LETTER FROM THE ISSUE EDITOR

Written by Neil J Wertlieb
Issue Editor

The Business Law News (BLN) is pleased to present its first-ever issue devoted entirely to ethical issues of interest to business lawyers. Each article contained herein was written by a member of the Ethics Committee of the California Lawyers Association.

In her article entitled Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Ethical Guidelines for Lawyers Investing in Clients, Merri A. Baldwin analyzes the ethical and other rules that govern the actions of lawyers who wish to invest (or take some form of stake) in their clients. Merri discusses the types of investments lawyers make in their clients, and the ethical, malpractice insurance, and law firm risk management policy concerns that may arise from such investments.

In her article entitled Determining Whether a Representation Against a Client’s Subsidiary Constitutes a Conflicted Representation, Elizabeth L. Bradley explores the question of whether and when adversity against the subsidiary of a client might be considered a conflict of interest, even where the subsidiary itself has not been onboarded as a client of the lawyer. Elizabeth considers the duty of loyalty, whether the potentially conflicted representation is successive or concurrent, and the application of the "unity of interests" test, in determining whether adversity against a client’s subsidiary creates a conflict of interest for the lawyer.