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A lawyer represents a defendant in a drug smuggling case. The defendant is in pretrial custody in a distant city and cannot be reached by telephone. One key issue in the defendant's case is on the cutting edge of search and seizure law, and the lawyer believes that he needs help to deal with the issue competently. The lawyer's former law professor is a nationally known expert on search and seizure law, but is not licensed to practice law in that state. The lawyer calls his former professor to ask for help and also asks that the professor keep their conversation confidential. To frame the issue accurately, the lawyer tells the law professor some information that the defendant revealed to the lawyer in confidence. The lawyer does not tell the professor the name of his client. Is the lawyer subject to discipline for disclosing the defendant's confidential information to the professor?

User Datatoo
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Answer: The lawyer is subject to discipline for disclosing the defendant's confidential information to the professor.

Step-by-step explanation:

Confidentiality is the basic principle of legal ethics. Lawyers who obtain information at represent a client are required to keep the secret (in the absence of the customer consent to be disclosed). If a lawyer obtains information from a client who, if disclosed, would avoid that another person is wrongly convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to death, must keep silent, even if revealing that information does not involve the client in the crime.

The lawyers who violate the rule of Confidentiality are subject to sanctions, which may include disqualification to exercise your Profession and demands for malpractice.

Lawyers are not the only people in society to whom information is entrusted secret Friends, couples, family and business partners, among many others, also get private information, often with the express or implied agreement that it will be maintained confidential. Undoubtedly, these other groups also face the occasional dilemma of maintaining Confidentiality or disclosure of information in order to avoid damage to third parties.

User CH Ben
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