I get calls—many calls—from folks who need a quick ethics answer. I started answering them while I was chief disciplinary counsel, though it was kind of against best practices, as anyone who relied on me, and then got into ethics hot water as a result, could have conflicted me, and perhaps my office, out of the case. Thankfully, it never happened.

The CBA Standing Committee on Professional Ethics also offers such help, but with a large portion of the bar not CBA members, I don’t think folks use that service as much as they should. Maybe it’s because they don’t know of the program, or maybe they think they need to be CBA members. (No one checks.)