A Case for Increased Confidentiality

The Sixth Amendment right to counsel is a cornerstone of the American legal system. In order to provide effective representation to a client, an attorney must be informed of all the relevant facts, including clients' indiscretions and crimes committed or contemplated by them. To draft effective motions, affidavits, etc., the attorney often needs information that only the client can provide; this same reasoning applies to conducting an effective cross-examination and forming an appropriate trial strategy. In addition, outside the criminal field, an attorney advising a corporate client must also know relevant data.

Vital constitutional rights will be lost if lawyers become whistleblowers. Thus, the final version of Rule 1.6 should be adopted (granting limited permissive disclosure). Lawyers should be trusted to make moral and ethical decisions, in the context of the delicate lawyer-client relationship.