clients, are intolerable as a matter of ethical principle.”
The subcommittee report and its proposed rule were endorsed earlier this month by the bar association`s board.
”The intent of this rule is to provide real clear guidelines to attorneys about a very serious problem,” Ambrose-Gerak said.
A similar rule was proposed in California, but its implementation has been delayed by that state`s Supreme Court.
The subcommittee report concludes that` existing rules, which generally prohibit conflicts of interest or conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice, are too vague or ambiguous to be effective against sexual misconduct. ”The public is waiting to see what Illinois attorneys will do,” the report says. ”Silence might well be interpreted as either tacit approval, or, even worse, protection for the wrong party in these relationships.”
In-laws` day in court
Rarely do confrontations with an in-law receive such a public and, well, legal display.
But on Thursday, Sidley & Austin associate Holly Harrison will argue before the federal appeals court in Chicago against her father-in-law, Phil C. Neal, a senior partner at Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg.
On one thing they agree:
”It`s a once-in-a-lifetime situation,” said Harrison, a seventh-year associate. ”It`s not one I ever envisioned myself being in.”
”It is fairly unusual,” agreed Neal, who was dean of the University of Chicago Law School from 1963 to 1975.
Sidley & Austin represents the Illinois Department of Insurance as liquidator of the insolvent Pine Top Insurance Co. The department is seeking to recover property that Pine Top transferred to the Bank of America of Los Angeles, which is represented by Neal, Gerber. The case has been wending its way through the legal process for about two years.
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”It`s kind of strange to take a deposition and see your father-in-law sitting there, or to get into a discovery skirmish with your father-in-law,” Harrison said. ”I`m just thankful, to the extent both Phil and I are zealous advocates, that it hasn`t seemed to spill over. Our Christmas was fine.”
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