Lawyers for the State Bar of Georgia were at the state Supreme Court Tuesday defending a proposed bar rule that will allow an attorney to contact an organization’s former employee without getting permission or notifying that organization’s counsel, so long as the lawyer tells the ex-employee why the communication is being sought and who the attorney represents.

The proposed rule, which is aimed at providing clarity on the extent of the bar’s “no contact” rule prohibiting a lawyer from contacting someone who has legal counsel without permission, is opposed by the Georgia Defense Lawyers Association, which argues that it will expose potentially privileged information to the targets of proposed or pending litigation.