In March 2012, I moderated a panel at the Practicing Law Institute on legal ethics for government lawyers. The panel addressed some of the unique ethical challenges that government lawyers face, including how to identify who your client is, whether government lawyers have a higher duty to "seek truth" and "do justice" than private lawyers, specific regulations that govern federal and state employees, including newly-enacted regulations in New York state , and how to analyze conflicts of interest as you transition between public and private practice under Rule 1.11 (the "revolving door" rule).

This is a hypothetical I prepared for the ethics program.