[textbook]Traversing the Ethical Minefield Problems, Law, and Professional Responsibility by Susan R. Martyn (z-lib.org)(1) (1)

Several minutes later, as the discussion rejected her formulation as far too broad, even
unprofessional, it suddenly occurred to her. Of course! The firm had litigation against City
Trust Company, she was “screened” from that litigation (she had prepared some early
interrogatories for City Trust) and she had suddenly revealed a City Trust confidence to
everyone. Panic replaced boredom; nausea gripped her. What should she do? What would
her firm colleagues do? Was her career going up in smoke before her eyes? She had broken
her trust; she hadn’t intended to, she hadn’t been thinking. It was just a passing remark.
She rose shakily, mumbled an apology, and hurried to the ladies’ room.
Her mind raced back to her first thoughts about leaving her old firm. The head-hunter
had called and indicated how easy it was to place a young associate practicing in
Pennsylvania, one of the few states that provided for screening of private lawyers when they
switched firms. It made looking for a job so much simpler. She did not have to worry about
whether the possible new employers had cases against her old clients. If the headhunter
found a firm that liked her, she could just accept the job without worrying about potential
conflicts. If any were discovered, the Pennsylvania rules would simply require that she be
screened from those matters.
She felt comfortable with that arrangement. She knew how she viewed client
confidences — she would never share them. In fact, it gave her great pride to think of
herself as a lawyer of integrity, one who could be trusted with confidential information.
Indeed it was one of the things that drove her husband crazy — the way she always knew
the best secrets weeks before he would hear about it at a cocktail party or read it in the
newspaper. She even felt flattered when, after the two matters from which she had to be
screened were identified, the chairman of her new firm’s professional responsibility
committee said to her that the firm was not going to take any elaborate measures to screen
her because the firm had a long tradition of placing substantial trust in their associates.
But now! What could she do? Maybe she shouldn’t do anything. If she talked to anyone
at her new firm that would just emphasize the importance of her disclosure. Would her
new firm then have to resign from handling the City Trust matters? One of them involved
Pegasus Construction Company, her new firm’s largest litigation client. And did she have
to tell City Trust? Or anyone at Bryans & Putnam? So many questions! No one to turn to.
She was spinning with concerns. It was too much to handle. She would leave early — it
would be her first pre-8:00 P.M. departure in weeks — and maybe she could persuade her
husband that dinner at the new Thai restaurant on South Street would be in order . . . she
needed a chance to clear her head, to regroup.
The next day dawned early and bright — the kind of day that gave June such a good
reputation. The dinner had been close to perfect, perhaps a tad too much wine. And while
she hated to admit it, it may have been the wine that permitted her to see the situation
clearly.
There was no doubting her mistake; she shouldn’t have blurted out those remarks at
the meeting the day before, but it was only after the dinner that she recalled how upset she
had been originally when she learned that City Trust took this position on the privilege.
She recalled with clarity how it had offended her at the time, how surprised she was that
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