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Karl Rove May Need a New Lawyer

Reddhedd at Firedoglake points us to this CNN story that contains the following item.

Luskin is the lawyer for White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove...

Fitzgerald deposed Luskin last Friday. Time and Luskin refused to answer CNN's questions about Luskin's conversation with Novak.

So, Robert Luskin may be a witness in the case. If Rove gets indicted and moves towards trial, Luskin would be ethically bound to step aside and let another lawyer represent Rove. A lawyer may not be both an advocate and a witness in the same trial except under a few specific circumstances.

Luskin is a member of the DC bar.

Rule 3.7 of the DC Rules of Professional conduct states as follows:

(a)A lawyer shall not act as advocate at a trial in which the lawyer is likely to be a necessary witness except where:

(1) The testimony relates to an uncontested issue;

(2) The testimony relates to the nature and value of legal services rendered in the case; or

(3) Disqualification of the lawyer would work substantial hardship on the client.

(b) A lawyer may not act as advocate in a trial in which another lawyer in the lawyer's firm is likely to be called as a witness if the other lawyer would be precluded from acting as advocate in the trial by Rule 1.7 or Rule 1.9. The provisions of this paragraph (b) do not apply if the lawyer who is appearing as an advocate is employed by, and appears on behalf of, a government agency.

None of the exceptions apply. Luskin is now aware that he may be a witness in any trial of his client. He has a duty to make sure that his possible dual role does not pose a conflict. The means that he should advise Rove of the need to look for a new lawyer now, before and substantial hardship should arise. Under (b) above, that lawyer should not be from Patton Boggs.

Posted by Dwight Meredith on December 8, 2005 05:37 PM |

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We're now offering civicrm in drupal, joomla!, and standalone configurations, as well as MediaWiki, JSPWiki and Xwiki, as well as the blog standards: MovableType and WordPress. If you have an electoral candidate or issue campaign you'd like to have done by non-nonsense pros who've flesh in the game, or delight in web 2.0 tech, drop Eric a line.

Comments

Note that the rule purportedly doesn't apply as to members of one's law firm if one works for a government agency. I'm sure that particular loophole will suffice here, as Mr. Luskin now represents a high-ranking member of the Imperium, for whom ordinary rules don't apply in any event.

Posted by: the talking dog | December 9, 2005 07:23 PM

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Hi Seth, good to see you. As I understand the rule, the government agency exception applies to the lawyer, not the client.

Posted by: dwight | December 9, 2005 08:02 PM

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