Lawyers have the right to change firms: ABA Formal Opinion 489

Formal Opinion 489 Obligations Related to Notice When Lawyers Change Firms 

December 4, 1989

ABA STANDING COMMITTEE ON ETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY



 Lawyers have the right to leave a firm and practice at another firm. Likewise, clients have the
right to switch lawyers or law firms, subject to approval of a tribunal, when applicable (and
conflicts of interest). The ethics rules do not allow non-competition clauses in partnership,
member, shareholder, or employment agreements. Lawyers and law firm management have
ethical obligations to assure the orderly transition of client matters when lawyers notify a firm
they intend to move to a new firm. 

Firms may require some period of advance notice of an intended
departure. The period of time should be the minimum necessary, under the circumstances, for
clients to make decisions about who will represent them, assemble files, adjust staffing at the firm
if the firm is to continue as counsel on matters previously handled by the departing attorney, and
secure firm property in the departing lawyer’s possession. 

Firm notification requirements,
however, cannot be so rigid that they restrict or interfere with a client’s choice of counsel or the
client’s choice of when to transition a matter. Firms also cannot restrict a lawyer’s ability to
represent a client competently during such notification periods by restricting the lawyer’s access
to firm resources necessary to represent the clients during the notification period. The departing
lawyer may be required, pre- or post-departure, to assist the firm in assembling files, transitioning
matters that remain with the firm, or in the billings of pre-departure matters.

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