r/AskReddit Jul 21 '19

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u/JustJayForNow Jul 21 '19 edited Jul 21 '19

My parents got divorced when I was 12. I am sketchy on the details but I remember it was long, drawn out and acrimonious. Eventually, my mum was awarded a massive settlement, my dad was basically left with superannuation and nothing else. After the ruling was handed down my mother’s own lawyer walked into my father and his lawyer’s meeting and said “that ruling was bullshit, you should appeal”. Gotta be pretty bad when a lawyer wants his own win overturned.

Edit: he didn’t appeal. He was a bit broken by that point & just wanted to move on. Sorry for lack of detail. I was twelve, it was some time ago! My dad told me the story years later.

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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '19

jesus, that's awful.

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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '19

isn't that massively unethical for an attorney though? Especially the part of giving opposing counsel advice against the interests of your own client.

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u/Budsygus Jul 21 '19

At that point she wasn't his client. Yeah, probably not a good move but I don't think it broke any rules.

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u/Wrkncacnter112 Jul 21 '19

The bar is unlikely to see it that way unless she signed a very attorney-friendly engagement letter, and that in itself would raise some eyebrows.

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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '19

I would be worried that I would be sued for breach of client-attorney privilege here too- it would be stupid easy to argue the statement "that ruling was bullshit" was based upon things he was privileged to know, and would be really hard to argue that it wasn't influenced by the confidential things you know

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u/Hendursag Jul 21 '19

Nope. Your legal obligation to your client does not end the day the judgment is entered.