Unit Four Assignment
PA250: Family Law
Professor: Jessica Gauvin
Questions: 1. Ms. Barnum, you contacted Attorney Conner’s regarding a divorce. Can you give me some insight into what has been going on in your marriage? 2. Do you know whether your husband has ever been unfaithful to you doing the marriage? 3. Are there any children from this marriage? 4. Are there any martial assets you would like to talk over with Attorney Conner? 5. When did these problems start generating in your marriage? 6. Do you have any idea why your marriage is ending in divorce? 7. How long have you and your husband resided here?
Part 2:
The ethical issues I think I would have to be aware of would be making sure I first off, don’t commit “UPL”, by giving Ms. Barnum any legal advice concerning her pending divorce. Also I have to make sure that I’m doing everything by the Model Rules of Professional Conduct and Ethics. I want to make sure that my work product is being supervised by the lead attorney Mr. Conner. And all my conversations and meetings with Ms. Barnum would be in the strictest for confidence, due to the Rule of Confidentiality. Also I have to make sure that I document how many hours I work on anything regarding Ms. Barnum’s case, so that I don’t cheat her of the time I actually spent on her divorce case.
The steps I would take to make Ms. Barnum as comfortable as I possibly could, would be; to try and answer any of her questions or concerns regarding her divorce case without committing an unauthorized practice of law, and if she did have a question that I could not answer for her; I would make sure I explain to her that I would forward her question to the attorney. If she was to call into the office, I would make myself available to meet or talk with her and provide support to her during the divorce process. My main thing to make sure Ms. Barnum knows, is that everything we discuss is confident and is under the