Client Tug of War-Who Keeps the Client When a Lawyer Leaves a Firm?
By Laura Popps
When a lawyer leaves a law firm, one question almost always follows: who keeps the client? The firm may have invested years developing the relationship. The departing lawyer may have been the client's primary contact, trusted advisor, and the person who knows the matter best. Both may feel a strong claim to continue the representation. Ethically, however, the answer is much simpler: neither side owns the client.
The client alone decides who will continue the representation. The client may stay with the firm, follow the departing lawyer to a new firm, or hire new counsel altogether. This reflects a basic principle of attorney-client relationships: clients have a right to choose their own counsel and are not “chattel” to be divided up when lawyers change firms.[1]
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Because a client’s right to choose their counsel is fundamental, both the departing lawyer and the firm have ethical obligations to ensure the client can actually exercise that choice in a meaningful way. In practice, that means timely and accurate communication about the lawyer's departure and the client's available options. A client cannot make an informed decision if information about the lawyer's departure is concealed, delayed, minimized, or presented in a misleading way.
The best practice is to send a joint notice from the firm and departing lawyer.[2] The notice should explain that the lawyer is leaving, identify where the lawyer will practice, advise the client of the right to choose counsel, and explain how the client’s file and ongoing representation will be handled during the transition. Any imminent deadlines or other time-sensitive issues should also be disclosed.
Unfortunately, lawyer departures do not always proceed amicably or even professionally, and can quickly devolve into a contest for client loyalty. A firm may refuse or delay notifying the client of the lawyer’s departure, subtly disparage the lawyer or imply that remaining with the firm is the only viable option, or cut off a lawyer’s access to client files in an effort to prevent the lawyer’s communication with clients. A departing lawyer, meanwhile, may take the firm’s only tangible copy of the client file or delete client documents from the firm’s database.[3] Such conduct quickly crosses ethical lines.
Both the lawyer and the firm have ethical obligations to communicate with clients promptly, refrain from misleading clients about the lawyer’s departure or the client’s options, and correct any material misstatements or omissions in communications sent by the other.
When a firm refuses to participate in a joint notice or declines to notify clients at all, the departing lawyer must separately send notice to each active client, “regardless of contrary instructions from the law firm.”[4] That obligation extends only to client matters for which the lawyer was personally responsible or played a “principal role” in.[5] The lawyer is generally not required to notify former clients for which the representation has been completed.
The ethics rules governing lawyer departures are designed to protect client autonomy. When the dust settles after a lawyer’s departure, the answer to the question of who “gets” the client is the same as it was from the beginning—the client decides.
[1] Tex. Comm. on Prof’l Ethics Op. 699 (2024).
[2] Tex. Comm. on Prof’l Ethics Op. 699 (2024); ABA Formal Op. 99-414 (1999).
[3] See Tex. Comm. on Prof’l Ethics Op. 684 (2019).
[4] Tex. Comm. on Prof’l Ethics Op. 699 (2024).
[5] Id.
Laura Popps defends Texas attorneys in disciplinary proceedings, advises lawyers on professional responsibility matters, and works with firms to strengthen ethical compliance and internal practices. A former prosecutor, Laura has been Board Certified in Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization since 1999. She then served for ten years as Regional Counsel at the State Bar of Texas’ Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel before founding her own firm.
Laura can be reached at laura@poppslaw.com or (512) 865-5185.