U.S. government lawyers have an ethical obligation to report violations of the law committed by fellow employees when those actions may cause “substantial injury” to government organizations, according to ?a new ethics advisory from the American Bar Association.
“The credibility of government depends ?on its own compliance with the law,” the ABA’s Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility said in the rule released on Wednesday.
The ABA’s model rules are not binding — enforceable lawyer ethics rules are established by individual ?states — but they serve as the model upon which states base their own rules.
The ?ethics opinion comes amid heightened scrutiny of government lawyers and a raft of ?litigation over Trump administration policies. An ABA spokesperson on Wednesday declined to comment on the impetus ?for the ethics committee’s review of the model rule, though the opinion notes that the committee ?has never before clarified how the specific ethics rule at issue applies to government lawyers.
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