The potential conflict between a lawyer’s obligation to speak on behalf of his client’s interests and his obligation to demonstrate respect for other lawyers manifested publicly when a pregnant lawyer moved to continue a trial.
Her opposing counsel, who represented a plaintiff whose medical condition had resulted in a leg amputation during the pendency of the litigation, asked the court to either move the trial earlier than scheduled to avoid the expected time of the maternity leave or to require that others in the moving lawyer’s firm try the case. He also argued his client could not accept what he perceived as further delay.
