I attended a CLE seminar recently where lawyers were discussing facts and the law on a pending criminal case. That case was on appeal and the other case had come back for a retrial. Are there concerns about doing this?

There are serious concerns, and lawyers who talk during CLE lectures about pending cases ought to be very, very careful since there is an ethical minefield that one is walking into, and further, the comments could result in prejudice to the client. In recent years, with the popularity of CLEs and the requirement that all lawyers get so many CLEs, more and more, there are discussions by lawyers who are handling very serious, but interesting criminal and civil cases. Although a case is interesting, that does not relieve the lawyer of his ethical responsibilities to his clients to not reveal confidential information, and at the same time, to not potentially prejudice the clients in the future.

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