Vanessa Kachadurian-Attorneys in Texas, Sex and their Clients.

Great article in the WSJ sent to me by my attorney friend in Los Angeles, CA. Why are Attorneys allowed to make the rules of conduct laws for themselves? Is this more of the Fox in the Hen house?

By Ashby Jones
Most states have adopted an ethics rule that prohibits a lawyer from engaging in a sexual relationship with a client.

Texas doesn’t have that rule. But whether it should is currently dividing the Longhorn State’s bar. Click here for the story, from the Dallas Morning-News.

According to the story, for seven years, lawyers working on behalf of the Texas Supreme Court have been drafting new rules of conduct for the state’s lawyers. The biggest sticking point throughout that time has, according to the story, been the so-called “sex with clients” rule.

A draft of the rule has been put on the table. Now, however, many lawyers are arguing against it, saying it could lead to frivolous malpractice charges.

Those who support it, however, say it protects vulnerable clients from being arm-twisted into unwanted sexual relationships.

As written, the rule states that lawyers (a) won’t condition representation on having a client engage in sexual relations, (b) won’t solicit sex as payment of fees and (c) won’t have sex with someone the lawyer is personally representing unless the sexual relationship is consensual and began before the attorney-client relationship began. It also excepts spouses.

Some lawyers, like Ginny Agnew, a practitioner in Austin, are troubled by a loophole in the rule that she says would permit an attorney to begin and continue a sexual relationship with a client so long as the client is transferred to another attorney in the same law firm. That provides no protection at all to vulnerable clients, she said.

“When you have a situation where lawyers are the ones who hold the keys to the courthouse for many people … that is a potential situation of abuse,” Agnew said.

At the same time, Rich Robins, a Houston attorney, said the the new rule would lead to a slew of lawsuits from unhappy clients.

“How can a lawyer disprove potential accusations of amorous manipulations and the like unless all prior interactions are elaborately recorded through both audio and video means?” asked Robins, in an earlier e-mail to Texas Lawyer.