The American Lawyer's Code of Conduct (Public Discussion Draft, June, 1980), for which I was Reporter, had the following Rule 5.5:
A lawyer shall not impose a lien upon any part of a client's files, except upon the lawyer's own work product, and then only to the extent that the work product has not been paid for. This work-product exception shall be inapplicable when the client is in fact unable to pay, or when withholding the lawyer's work product would present a significant risk to the client of imprisonment, deportation, destruction of essential evidence, loss of custody of a child, or similar irreparable harm.
The American Lawyer's Code of Conduct (Public Discussion Draft, June, 1980), for which I was Reporter, had the following Rule 5.5:
A lawyer shall not impose a lien upon any part of a client's files, except upon the lawyer's own work product, and then only to the extent that the work product has not been paid for. This work-product exception shall be inapplicable when the client is in fact unable to pay, or when withholding the lawyer's work product would present a significant risk to the client of imprisonment, deportation, destruction of essential evidence, loss of custody of a child, or similar irreparable harm.
Posted by: Monroe Freedman | November 22, 2012 at 08:56 AM