PAST ARTICLES AND EDITORIAL BOARDS Lawyer's in Lust: Does New York's New Rule Addressing Attorney-Client Sexual
Relations Do Enough?
David H. Pincus
2 J.L. & Pol'y 249 (1994)
Amidst the current national debate over how to regulate attorney-client sexual relations, the Note explores the pros and cons of New York's recent ban on the commencement of such relations between attorneys and their clients during the pendency of domestic relations matters. Generally, the author commends the Administrative Board's willingness to actively address this important issue. The author extensively analyzes, and agrees with, the Board's findings that client vulnerability and possible conflicts of interest and breaches of fiduciary duty justify regulating relations between family law attorneys and their clients. However, the Note finds the rule insufficient for its lack of a definitions section, possibly complicating application, and its lack of regulation of attorney-client sexual relations in nondomestic matters, ignoring the fact that similar sexual relations conflicts exist for nondomestic clients.

The Note proposes a modified, and somewhat expanded, rule for New York's Professional Responsibility Code, and argues that a practice-wide ban on attorney-client sexual relations should be adopted. To survive constitutional scrutiny, the Note presents a two-tiered system which imposes a per se ban for situations where clients are particularly vulnerable and a rebuttable presumption where the dangers are not as pronounced. The Note also emphasizes that a new rule should more fully address legal clients' general ignorance of their rights in order to avoid general exploitation.