Ethics

The North Carolina State Bar is a compulsory membership state agency, governed by a 61-member council, that regulates lawyers licensed in North Carolina.

The councilors then serve on a variety of committees within the State Bar to help review and develop material that regulates attorneys, such as the Rules of Professional Conduct and formal ethics opinions.

Several NCAJ members serve on the NC State Bar Ethics Committee, either as a councilor or as an advisory member:

NC State Bar Ethics Committee Members

• Eben T. Rawls III, Chair 
• George M. Cleland 
• Robert (“Bert”) C. Kemp III 
• F. Davis Poisson III 
• Warren T. Savage IV  

NC State Bar Ethics Committee Advisory Members

• Bradley Bannon 
• Sydney Batch 
• John (“Jack”) C. Lloyd 
• Melissa “Missy” Owen
• Elizabeth Stewart Poisson
• Bill Powers

The NC State Bar Ethics Committee meets on a quarterly basis prior to the quarterly State Bar Council meetings. During those meetings, the Ethics Committee review inquiries about professional responsibility of lawyers. Prior to adoption of formal ethics opinions, the Ethics Committee will propose drafts for review and comment. Frequently, those proposed formal ethics opinions will result in subcommittees that meet to review comments and suggest revisions for further consideration by the Ethics Committee. After adoption by the Ethics Committee of proposed formal ethics opinions, the State Bar Councilors will review and adopt the ethics opinions.   

NCAJ works with the NC State Bar’s Ethics Committee to review comments submitted on proposed formal ethics opinions. If an issue garners feedback from NCAJ members, the issue will be highlighted for NCAJ’s Legal Affairs Vice President and follow up action will be taken. Including NCAJ on the comment submission helps to highlight your concerns, as NCAJ frequently provides additional feedback to the Ethics Committee, especially on proposed formal ethics opinions that affect NCAJ members and those we represent.

The State Bar Councilors met in October of 2021 and approved for publication a revised version of the proposed comment to Rule 1.1 (Competency) addressing a lawyer’s awareness of implicit bias and cultural differences: 

This aspirational comment states that a lawyer should be aware of implicit bias and cultural differences relative to a client that might impact the lawyer’s representation of the client, and that such awareness enhances a lawyer’s representation of his/her clients. The language to the proposed comment is as follows:

Comment on the proposed comment may be sent to ethicscomments@ncbar.gov. Please consider copying NCAJ on any comments submitted to the Ethics Committee by also emailing legalaffairs@ncaj.com. 

Formal ethics opinions of the State Bar may be reviewed here: https://www.ncbar.gov/for-lawyers/ethics/adopted-opinions/.  

The State Bar Ethics Committee met in October of 2021 and proposed the following formal ethics opinions for public comment:  

• Proposed 2021 Formal Ethics Opinion 3, Charging Fees to Separately Represented Party in Residential Real Estate Closing  – Proposed opinion rules that a closing lawyer representing the buyer in a residential real estate transaction may not charge a fee for services performed that primarily benefit the buyer to a separately represented seller unless the seller consents to the fee and the lawyer complies with Rules 1.5(a) and 1.8(f). The opinion also allows a closing lawyer to charge a seller for services performed that primarily benefit the seller if seller is notified in advance of the charge and has a reasonable opportunity to object to the charge.
• Proposed 2021 Formal Ethics Opinion 6, Departing Lawyer’s Email Account  – Proposed opinion addresses a law firm’s ethical responsibilities as to a departing lawyer’s email account. 

Comment on the proposed formal ethics opinions may be sent to ethicscomments@ncbar.gov. Comment period ends December 30, 2021. Please consider copying NCAJ on any comments submitted to the Ethics Committee by also emailing legalaffairs@ncaj.com.