Rule Change 2020(19) Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct
Rule 1.6. Confidentiality of Information, Rule 1.15A. General Duties of Lawyers Regarding Property of Clients and Third Parties
May 14, 2020
Rule 1.6. Confidentiality of Information
(a)–(c) [NO CHANGE]
COMMENT
[1]–[4] [NO CHANGE]
Authorized Disclosure
[5] Except to the extent that the client’s instructions or special circumstances limit that authority, a lawyer is impliedly authorized to make disclosures about a client when appropriate in carrying out the representation. In some situations, for example, a lawyer may be impliedly authorized to admit a fact that cannot properly be disputed or to make a disclosure that facilitates a satisfactory conclusion to a matter, including disclosures made by the lawyer pursuant to the Colorado Electronic Preservation of Abandoned Estate Planning Documents Act. Lawyers in a firm may, in the course of the firm’s practice, disclose to each other information relating to a client of the firm, unless the client has instructed that particular information be confined to specified lawyers. Disclosure Adverse to Client
[6]—[20] [NO CHANGE]
Rule 1.15A. General Duties of Lawyers Regarding Property of Clients and Third Parties
(a)–(d) [NO CHANGE]
COMMENT
Note: The following eight comments are applicable to this Rule 1.15A and to Rule 1.15B, Rule 1.15C, Rule 1.15D, and Rule 1.15E.
[1]–[7] [NO CHANGE]
[8] A lawyer should hold property of others with the care required of a professional fiduciary. Securities should be kept in a safe deposit box, except when some other form of safekeeping is warranted by special circumstances. A law- yer’s compliance with the Colorado Electronic Preservation of Abandoned Estate Planning
Documents Act is consistent with the lawyer’s duty to safeguard property in paragraph 1.15A(a).
Amended and Adopted by the Court, En Banc, May 14, 2020, effective January 1, 2021.
By the Court:
Monica M. Márquez
Justice, Colorado Supreme Court