Ethics

So many legal ethics issues involve competing duties.  Here's an article, unfortunately behind a registration wall, about a California lawyer who was involved in a trade secrets case.  There was a protective order in place but the opposing party put the actual trade secret into the publicly accessible court file rather than under seal.  Normally that would destroy the trade secrets protection.  The lawyer called the opposing party and called the state bar ethics hotline.  Then she informed her client of the public access to the trade secret.  Held: regardless of what the hotline might have said, and regardless of the public access, the lawyer was sanctioned for violation of the protective order.  There will shortly be an appellate opinion that will provide full details.