A professional ethics opinion on conflict of interest and confidentiality related to a marriage dissolution was adopted Jan. 27 by the ISBA Board of Governors.

Drafted by the Committee on Professional Conduct, the digest of Opinion No. 05-01 states that “A lawyer may represent a client in a matter unrelated to a prior divorce proceeding in which the lawyer represented former client who now may testify against his current client.”

The lawyer may not cross-examine the former client, however, “unless it can be done both without using information relating to the prior representation to the disadvantage of the former client and without materially limiting his ability to effectively cross-examine the former client to the detriment of the current litigation client.”

The situation involved the lawyer's representation of a person in an administrative hearing to contest findings of abuse and neglect of a child.

The former client was listed by the De-partment of Children and Family Services as a prospective witness who might testify adversely against the current client.

The ISBA opinion cites Rules 1.6, 1.7, 1.9 and 1.10 of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct, and previous ISBA opinions 90-05, 91-20 and 98-01.

The complete opinion, with citations of applicable rules and cases, may be accessed on the ISBA Web site, www.isba.org.

ISBA advisory ethics opinions are prepared as an educational service to members, and they express interpretations of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct and other relevant materials in response to specific hypothesized fact situations.

The ethics opinions do not have the weight of law and should not be relied on as substitutes for individual legal advice. For more information, call the ISBA Legal Department at (800) 252-8908.