An attorney-client representation may terminate for any number of reasons. Some common examples include natural resolution of the matter for which the attorney was engaged, an irretrievable breakdown in the attorney-client relationship, a client’s failure to pay legal bills or an attorney’s firing due to client dissatisfaction. Regardless of how the representation ended, an attorney’s obligations to his client do not end there. There is often confusion about what property/documents attorneys must retain and what must be turned over to the client when the engagement ends. This article examines the scope of an attorney’s duty to turn over certain materials to a client upon termination or withdrawal and discusses potential consequences from a failure to fully comply with these responsibilities.

Protection of Client’s Interest After Representation Ends

ABA Model Rule 1.16(d) provides that upon termination of representation, “a lawyer shall take steps to the extent reasonably practicable to protect a client’s interests, such as … surrendering papers and property to which the client is entitled.” See also N.J. RPC 1.16(d); N.J. RPC 1.15(b)(a lawyer must promptly deliver to a client any funds or other property that the client is entitled to receive). A lawyer is always under the ethical obligation to safekeep client property, and these obligations remain even “if the lawyer has been unfairly discharged by the client.” See ABA Model Rule 1.15; see also Comment [9] to ABA Model Rule 1.16 (2018).