Ethics Opinions

Editor's Note: See Rule 3.3 of the Revised Rules for additional considerations.

 

Private Employment of Appointed Counsel

 

Opinion describes circumstances under which a lawyer who has been appointed to represent an indigent person may accept payment directly from the client.

 

Inquiry:

 

May an attorney, after having been appointed to represent an indigent defendant in a criminal case pursuant to G.S. §7A-452, 458, and 459, accept employment by the same defendant in a retained capacity in the same case? If so, under what circumstances?

 

Opinion:

 

Rule .0406(f) of the Rules and Regulations of the North Carolina State Bar Relating to the Appointment of Counsel for Indigent Defendants in Certain Criminal Cases (27 N.C.A.C. 1D .0406(f)) provides that "[C]ounsel appointed for the representation of indigent defendants shall not accept any compensation other than that awarded by the court." This provision, when read in conjunction with Rule 2.6 of Rules of Professional Conduct prohibiting the collection of an "illegal fee," clearly indicates that an appointed counsel may not accept payment from his or her client for professional services. If during the course of the representation, the client indicates to the attorney a desire and the ability to personally employ the attorney's services, it would be appropriate for the attorney to advise the court of his or her client's desire, seek to be released from responsibility as appointed counsel, and seek to be entered as counsel of record on a retained basis. Because of the tremendous potential for overreaching and to avoid reinforcing the commonly held notion that a privately retained attorney will perform better than appointed counsel, a lawyer who knows or suspects that a client he or she has been appointed to represent is financially capable of employing counsel should never suggest that the client ought to privately employ him or her. Of course if the attorney becomes convinced that the client does have adequate personal resources to retain private counsel, it would be the attorney's duty under Rule 7.2(b)(1) to call upon his client to reveal that circumstance to the tribunal so that the state might be relieved of the burden of supplying counsel and a fraud on the court avoided. Pursuant to the same rule, the lawyer should, in the event his or her client refuses to permit the disclosure of his or her actual financial situation, move to withdraw.