ETHICS OPINION 623-1974 CONFIDENCES AND SECRETS; ADVERSE INTERESTS; FORMER JOINT CLIENTS.

NUMBER 623

QUESTION.

An attorney represented a husband and wife in the purchase of their jointly owned home and in the preparation of their respective wills. Some time after the attorney had concluded his professional services for the couple, the wife instituted a proceeding in Family Court against her husband. The attorney asks whether it would be ethically proper for him to represent the husband in that proceeding. In this connection, the attorney states that he has received no confidential or secret information relevant to the Family Court proceeding from the wife. He further states that he has no personal knowledge of any assets belonging to the wife except her joint ownership in the home.

ANSWER.

Inasmuch as the inquiring attorney’s prior representation of the husband and wife in connection with the purchase of their jointly-owned home and in the preparation of their respective wills had been concluded some time before, and assuming the fact that no confidential or secret information relevant to the Family Court proceeding was gained in or as a result of the prior joint representation, the attorney may undertake to represent the husband in the subsequent Family Court proceeding instituted by the wife. See EC 4-5,6; N.Y. County 603 (1972) and N.Y. County 535 (1964).

March 14, 1974