Beware wayward lawyers: you can no longer have sex with your client’s wife in South Carolina. Does anyone else hear strains of a banjo in the background?
As I noted in March, while not adopted in Virginia, Rule 1.8(j) of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct states that: “A lawyer shall not have sexual relations with a client unless a consensual sexual relationship existed between them when the client-lawyer relationship commenced.” A brief and understandable furor arose over a series of cases in Virginia in which lawyers were accused of having consensual (and non-consensual) sex with clients.
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