Question 1

Yam Holiniski is an attorney in private practice, enjoying a pretty decent life in the bucolic suburbs, representing a host of clients in many different areas of the law. Yam's wife Jhan Holiniski is a real estate agent. Jhan handled the sale of a home, and is poised to earn a nice little fee for her labor. She referred the sellers to Yam for legal work associated with the sale. Yam is concerned that he might be conflicted out of the representation. Any problems with his taking on the sellers' case?

Yes, since the sellers might end up in an adversarial position with Jhan, Yam's wife.

No, since Jhan merely helped sell the home, she is not in an adversarial position with respect to the sellers.

No, because doing legal work is a world's difference from doing real estate broker work.

Question 2

Yam Holiniski is an attorney in private practice, enjoying a pretty decent life in the bucolic suburbs, representing a host of clients in many different areas of the law. Yam's wife Jhan Holiniski is a real estate agent. Jhan's real estate firm handled the sale of a home. She told her colleague that the sellers would do well if they retained Yam Holinski to do the legal work associated with the sale. Yam is concerned that he might be conflicted out of the representation. Any problems with his taking on the sellers' case?

Yes, since the sellers might end up in an adversarial position with Jhan, Yam's wife.

No, since Jhan did not sell or list the home, she is not in an adversarial position with respect to the sellers.

No, because doing legal work is a world's difference from doing real estate broker work.

Question 3

You are in-house counsel for Hear We Art, a hi-fi headphones seller. Most of your work deals with contractual relations. You help Hear We Art make deals with distributors from all over the world. Hear We Art has an outlet store upstate where people come to sample the company wares. Most of the firm's sales are made by catalog, and people usually buy based on the firm's reputation only, without getting a chance to try the products out. The outlet store is a great public service, even though it doesn't make many sales for the company. Anyway, on a rainy Thursday evening, a guy slips and falls inside the store. The guy, surprisingly enough, is a sometime-client of yours. In your spare time you occasionally represent private clients on various legal matters. You wonder if it would pose a conflict of interest to represent the guy in a suit against Hear We Art. It sounds somewhat ridiculous given your association with the firm, but you figure you might as well see if the ethical rules will allow for your taking on the guy's case after all, you could use a couple of extra bucks now that the holiday season is coming around. You consult the rules and find:

No way, no how can you represent the guy.

Yes, you may represent him if your company consents.

Yes, you may represent him, but only if you quit your job first as in-house counsel.