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Interpreting the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct, Issued by the Supreme Court of Georgia
Formal Advisory Opinion 01-1
A lawyer may charge for standard time units so long as this does not result in a fee that is unreasonable, and so long as the lawyer communicates to the client the method of billing the lawyer is using so that the client can understand the basis for the fee.
Formal Advisory Opinion 04-1
If an attorney supervises the closing conducted by the non-lawyer entity, then the attorney is a fiduciary with respect to the closing proceeds and closing proceeds must be handled in accordance with Rule 1.15(II).
Formal Advisory Opinion 05-2
Corporate in-house counsel may enter into a binding "hold harmless" agreement with their employer in lieu of malpractice insurance.
Formal Advisory Opinion 05-3
Ethical propriety of a part-time law clerk representing a client before a judge who is presently employing the law clerk.
Formal Advisory Opinion 05-4
Ethical propriety of a lawyer paying his nonlawyer employees a monthly bonus from the gross receipts of his law office.
Formal Advisory Opinion 05-5
1) Ethical propriety of a law firm obtaining a loan to cover advances to clients for litigation expenses.
2) Ethical considerations applicable to payment of interest charged on loan obtained by law firm to cover advances to clients for litigation expenses.
Formal
Advisory Opinion 05-6
Ethical propriety of a lawyer advertising for legal business with the intention of referring a majority of that business out to other lawyers without disclosing that intent in the advertisement.
A lawyer shall not make an agreement prospectively limiting the lawyer's liability to a client for malpractice unless permitted by law and the client is independently represented in making the agreement.
Formal Advisory Opinion 05-9
Ethical propriety of a law firm or corporate law department hiring attorneys to work for them on a temporary basis.
Formal Advisory Opinion 05-10
A Georgia attorney serving as local counsel can be disciplined for discovery abuses committed by an in-house or other out-of-state counsel when local counsel knows of the abuse and ratifies it by his or her conduct, and when local counsel has supervisory authority over the out-of-state counsel.
Formal Advisory Opinion 05-12
Representation of a criminal defendant in municipal court by a member of the City Council where the City Council controls salary and benefits for the police implicates Rule 3.5(a), which prohibits attorneys from seeking to influence officials by means prohibited by law.
Formal Advisory Opinion 05-13
(1) Whether the designation "Special Counsel" may be used to describe an attorney and/or law firm affiliated with another law firm for the specific purpose of providing consultation and advice to the other firm in specialized legal areas: (2) and whether the ethical rules governing conflict of interest apply as if the firm, the affiliated attorney and the affiliated firm constitute a single firm.