An issue on which I get a call now and then is whether or when we’re going to recognize that an insurance defense lawyer has two clients—the insured and the insurer. My answer is always the same—even though there’s clear law that says the only client is the insured, it’s a minority approach; many states recognize the two-client approach as both permissible and practical.

There’s a rich body of case law, law reviews and scholarly articles on the problem one judge described as the “iron triangle.” Others refer to it as the “eternal triangle” and, more esoterically, the “tripartite insurance defense relationship.” According to two experts in the field, William T. Barker and Charles Silver, who published an excellent treatise on the ethical duties of insurance defense lawyers, 39 or more states have embraced the notion.