Impartiality
Learn about the balance between a lawyer’s obligation to zealously advocate for a client and the lawyer's duty to be impartial and avoid improperly influencing a court, particularly with respect to ex parte communications, contacting jurors after trial, or engaging in disruptive behavior.
Transcript
Even though a lawyer is expected to advocate on behalf of his client, there are certain limits to how much influence he can seek to have over a tribunal. In this clip, we will review a lawyer’s obligations under Model Rule 3.5 to remain impartial and to ensure that the tribunal’s decisionmakers also remain impartial. We will discuss Model Rule 3.5’s prohibitions against ex parte communications; the circumstances under which a lawyer may communicate with a juror at the conclusion of a...