The Ethics of Collaborative Law

31 Pages Posted: 26 Feb 2008

See all articles by Scott R. Peppet

Scott R. Peppet

University of Colorado Law School

Abstract

The practice of Collaborative Law - in which both parties agree that should their case fail to settle, both lawyers will be disqualified from proceeding to court - has grown rapidly in the family bar over the last decade. At the same time, the ethics of this practice have been called into question. Competing ethics opinions in 2007 - from the Colorado Bar Association and the American Bar Association - alternately ban and permit the practice. This Article tries to clarify the underlying ethical issues in Collaborative Law, arguing that much confusion has resulted from imprecise understandings of what the practice is and how it is typically effected by contract. The Article concludes that Collaborative Law can comply with the current professional ethics rules, but that this result is not inevitable - collaborative lawyers must be careful to structure their practice to avoid certain ethical pitfalls.

Keywords: collaborative law, ethics, legal ethics, alternative dispute resolution, adr

Suggested Citation

Peppet, Scott R., The Ethics of Collaborative Law. Journal of Dispute Resolution, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1097315

Scott R. Peppet (Contact Author)

University of Colorado Law School ( email )

401 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
228
Abstract Views
1,378
Rank
275,062
PlumX Metrics