Clients look to their lawyers to help advise them with legal issues and, sometimes, may seek legal advice for the intent of helping guide the client in making business decisions. Clients who are intimately familiar with business issues or with the law may also have some level of understanding of the complexities of law and business or may even seek to weigh in on legal strategy more than other clients that have had less exposure to the law.

Many bars and courts over the years have reviewed legal representations of so-called “sophisticated” clients who may have a better-than-average understanding of complex issues. But does a lawyer’s duty or the standard of care change when representing a client who is more familiar with the business or law impacted by the representation than an average client?