In teaching last night's class on the formation, definition, and termination of the attorney client relationship (ACR), I once again struggled to walk the students through the relevant snippets and snatches of the Model Rules on that topic. In my view as a practicing lawyer, those topics are to lawyering what good footwork is to tennis, or what a good grip is to golf: the essential first step that must be mastered before any of the advanced skills can be mastered.
But the Model Rules don't deal with the issues in a tidy way. MR 1.18 comes close to discussing the creation of the ACR; Scope [17] demurs to other law on the creation of the ACR; 1.3[4] partially regulates if the ACR is continuing and if so what it includes; 1.2 (a), (c), and (d) deal with the scope of the ACR; 1.16 puts limits on the permitted scope; 1.13 and 1.14 help deal with client identity issues; 1.16 deals with termination.
I use a life-cycle approach to analyzing the issues: (1) What lawyerly duties arise before the ACR itself? (2) What is the magic moment when the ACR is created? (3) What are the elements defining the ACR (who is the client; who's not the client; what is in the scope; what's outside the scope)? (4) What is the magic moment when the ACR ends? (5) What lawyerly duties survive the ACR? I find that approach much easier to remember. It's also geared to the needs of clients and practitioners. The problem is that you have to hop all around the rules -- and sometimes outside the rules -- to find the text that answers those questions.